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Fulshear council tightens zoning rules for group homes, event venues and battery storage systems
Summary
The City Council adopted a text amendment to the coordinated development ordinance that makes group homes conditional uses in certain residential districts, creates a standalone use category for event centers and restricts battery energy storage systems (BESS) to commercial and industrial zones with technical safeguards; the measure passed with additions requiring impermeable underlayment and monitoring for BESS sites.
Fulshear’s City Council on Tuesday approved a coordinated development ordinance update that imposes new conditions on group homes and transitional living facilities, separates event centers from general places of assembly, and narrows where battery energy storage systems may be sited.
Joshua Brothers, a city planner, told council the amendment is designed to give the city clearer rules for uses that are appearing more frequently as the city builds out. “We do realize that some of these uses are already in place. However, it's never too late to put some good, sound regulation in there now,” Brothers said during the presentation.
Under the ordinance the city will list group homes and transitional facilities as conditional uses in certain residential districts and require safeguards including a 2,500-foot separation between similar uses, a Type B buffer yard and opaque fencing adjacent to single-family lots, paved vehicle parking areas, inspections by the fire marshal and building inspectors for renovations, and a requirement that operators provide their state license and obtain a conditional-use permit and certificate of occupancy prior to occupancy. Council members and staff noted that state licensing and federal law limit the municipality's authority in some respects.
The amendment also removes “event center” from the protected “place of assembly” category, making event centers a distinct use that the city may require to go through a special-use process in some zoning districts. Brothers said that change “enables us to turn it into a special use or prohibit it outright” in particular residential districts while allowing it by right in the downtown zoning district.
The ordinance also addresses Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). The city will prohibit BESS everywhere except the general commercial and industrial zoning districts and require setbacks and technical conditions to reduce impacts on nearby residences. Councilmember Utakar proposed — and the council adopted — two added conditions for BESS sites: impermeable underlayment to prevent runoff from battery equipment and monitoring/detection systems to prevent electrical interference outside the facility’s boundaries. Brothers said the 2,500-foot spacing and other requirements were chosen with legal defensibility in mind.
Council members debated enforcement and grandfathering for existing uses; Brothers said uses that predate adoption would be grandfathered but that the city has tools such as zoning enforcement, code compliance and, where appropriate, shutting off utilities for noncompliant properties. The council voted in favor of the ordinance with the additional conditions; the motion carried by voice vote.
