Zoning Board of Adjustments - Regular Meeting

Welcome to this regular meeting of the zoning board of adjustments. It is Thursday, March 20 at 6PM. I'd like to welcome everybody tonight's meeting. Due to limitations of the Texas Open Meetings Act, the board may only discuss items posted on tonight's agenda. All other inquiries will be forwarded to staff. The board will strive to ensure that meetings are conducted in a courteous manner and in an atmosphere free of intimidation, defamation, personal affronts, profanity, or threats of violence. Roll call, please.

Cody DeSalvo. Present. William DeSoto. Present. Jessica James. Present. Daniel Sommers?

Present.

Jonah Temple, absent. Maddie Roberts? Present. And Hayat Kurunfel is present.

Is there anyone signed up for citizen comment period?

No, sir.

We will now close the citizen comment period. Item four a, consider approval by motion of the 02/20/2025 regular meeting minutes. Is there a motion? So moved. Second? Is there any discussion? May we have a roll call vote?

William DeSoto?

Yeah. Yes. Jessica

James?

Yes.

Daniel Summers?

Yes.

Maddie Roberts? Yes. And Cody DeSalvo?

Yes.

The motion passes five to zero.

Item five a. Are there any question I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Yeah. Let's receive a presentation from from staff and discuss codes and ordinances related to the zoning board of adjustments. Annually, when the board gets new members, I like to go through just a very abbreviated presentation that our brand new members just received over the last month or so that oriented them to the board. Just to remind you all why you're here because we don't meet every month. A quick note for those in the room, you could leave your microphone on green.

And as long as you're not talking or coughing or sneezing, it'll just be on whenever you need to use it. So that orients you to the room. We meet here in the City Council Chambers on the third Thursday of the month at 6PM. That is as necessary. If we don't have any agenda items or requests from the public, then we don't get this board together because you do have a very specific purpose, which we will talk about a little bit in the future.

We are able to have hybrid meetings. Thanks to the state, they allow us to do that. So we do have a couple members online this evening. We did also see just a quick shuffle right before the meeting because we have alternates for this board, and we'll talk a little bit about that as well. But we try to make sure that we have five board members present to be able to hold our meetings and give our applicants the ability to have their items heard by a full board.

Our board membership is in the Texas local government code as well as the city of San Marcos code of ordinances. The board consists of five regular members and two alternates that are appointed for a term of two years. While it says three years in our city code of ordinances, state law actually says two years, so you do have two year appointments. We follow that state law. All members have to reside in the city limits, and you have to attend an orientation with our department before you can be seated at the dais.

As the director, I'm an ex official member of this board. Really, all I do is help and make sure that y'all get through your agenda if you have any questions and kind of guide you through this process. I am not a voting member. I am also, by virtue of the code, designated as the secretary of the zoning board of adjustments. I delegate that require that duty to miss Lauren Clanson, who is your staff liaison.

We do all of your record keeping, so you don't have to worry about any of that. And that's really what's at the bottom there is all of the things that staff does just to make sure that y'all can show up, do your job, and have the best information possible. The board is subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act, and this is something that staff takes care of for you. We make sure that your agendas are posted with the appropriate amount of time. We make sure that the agenda captions are clear so the public knows what business we will be discussing.

And we make sure that all of our meetings are open to the public and accessible. And we do have on our agenda a phone number, an email address that someone could call if they do need any accessibility assistance. So we can have interpreter sign language. If someone needs other type of translation, we can do that for them, and this building is ADA accessible. Of course, we follow the city's ethics regulations, which are in the city code of ordinances.

The section that I'm highlighting here is just to let you all know you are city officials, but you are also people who live in the city of San Marcos. So sometimes there will be potential conflicts on the items that we have on our agenda and where you live, where you work, and that's okay. So if anyone ever has any questions about conflicts of interest, if you're concerned that you might have a conflict of interest because of where you live or where you work, please reach out to staff and we will help walk you through that to make sure that there are no ethical violations. We'll make sure we get to you the forms that you need to fill out and that everything is taken care of at the meeting so we can meet our code of ordinances. We have a lot of rules governing proceedings and what I didn't put in here, maybe I should have because we have an audience is that we do have rules to maintain decorum.

