Planning staff outlines broad UDC text amendments to comply with SB 8 40 and other state bills

Planning staff presented a multipart text amendment to the Unified Development Code (UDC) intended to align local rules with recent changes in Texas law, including Senate Bill 8 40 and Senate Bill 15.

The presenter told commissioners the amendment touches many UDC articles (1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 16, 22, 23, 26, 30 and Appendix W) and summarized three primary takeaways from SB 8 40. Staff quoted from the statute’s effect on local authority, saying in part that "a municipality shall allow mixed use residential use and development or multifamily residential use and development in a zoning classification that allows office, commercial, retail, warehouse, or mixed use development as an allowed use under that classification." The presenter said the law also limits the city’s ability to adopt local density, height or setback requirements that are more restrictive than certain state-prescribed thresholds and allows administrative approval of developments that meet state standards…