City Commission - Regular Meeting

And it's been a true honor to be a part of this great city. And it's been a true honor to be a part of this great city. And it's been a true honor to be a part of this great city. And it's been a true honor to be a part of this great city. And it's been a true honor to be a part of this great city. And it's been a true honor to be a part of this great city. And it's been a true honor to be a part of this great city.

It is my honor to announce that Abraham Onset has generously donated $100,000 to Champion Lakes Golf Course.

Now, therefore, I do hereby proclaim January the 5th, 2026 as a Grand Onset Day. Congratulations.

Please accept our sincere appreciation and this plaque, which will be permanently displayed on these grounds to honor your enduring connection to the shore gate practice area.

First of all, seeing this many kids here was really cool. I was not expecting to see this many people, which was really nice. And the words and everything was quite emotional. Seeing them, hearing the questions they were asking me, I was like, wow, this community is really into golf. I was born here. I grew up in Reynosa. All my family, everybody's out here. Every time I get a chance, obviously, we swing by and have a good time. And it's always special when I'm out here.

When you see flashing lights on the side of the road, move over or slow down. Put a lane between you and them if possible. It's not just a courteous thing to do. It's also the law.

My name is Abril Paz and I am the City of McAllen. What I love the most about working for the City of McAllen is knowing that the work I do has a direct positive impact on our community. The City of McAllen isn't your typical job. It's a place where you can grow, learn, and be part of something meaningful. What keeps me motivated is seeing the impact of our work. When residents thank us for what we're doing, when a child learns about recycling, or when a community event brings people together. These moments feel my passion. My job makes a difference in the community by helping people understand the importance of taking care of our environment and providing opportunities for everybody to get involved. I like to think that my job plants a seed for the future of our community. Although it might be a small action, eventually it adds up. What inspired me to work in public service is that I wanted a career where my daily efforts could improve people's lives in meaningful ways. Every event we host, program we create, helps build a stronger community and there's a real sense of pride of being part of something bigger than yourself. My name is Javeril Paz and I am the City of McAllen.

We're thrilled to have you here at this exciting ribbon-cutting and partnership announcement with the Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

One thing holds true, that this is an area that youth come to play. And this pavilion is just another star to our sky.

Places like this where kids can be free, they can feel community, they can be who they want, it's what it's all about. Where you can dream, where you can imagine. And dreams are made on courts like this.

When evaluating which communities we can support with the greatest impact, McAllen really stood out. Here there is a strong sports culture, a passionate and vibrant population, and a long-standing connection to hockey in Rio Grande Valley.

To all the kids over here to my left, thank you guys for being here because this is for you guys. Thank you guys for coming out and supporting us, supporting the Dallas Stars, and supporting the RGB Hockey. It's going to be a great time here in South Texas. I'm hoping that you guys will get a number one draft pick

Al, here in the future. This is what partnership feels like and this is what happens when a city believes in itself. McAllen is rising and today we roll into that future together.

It's a wonderful day. It's a wonderful project, y'all. We're very happy to be a part of it. Enjoy your new facility and go Stars.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And now we move into a workshop of the McAllen City Commission held in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. All workshops are open to the public and serve as an opportunity for city staff to present detailed information, reports, and updates to the commission in preparation for future action or decisions. While no formal votes are taken during these sessions, workshops play an important role in the city's policymaking and decision-making process.

No, sir. No questions.

Citywide rezoning. Commissioner, we have had several questions about the progress the planning department has made in the UDC citywide rezoning, so they're here to give you a short update on their project.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. Well, with the adoption of the UDC, it triggered the city-initiated rezoning. So some of the changes in city-initiated rezoning, of course, is the R1. And the R1s, of course, before we used to have the 50-foot lot frontage, and of course we had the 5,000 square feet. Now you're going to have the 45-foot lot frontage with the 5,000 square feet, and then your setbacks change from five to, they were six feet before, now they're five feet with a 20-foot front setback. In the R2... With 20 feet front? Front. And back? The back is still 10. It's still 10? Yes. And of course, remember, we did go away with a double-fronted lot, so now it's just flat 10 feet across the rear setbacks. On the R2, this does allow for multiple structures on one lot, such as townhomes, duplexes, triplex, bungalow courts. Of course, they still have to comply with the lot size. So like with the R2, of course, you do have the minimum lot frontage of 35, but if you do have townhomes, you can go down to 20 feet, but it all depends on the lot's square footage. The other difference on the R2 is before when we had R2s, we had to have one roof structure. Now you're allowed multiple roof structures and that doesn't trigger the fire sprinkler system. Up to how many? As many as it can fit in there, of course, complying with parking requirements.

