Aransas Pass council amends peddlers ordinance, approves rezoning and several event and project requests; mobile-food rules tabled

Aransas Pass City Council considered a range of land-use, permitting and civic projects during a meeting that included public hearings and several votes on ordinances, rezoning and project solicitations.

The council voted to amend Chapter 21 (the peddlers/peddlers-to-salesperson ordinance) by striking Article 4, which had addressed aggressive solicitation and panhandling. The council adopted the ordinance as amended after a public hearing and discussion over whether panhandling should be regulated within the peddlers framework or handled in a separate ordinance.

The council approved rezoning approximately 37.6431 acres at the northwest corner of U.S. Highway 35 Bypass and Resendiz Road from PD (Planned Development) to LI (Light Industrial) to allow a proposed business park. Developer Joseph Broussard presented conceptual site plans showing storefront facades facing Bypass 35 and up to about 13 individual units in an initial phase; Broussard said the project would be phased and that infrastructure such as concrete streets and drainage would be installed with phase 1.

Council members held a public hearing on proposed changes to the city's mobile food rules (renaming "mobile food establishment" to "mobile food unit" and consolidating short- and long-term permits into an annual $50 permit). After extended public comment about potential impacts at the harbor, and whether food trucks should be handled by a special-events permit or by zoning changes, the council voted to table that ordinance for further review and a proposed workshop on harbor-specific policy.

Other actions approved included event permits, project solicitations and contract awards: the council cleared a…