Tomball reviews draft unified development code; council debates Old Town uses, gas stations, parking and ADUs

TOMBALL, Texas — Tomball city staff and consultants on Monday reviewed a draft unified development code intended to consolidate the city’s zoning, subdivision and sign regulations and align the ordinance with recent state law and the city’s recently adopted comprehensive plan.

“Big picture, today's question is what additional information or revisions are needed to the UDC before it can move forward into finalization and before the council would consider adoption?” said Erica Craycraft, project lead for Friess and Nichols, the consultant team preparing the draft.

The draft would roll separate zoning, subdivision, sign and manufactured-home ordinances into a single UDC, add a new medium-density multifamily district intended to accommodate “missing middle” housing (triplexes, fourplexes), update nonresidential and multifamily design and lighting standards, and introduce an “alternative compliance” pathway to allow staff-limited deviations on items such as parking or landscaping. Craycraft told the council the update also responds to recent state legislative changes and implements recommendations from the comprehensive plan adopted in early June.

Why it matters: the UDC sets the detailed rules that control where businesses and housing types may locate, how sites must be designed and the permitting process. Council members focused on several areas where changes could affect property owners and existing businesses: rules that could make certain existing uses “nonconforming,” the future treatment of fueling stations, a proposed change to how parking is calculated, and whether accessory dwelling units (ADUs) should be allowed by right.

Nonconforming uses, Old Town and mailed notices

Craycraft said the state legislature now requires mailed notice when an update would make a legally operating use nonconforming. She described a postcard example used in other cities and said the city must decide whether to create any nonconformities and, if so, where and for which uses. Greg (city staff) framed the policy trade-off: “So this is what makes the vision possible for what is in our comprehensive plan,” he said, explaining that restricting auto-oriented uses in the Old Town area could better match the plan’s pedestrian-oriented vision.

Council members asked whether the Old Town land-use vision should lead the city to stop permitting certain auto-oriented uses there. The council heard that, at present, several auto-oriented uses (auto parts sales, muffler shops, major and minor auto repair) are permitted in the Old Town zoning district and that changing that would trigger the state-required mailed notices to owners and tenants in affected districts.

Fueling stations and industrial uses

On fueling stations the draft leaves them allowed by right in some districts but offered options: move fueling stations in a general retail district to conditional use (CUP) status, adopt locational limits (for example limiting fuel stations to specific corners at major intersections), or impose use-based design standards that would not require mailed notice because they would not prohibit the use outright. Craycraft noted that targeted notice could be used but that many cities, “on the side of caution,” mail the required postcards broadly to all properties in the affected district.

The consultants also proposed consolidating more than 100 very specific industrial entries in the current use table into broader industrial categories (manufacturing, fabrication, distribution) to reduce excessive detail. That consolidation could also change where some uses are permitted and therefore could trigger mailed notices depending on the final boundaries and permissions.

Parking and use-specific measures (nail salons example)

The draft would make parking requirements apply whenever a building is expanded or a tenant changes, removing some of the flexibility in current rules that require compliance only when parking demand increases by a percentage or a building expands beyond a threshold. The council asked staff to model different parking calculations.

Craycraft told council that nail salons are grouped under a proposed “personal services” category with a draft standard of two parking spaces per station; the current code lists barber/beauty shops at one space per 200 square feet. Craig (city staff) explained a practical reason cities avoid occupancy-based parking calculations: “site plans come in before the building plan. So a lot of times, we wouldn't know what the occupancy is.” He said the city’s two-step review process often makes station-based or square-foot rules more administrable for site-plan review.

Accessory dwelling units and missing-middle housing

The draft includes an MF-1 district for “missing middle” housing (triplexes, fourplexes) that would not be automatically applied to any parcels; it would be an available zoning option that would still require a rezoning application. It also proposes ADU provisions that, as drafted, would allow ADUs by right in some residential districts (SF-7.5 and larger) and require CUPs in smaller single-family districts. Council members discussed neighborhood impacts and whether ADUs should require a permit review in all single-family districts.

Subdivision, block length, stub-outs and plat delegation

The draft proposes maximum block lengths and mandatory street stub-outs for future connections to improve connectivity. Craycraft said the state recently authorized delegation of plat approval to city staff for ministerial plat approvals; the draft follows that trend but preserves a director discretion to defer to the Planning and Zoning Commission. The council asked staff to refine stub-out exceptions where adjacent land is outside city limits or otherwise infeasible.

Signs, lighting and other provisions

The consultants consolidated definitions and updated sign rules to conform with content-neutrality legal standards and added outdoor lighting standards requiring fully shielded fixtures and no light trespass across property lines.

Next steps and council direction

Craycraft said staff will revise the draft based on council feedback and present it at public hearings before the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council, aiming to finish the process this summer if changes are minor. Council members asked for several follow-ups: provide the full UDC draft, produce a map showing the Old Town zoning boundary and the Old Town future-land-use boundary, run sample parking-calculation scenarios (square footage vs. seats vs. stations/occupancy), and prepare targeted materials explaining the state-required mailed-notice process for any proposed nonconforming-use changes.

No formal votes or ordinances were taken at the workshop; council discussion continued through a list of specific policy choices staff said they would return with more information about.

Tomball staff and Friess and Nichols will return with the full draft, the requested maps and parking scenarios before the item advances to formal public hearings.