Committee encourages green-building practices and conservation-style cluster development

Committee members pressed staff to encourage green-building practices and conservation-style, cluster development that preserves and augments San Marcos' greenways. Planning staff said the city currently lacks citywide green-building requirements and that implementing standards would likely require staff research, phased code amendments and potentially consultant support.

Staff noted opportunities in the current development-code update to include measures that support greener buildings and conservation-style site planning; the committee discussed education and incentives as near-term steps, and regulatory incentives (for example, bonus density or other code incentives) as a longer-term implementation tool. The committee amended the recommendation resolution to "encourage developers to implement green-building practices in conservation-style development" and to "recommend regulatory incentives and sustainable site standards to implement such practices in city projects and CIP work."

Committee members also discussed historic-preservation guidelines that currently complicate some sustainable retrofits and suggested those guidelines be revisited to allow appropriate green-building measures while protecting historic character.