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City staff to keep ETJ development standards, steering committee urges stronger tree-preservation and faster UDC tweaks
Summary
A city steering committee recommended retaining Georgetown point-of-sale style development standards in the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) rather than loosening them, and urged staff to prioritize a revised tree-preservation approach and a set of targeted Unified Development Code (UDC) text amendments for early council review.
City planning staff reported steering-committee recommendations on extraterritorial-jurisdiction (ETJ) rules and proposed a group of Unified Development Code (UDC) amendments the city plans to advance on an accelerated schedule.
Sofia (city planning staff) told council that the steering committee evaluated which UDC application types should remain enforceable in the ETJ and concluded that the city should keep its current ETJ standards rather than substantially deregulating. The committee reasoned that preserving regulatory parity gives the city leverage when negotiating with developers who might pursue deannexation or conditional development in the ETJ, and reduces the risk of a wave of lower-standard development. Committee members identified tree preservation as the highest-priority topic for further drafting and incentives.
Sofia outlined several near-term UDC text amendments staff recommend advancing quickly: changes to amendment procedures (streamlining the distinction between executive and general amendments), a residential-landscaping item (including a proposed restriction on St. Augustine turf), a downtown parking change consistent with the downtown master plan that would not require parking for retail and restaurants in a defined downtown Area 2, and a site-plan record-drawings procedure to speed approval of field changes.
On tree preservation, Sofia said staff and the steering committee had reviewed other cities’ approaches, including canopy-based programs, and that the team is developing incentives and clarifications to minimize unintended consequences that drive property owners to deannex. Council members asked staff to move carefully, noting that implementation and interpretation of tree rules — not only the ordinance language — have produced many concerns in recent months. Staff said a draft tree-preservation package is being finalized and will be provided to the advisory groups for review.
Sofia asked for council concurrence to move the recommended text amendments forward on a schedule that would include planning commission review in mid-February and council readings later the same month. Council members signaled general agreement and asked staff to brief advisory committees and the planning commission before final readings.
Ending: Council agreed with the steering committee’s recommendation to keep ETJ standards aligned with city standards and asked staff to prioritize the tree-preservation ordinance draft and to move a set of targeted UDC text amendments through planning commission and council for consideration in the coming weeks.
