City staff seeks early design input, new environmental rules and land‑use limits in Unified Development Code update

City planning staff presented a broad package of proposed changes to the city’s Unified Development Code at a joint City Council and Planning & Zoning Commission workshop on March 24, 2026, asking elected and appointed members to prioritize early‑design review, environmental clarifications and specific land‑use restrictions.

The presentation, led by planning staff, emphasized reinstating a preliminary or “master development plan” for developments that proceed in multiple phases and discussed administrative delegation to speed minor plat and final plat approvals. Staff framed the change as a way to secure tree preservation, drainage and layout issues earlier in the process rather than after engineers and infrastructure plans are already finalized.

Staff repeatedly described the proposed threshold as two or more phases or roughly 20 acres as a draft discussion point, and said the administration will benchmark prior cases to refine any numerical cutoff rather than adopt a fixed size immediately. Commissioners warned that large infill sites inside Boerne are rare and urged the administration to consider alternatives such as phase‑count, lot count or…