Planning commission recommends one-acre PDD for McCarty Ranch with narrow exceptions

The Bulverde Planning & Zoning Commission on Sept. 16 recommended that the City Council approve a Planned Development District (PDD) for the Macquarie/McCarty Ranch property, endorsing one-acre single-family lots as the base zoning but granting carefully circumscribed exceptions developers said are necessary to build on the site.

Developer representatives told the commission they had revised an earlier, broader request after months of neighborhood input and engineering study. They said the plan now proposes about 233 single-family lots on roughly 329 acres, preserves large tracts of green space and riparian area where possible, and includes a suite of engineering studies—tree inventory, drainage modeling and a preliminary grading plan—aimed at limiting downstream flood impacts.

The commission’s recommendation follows a long technical presentation from the applicant and an engineer’s hydrology model that showed conceptual detention/retention features sized to treat stormwater and reduce downstream peak flows modestly in a 100‑year event. The developer said the conceptual retention basin would store roughly 15 acre‑feet for water‑quality treatment and up to 60 acre‑feet in total detention, with detailed design and state review to follow during the engineering/plat phase. “We will design detention so this is not worse than existing conditions,” the project engineer said during the hearing.

Residents at the hearing urged the commission to deny or delay the PDD until the water‑availability report and more detailed drainage analyses were available. Several speakers asked the city to hold to existing tree‑protection standards and to be cautious about allowing driveways or other encroachments through riparian buffers. “Folks, we’re out on water,” one caller said, urging that water supply and drainage be fully resolved before approving a district.

Commissioners balanced those concerns against the city’s zoning options, noting the choice was between a negotiated R‑2 PDD (one‑acre lots) and a potential by‑right, higher‑density outcome. The motion recommended approval only if the PDD ordinance submitted to council includes narrow, explicit conditions: approval of the developer’s requested lot‑dimension (aspect‑ratio) relief; a reduced local‑street right‑of‑way of 40 feet that explicitly includes a 28‑foot paved street and 6‑foot shoulders plus a 10‑foot drainage easement on each side; limited centerline and cul‑de‑sac geometry modifications as shown in the application exhibits; authorization for cut‑and‑fill/steep‑slope work only for bona fide road construction in the delineated ROW buffer; a required tree survey for the actual disturbance footprint with replacement caliper preserved in total but allowing 4‑inch minimum replacement stock; and up to 55 authorized, specified riparian‑buffer encroachments confined to drainage easements and subject to city engineering review.

Commissioners said the language must be explicit in the ordinance so future code interpretation is not left to informal practice. With those limits, the commission approved the recommendation by voice vote and will forward it to City Council. The council will consider the PDD, the council ordinance text and final engineering exhibits when it votes.

The next steps are city council review of the recommendation and the applicant’s submission of sealed engineering and drainage plans during the platting/permit phase; several commissioners said they expect additional technical review and tighter, project‑level limits as those plans are filed.