Not here, but no booing, no hissing, turning off your cell phones, things of that nature. That way, we can have a the most efficient meeting that we possibly can. But for the slide that I've provided, a quorum of this board is four members. Maximum voting membership is five. Again, we have three here in person and two online for anyone who's unable to see that. And in order for the board to approve a variance, we do need four affirmative votes. So, we're not the typical majority that you would see with other boards and commissions. We do need four affirmative votes to approve a variance. However, if the board is going to deny a variance, you only need three. It's a regular majority for that.

We can talk more about that if we get into any questions as we have items on our agenda. You are limited on your authority. This slide says what you do not do, and this slide says what you do do. You review variance requests, variances to the San Marcos development code. You also consider requests related to nonconforming status or grandfathering, and you also hear appeals of the historic preservation commission.

More often than not, we're listening to variance requests. So what I wanted to provide are those criteria. I'm not going to go through them one by one because we would be here for a very long time. But just to point out that the board does have variance criteria, and you should be looking for a unique situation when you're looking at considering approval of a variance. What is unique about that particular property that warrants the necessity for a variance?

I think that's what I wanted to say. So looking for that hardship, making sure that we're not just granting variances because someone has the desire to make more money and that's criteria number eight. We're trying to look for those specific unique situations. And one interesting, maybe interesting, point for this board is that you don't necessarily set a precedent because you've approved a variance. Each case is reviewed on its own merits, based on its own situation, based on these criteria.

So while this board is in essence very simple because you only review three different types of requests, It's also very complicated because your criteria are, in fact, complicated. So we are here to support, to answer questions. Anything that you may need, staff is available. I will stop there with my presentation and see if anyone has any questions or comments.

Thank you, Amanda. I do want to see if there's any way we can set up, I guess, some additional training since we've got the new members, members we added, I guess, a year ago this month or so. Maybe not this month, maybe next month after they've got a meeting or two under their belt.

Sure. A group training where we invite the entire board?

Yes, ma'am.

We can absolutely do that. We will have to post that for an open meeting. So we'd have to invite the public to join us. They're welcome to join us, but we will look at a time that works for the board and see if we can get everybody together for a refresher training. It's a great idea. Thank you.

And then the only thing other thing I've got is, right now, we are meeting at 6PM. We decided that, I think, like, year and a half ago. I don't know if an earlier time slot or a later time slot would work for the board members or be preferable for the board members.

This time slot works for me.

This works for me also.

Yeah. It's good for me. Yep.

Me as well. Great.

Alright. We'll go ahead and just keep it the same then. Alright. Any additional questions or comments?

Alright, look forward to an email from staff when we can try to get you all together for group training. Thank you.

Thank you, Amanda. Thanks so much. Alright, we will move on to the next item, item 6A.

Yes. So that item pertains to VR 2504702 Burleson Street vehicular access gate setback variance. Hold a public hearing and consider a request by Kenneth Kelly for a variance to section seven point two point six point two point b of the San Marcos development code, which states the gates for vehicular access shall be set back from the property line a minimum of 25 feet to allow a one foot setback for a vehicular access gate located at 702 Burleson Street. So good evening, everyone. I'm Lauren Clanton, and we'll be presenting this item.

This property is approximately point eight seven acres. Its location is the West Corner of Burleson Street and Scott Street. Its designation is neighborhood low per the comprehensive plan, and surrounding uses include single family residential and townhomes a little bit to the east. When we look at the zoning of the property, the existing zoning is single family six. I will also note that this neighborhood is in a historic overlay.

It went to the historic preservation commission previously, so this fence needed to be reviewed for its appropriateness and received a certificate of appropriateness from the historic preservation commission. And now it's coming to the zoning board of adjustments today to get a variance to section seven point two point six point two point b. So once again, that code standard is that vehicular access gates must be set back from the property line a minimum of 25 feet. What the property owner is proposing instead is to position those gates about one foot from the property line in line with an existing rock wall that is present at the edge of their property. Here we can see a submitted site plan which has been drawn by the applicant.