No matter what, it's up to four. So it can be continuous over 10,000 square feet?

Well, depending on how many units they're going to put in. So like right now, let's say they're allowed to do townhomes, duplex, triplex, or fourplex, and that's the maximum in the R2. But then your lot will have to be bigger depending on how you're going to do your parking requirements. So, of course, a lot of them don't want to do the alleys in the back. That way they can just use the alley as access for parking. And they don't have to provide that additional 24 feet of maneuvering. They'll just have to – the alleys, of course, are 20 feet. So when you're going to have the parking off the rear, you're going to have to have the parking spaces 9 by 22, not 9 by 18, so you can have the 24 feet of maneuvering.

And in the R2, four-plex are also –

Yes, correct. And of course, on the C1s and the C2s, we have defined uses now. So before, you would have to read the ordinance and see which category would fall into. The main thing with the C1s and the C2s is now the parking requirements. RESTAURANTS USED TO BE THE SQUARE FOOTAGE DIVIDED BY 100, SO NOW THE RESTAURANTS ARE THE SQUARE FOOTAGE DIVIDED BY 200. NOW WITH THE OFFICE AND RETAIL, THEY'RE ALL DIVIDED BY THE SQUARE FOOTAGE DIVIDED BY 500, WHERE BEFORE, FOR OFFICE, IT WAS THE SQUARE FOOTAGE DIVIDED BY 200 PLUS 3, AND THEN FOR RETAIL, IT WAS THE SQUARE FOOTAGE DIVIDED BY 400 PLUS 3. SO NOW THEY'RE ALL STRAIGHT 500.

So there's less parking necessary to pass.

Correct. So it's still up to the developer to provide more parking if they want to. Right. One of the main things is, of course, you have the Home Depot and Lowe's area where they have plenty of parking. It's just they don't use it all. But they were complying with parking requirements of our old standards. What about when they're abutting? A residential subdivision. So no matter what, with a residential, if you have more than 200 feet of frontage with a neighborhood, you'll have to provide the CMU, 8-foot CMU wall. And you're still going to have to comply with the parking requirements. You'll have to do an 8-foot CMU wall. Unless you have less than 200 feet, then you can do the 8-foot cedar with the columns. And of course, the EDC is now user-friendly. So with each particular zone, for the R1 zone, it tells you, OK, this is lot size. This is the lot frontage. Of course, the setbacks. And it tells you what all the guidelines are. So each little section will give you the R2 will also give you the guidelines, and then the C1, and further. So it all gives you a breakdown of exactly what the setbacks are and what the lot sizes will be needed. Of course, now we have the UDC table. So this table is really handy just because it starts on page 35. It gives you a direct as far as what is allowed and what's not allowed. And then on the far right, it'll give you the parking requirements. Of course, if it's commercial, if it's office or retail, it'll be the 500. And if it's residential, it'll be the two parking spaces. Of course, now also in the R1, you have... So additional dwelling units are allowed. So as before, you had to get a conditional use permit for a guest house. Now it will be by right, just depending on the lot size. You will have to comply with adding an extra parking space. And of course, like just the old ordinance, you're only allowed to have one water meter and one electrical meter, unless you have an irrigation line. But of course, you're only allowed one of each.

They were the same subjects, right?

Correct. SO RIGHT NOW, WE HAVE THE TOTAL PARCELS IN THE CALENDAR WITH THE EXISTING PLATS THAT WE HAVE IS 53,485 PARCELS. AS OF LAST PNZ MEETING, WE HAVE 8,262 PARCELS THAT WE HAVE REZONED. SO THAT'S ABOUT RIGHT AT 15%. THIS WILL BE COMPLETED AT CITY COMMISSION OUR JUNE 1ST MEETING, THE FIRST MEETING IN JUNE. SO THIS WAS AS PER OUR LAST PNZ MEETING. SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU

THAT IT'S GOING TO TAKE YOU... IT'S GOING TO TAKE US A WHILE.

