Weatherford council adopts commercial-corridor overlay, lowers administrative height limit to four stories

Weatherford City Council on Tuesday adopted a new Commercial Corridor Interstate Overlay intended to guide design and redevelopment along the city's major commercial corridor, but the council amended the draft to lower the administrative maximum building height from five stories to four.

The overlay, presented by planning staff and consultant Jason Claunch, would add design standards and streetscape rules to the underlying zoning for large-scale retail and regional commercial projects. Monica Johnson, the city planner who presented the ordinance, said the overlay sets building height, setbacks, facade articulation, window transparency and signage rules and would apply to new developments, enlargements and facade changes. The ordinance was published as ordinance 02024-22.

The most contested element was a proposed limit that would have permitted up to five stories administratively; several council members and residents worried that a five-story allowance could change the corridor's visual character. "I have a problem with 5 stories," Mayor Pro Tem Addie Wilder said during deliberations. "I really' that's very, very high. That's kind of obscures a lot of things."

Jason Claunch, the city's consultant, said the extra floor was intended to create flexibility for uses that typically require additional height, such as full-service hotels or mixed-use projects. "When you think about hospitality and other mixed uses, we wanted to create some flexibility to enable additional height," Claunch said, adding that projects exceeding the base standard would still have to go through planning review. "If you all wanted to grant staff the chance to make those variances across certain uses or maybe add an additional floor, that would also be acceptable."

Council members debated trade-offs between protecting Weatherford's small-town feel and avoiding missed development opportunities. Mayor Paschal said reducing the maximum to four stories would maintain oversight while still allowing larger projects to proceed if they sought Planning and Zoning and council approval. "I could get on board with the decrease from 5 to 4 because most of the projects that would be involved in that would have to go through the traditional P and Z and council process too," the mayor said.

On a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Addie Wilder, seconded by Council member Luke Williams, the council adopted the overlay as ordinance 02024-22 with an amendment lowering the administrative height standard to four stories; projects that exceed four stories must follow the standard P&Z and council review procedures. The ordinance will take effect January 1 as written in the adopted language.

What changed and what remains: the overlay retains its design standards for facades, window transparency (minimum 30% of ground-level facade between 2 and 7 feet), landscaping and screening of parking and service areas; the council's amendment simply narrowed the administrative height threshold so taller proposals will require discretionary review.

The council and staff said the change preserves processes that let residents and elected officials evaluate atypical proposals while leaving staff the authority to approve developments that meet all overlay standards.

The council's action caps the night's lengthy discussion of land-use items; several other plats, conditional use permits and final plans were approved earlier in the meeting.