This is the external side yard, so it's facing Scott Street. There was also a proposition for an ornamental fence along, you know, surrounding this yard for the sake of safety and pets. And the callout you see here, the red circle, is the proposed location of the vehicular access gate across their driveway facing Scott Street. Here we can see a picture of the driveway from the street. Staff has assessed the request through the through the perspective of section two point eight point two point four point a of the development code.

And our conclusion is that the request is consistent with criteria one, four, five, six, seven, and eight. The request is inconsistent with criteria two and three. And we had a neutral finding on none of the criteria. That concludes my presentation. I'm here for questions, and our applicant is also here for questions, and additionally has someone who may wish to speak in favor of his request.

Thank you. At this time, I will open the public hearing. Staff? Oh, we already did that. Sorry. Would the applicant like to make a presentation? Rodney here Sir, you could stand

up Yep. Whoever's going to speak can come to the podium, please.

I'm sorry.

You'll have to come to the podium to speak. Rodney, you can go ahead and get up and and take your turn. You don't need to be introduced. Okay. So start with your name and address.

My name

is Ken Kelly, and I would like Rodney to speak first. I'm here for to answer any questions.

Good evening. My name is Rodney Van Odekirke. I live at 323 Scott Street in San Marcos. And I gotta tell you, it's a little more intimidating on this side of the podium than it is on that one. But I am here tonight to to to address the variance, and I hope that I can convince y'all that it is the right thing to do to grant the variance.

It is the home is in the historic district. It has passed the historic preservation commission, I believe, unanimously. When you looked at the when I saw the pictures a while ago, the the whole issue here is about safety. Since Achilles have moved in, they've added a couple of grandchildren and a new pet. And their their grandchildren, you know, they're they're I can honestly say they're well behaved children, but they're kids.

And they they can get distracted very easily. And in fact, I witnessed this once already where he one of the little boys wandered out into the street. That street corner on Scott And Burleson, there's a four way stop sign. And this afternoon, before I came down here, count within about five minutes, I counted eight cars. One of them stopped.

Now so back to the to the driveway for safety, it doesn't if we made them put the gate where the ordinance would is requiring them to, it sits within five feet of their kitchen dining their their their kitchen breakfast breakfast area. The problem with ordinances like this is they take a a broad brush and try to get one size fits all, and it just simply doesn't work. And that's why these boards exist so we can look at these on an individual basis, you know, and take each case one by one. That driveway is on the side of a hill. There's no way that a a a traditional gate would work there.

Besides the the setback being in their driveway I mean, in their kitchen, you'd have to literally move the entire driveway to the back of the property where it finally settles in that hill, which makes financially, it makes absolutely no sense and just makes no sense at all to have a driveway coming off that side of the property. So I guess what I'm asking y'all is to allow this variance for safety reasons and for just practicality, and it it's it's just the right thing to do. Thank you.

Is there anyone in Chambers who wishes to speak on this item?

I'd like to say a few words.

Okay. State your name and address again. I didn't start the timer for him, so we'll just give him his three minutes, if that's okay? Okay. Name and address

Kelly. 702 Burleson. The the problem is with the and, you know, we're talking about the side of my house, the rear of my house. We're not talking about the the Burleson Street entrance. I have a circle drive on the front, so I have this huge driveway on the front.

But this driveway this gate that we're talking about is kind of the service entrance to the house. It's the back. It keeps Amazon and all those people from walking up my driveway by my pool to, you know, put packages on my back door instead of the front door. And also, I need to reiterate that that we're on a hill, and so there's no other kind of gate other than a rolling gate that we can do. We can't do a swing gate either way because of the hill.

And 25 feet from the from the property line, like you said, puts it within five feet of my breakfast room. So and I have an antique truck also that I don't think I can make that turn to to go into the if I have to build a a prison like cage 25 feet from the street, it just it takes up all my my driveway. So that's that's pretty much the situation. It's the best it's the best way to do it. Just a rolling gate behind that rock wall, you know, and you just open and close it in and out. And there's two other houses with the same variance in the neighborhood. So, you know, it it shouldn't be a big problem.