LIKE FOUR YEARS TO GO THROUGH THIS, THREE TO FOUR YEARS? YES, SO NO MATTER WHAT, BEFORE WE START THE INITIAL REZONING, OUR PLANNERS HAVE TO GO OUT TO EACH INDIVIDUAL LOCATION AND MAKE SURE Okay, what's there? What is allowed in that particular zone? We do have some particular zones on South Military where it was a restaurant supply area, so they did all the cooking there. However, we had it zoned as I-1, and that's no longer allowed in I-1, so it's allowed in a C-2, so we down-zoned it to a C-2. However, in the down zoning, no one's being non-conforming in that particular plaza. Same thing with gas stations. Like right now, we're going to have one on the corner of Business 83 and Jackson. That area is zoned industrial. Of course, we're going to down zone it to C2 so that the use of a gas station will be allowed and no longer have to get a conditioning use permit.

But many of the parcels are residential parcels. Correct. Yes, sir. So if you have a neighborhood that is planted years and years ago, that's one of the 53,000, okay? So are you... Why could you not just do the whole subdivision?

We've done it. So, like, on the south side, when we first started, we did multiple subdivisions, and it was just... The main thing now is just when you go, we'll put the posting on our website. So we'll do the city-initiated rezonings and we'll put the parcels on there. So if it's not platted or if it's platted, we'll put the parcel on there. We have to advise everyone of the change of the zoning. Correct. So we no longer have to do it as far as a legal notice, but we still have to publish it on our website or put it on our website and in the newspaper. Just try to do it as efficient as possible. Yes. So the main thing is just having the planners still have to go out there to make sure that we're still in compliance whether we need to down zone it or up zone it. So it's all depending on what the customer is in need of. So now we're going to switch over to... So just a quick little run through. So of course, if you go to the City of McAllen Planning Department, you'll see the UDC. And the main thing is on the UDC, when you go onto the website, you can just hit Control F. Once you hit Control F, it'll give you a little shortcut. So if you're looking at anything in particular, you can just type in what you're looking for, and it'll give you the different locations on where that is located.

For instance, if you're searching for a keyboard, you can search it in the whole text. So you can search it, and it will give you all the options. And then you can go one by one. Or you can actually go to the table of contents. You can go to Table of Contents and you can click on the links. So actually, if you're looking for the zoning district, you can go to the base districts. You can click on it. It takes you to the zonings, to the AO, R1, R2, R3. So it goes zone by zone. And then you can look at this table that Omar had it on the PowerPoint. So you can look at what is the minimum lot size, what is the minimum lot width, the setbacks. They are all in the zoning district. If someone wants to know what is a permitted zone for each district, the same thing. You can go back to the table of contents. Here in chapter, So you can go to the use tables, and then you can see the type of uses. They are actually categorized by the type of use. So the first one is actually the residentials. Then you have the lodging, then automotive, commercial. So each category you can see what is permitted. If it is permitted, it's P. If it is conditional use permit required, it's a C. And if there is nothing says it's not permitted, right? For instance, the townhomes are permitted in an R2 zone. So there is a P under R2 and there is a P under R3, right? So the townhomes are permitted here, but they're not permitted in an R1. But some of the uses, I think Omar was mentioning about the gas stations, it depends on what you're looking for. Like car washes, it's conditionally used permit in a C1, but permitted in C2, I1, and I2. So it depends on what you're looking for. You can search it there and find it, and it tells you if it requires a CUP or is permitted by right, or if it's not permitted.

Any questions? Yes.

I asked enough.

Thank you.

The five-foot side setback. Yes. Same thing with the double front.

We still have the safety part, so we're good.

Anything else? Thank you very much.

Commissioner, the remainder of the items on the agenda are eligible for conversation in executive session.

Recommend we recess. I recess to executive session.

Maybe UDC looks simple.

Yes, it is.

Thank you.

We're back from the workshop.

Action in the workshop meeting be closed.

This concludes the workshop of the McAllen City Commission. Workshops are held on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 4 p.m. in the City Commission Chamber, located on the third floor of McAllen City Hall. The public is always welcome to attend or view online. Thank you for staying informed and engaged with the City of McAllen.