Thank you. Thank you, mister Kelly. Staff, do we have anyone signed up for this agenda item?

Looks like we have one more. Hi.

I'm Robin Kelly, and I live at 702 Burleson Street. And I'm the wife and the grandma, and I just wanna talk about my the safety. This is the this is the reason for the gate. And my, yeah, my grandkids, the other day, my little dog got out, ran out, and and you cannot see. People people can't see us coming out of the driveway because the bamboo is just no visibility there.

And when we go out of the driveway, we have to really pull out, you know, and look because cars just speed down that hill and right past our house. So you don't know when something's gonna basketball, whatever, rolls out in that street, and they go chasing it. And it's happened before. Just the other day, my little dog got out, and he ran out, and my grandson chased him. Both of them ran out on Scott Street, and I about had a heart attack. And then they ran up to Burleson, and luckily, there were no cars running the stop signs right at that time, just a big sweeps sweep sweeper, which stopped for the dog and the child. So but that's the reason for this gate. It's for safety. It's not for ornamentation. It's very simple.

It will roll right behind the the rock wall that's been there forever, and it will hide behind that when it's open, and it'll be automatic so that we don't have to stop the car and get out and open it. It'll be closed when my kids are there so they can play. Because they can't play out there because they keep running, you know, that direction because as everything rolls downhill. So that's all I wanted to say. It's for safety, and I'd really appreciate it if y'all would consider this. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I do have some questions.

Greg Wurzbach, 407 Blanco Street. Just kind of want to reiterate what they had said. I'm speaking in favor of this variance. The Kellys are great neighbors. They're only trying to do what's best for their neighborhoods, their grandkids, their pets. And the placement that that this gate would have on in the property makes only the most sense.

Thank you. Thank you. Staff, do we have anyone signed up for this agenda item?

Chair, if I could just call attention to a couple comments that have come in via email. These were sent to the board from Lydia Kendrick, Linda Huff, and Victor and Judy Phelan, all in favor. We received one comment later today from Pekka and Christine Rattala in favor.

Thank you.

And that's it.

Okay. I will now close the public hearing. Do I have a motion?

Motion to move.

Can you repeat that?

Motion.

I move to approve the variance. Is there a second?

Yeah. I'm gonna, miss James, we heard motion, but I didn't hear whether it was to approve or deny. Mister DeSalvo just, jumped in with a motion to approve. I'm sorry. I said approved. I cut out. Okay. Okay. So I hear a second.

Yeah. Alright. Is there any discussion? Yeah. I know I've got a few. Mister Kelly, if you could step back up, please. Thank you. I know you've got the other driveway on the property. Is this gate gonna be I guess, is that your primary entrance and exit to the property? Or is it just kind of like a

We mainly go in come in the back.

So it would be the primary?

The the the front's just a in fact, the fence is not even the whole yard. It's the side yard.

Okay. And then when the gate is closed, when you pull up to it in your vehicles, are your vehicles completely pulling off the road or they would they still be sticking out?

Well, the the the the hill right there is a one lane hill. Mhmm. So cars sit there like they're pulling in my driveway every day. So you what you do is you just pull up right there. I mean, if you're waiting for cars, you know, cause you can only get one car down that hill at a time.

I guess if you were pulling into your driveway If

I'm pulling into my driveway, it's just like I'm waiting for a car to come. I'm sitting out in the road. Okay? And that's the same thing everybody else does too for car because it's only a one lane.

So if, say, the gate were to malfunction one day and you had to get out and open it manually, your vehicle would have to be sitting out in the road?

Oh, I could easily pull pull on the side.

You would be able to pull off the road? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

I have a I'm I have a question for staff.

Oh. So Alright. Thank you, mister Kelly. Okay. Thank you.

My question is for you, Lauren. So can you remind me what criterion two and three are? Because I don't have the criterion packet right in front of me.

Let's

see. That's my bad.

I would actually have to check that. I'll pull it up. Give me just a moment.

And I'll we can keep going through other questions.

It's just the 25

Mister Kelly, if you could stand up for So we yeah.

We gotta record what you say.

So criteria two is I'm gonna zoom in here. Criteria two is that the circumstances causing the hardship do not similarly affect all or most properties in the vicinity of the petitioner's land. Criterion three, the variance is necessary for the preservation and enjoyment of a substantial property right of the petitioner.

Okay. And my next question is for staff too, Lauren. You may not know this, but there was a mention of other variances of a similar type out in this area. Do you know if that's true, or do you have any information on that?

So I have not checked whether any

I sent pictures of those properties

in my Mr. Kelly, unfortunately, I've got to call on you for you be able to speak.

So I'll tell you, I do not recall any similar variances in my ten, thirteen years here. What I can tell you is that I believe this section of the code probably changed in 2018.

Mhmm.

So if there are similar gates in the neighborhood that were built prior to 2018, they likely fell under a different code that may have had a different standard. But I can't recall in the historic district having a similar request.

Would you happen to know I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

No. It's okay. What caused the city to change that ordinance?

It was a handful of things, specifically for new development. When you're installing a gate, you'd like to have that 25 feet to allow two cars to be able to queue or at least one and a half to get some vehicles off of the road. Mhmm. Specifically, as it relates to commercial properties that may have a higher volume. And, you know, mister Van Odekirk, he actually said it very well that when we're creating codes, we're creating them for the city. And, of course, there will be circumstances that may require a variance, which is why the board is here to look at the criteria and see if this is an instance where they're meeting the criteria and a variance would be warranted.

Great. Thank you, Amanda.

I do have a question for mister Kelly now.

Mister Kelly, if you could stand back up.

Sorry to have you do calisthenics. So my question is related to these other variances and other places where there might be fences. I did a quick Google Map search to see if I could find them, and I I couldn't find them. Do you have the addresses by chance?

I think one's 514 Belvin. They're both on Belvin. One now, I I I call them different things. One of them I called the the McCoy House. Remember where the insane asylum was? And they built that huge house there. Yep. And it's their it's their back street just like just like we're talking about. It's the back entrance, you know. Yeah. That's Quarry Street. And the other one's on Quarry Street also, which is the old Masonic Lodge house.

Got it.

But it's a swing gate. But both of them are within 25 feet of the street, and like the McCoy House, there's there's no there's no there's no reason for it to be that close to street other than they just wanted it that way.

Thank you, mister Killer.

It's other than that,

I don't know.

Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Is that it? Yes. Yes, sir. Alright. Given what Amanda said, I think I'm good.

Yeah, me too.

Is there any further discussion on this? No? Alright. May we have a roll call vote?

Jessica James?

Yes.

Daniel Summers?

Yes.

Maddie Roberts? Yes. Cody DeSalvo?

Yes.

William DeSoto?

Yes. The

motion passes five to zero.

I will now accept nominations for chair.

So I'll tell you that Lauren is going to take a moment to get your signature and get the notice form or the decision form to the applicant. Wanted to get the board just a little bit of coaching on election for chair and vice chair. You can nominate yourself. You can nominate someone else. You do not need a second for that nomination. So we just need a name on the table. If we have more than one person who's interested or is nominated, we'll go around with a roll call vote to have you each say someone's name. Or if we only have one person, we can do a roll call vote for that singular person. So, let's start with chair.

Do you wanna do the signing, the signature stuff first? Or you wanna get into

the chair? I think they may have left. So they may just have

to get their Do want me to go get No.

They can get their decision form tomorrow. It's okay. It was a motion to approve, so they're probably celebrating. Yeah.

I'll motion to. Not

He wants to know when we get that out.

Should just be Go

ahead and go on with the nominations. I'll see what's happening.

I say, I motion to nominate myself again unless someone really, really wants it.

You can have it. Since

we only have one nomination, staff, will you please call the roll?

Yes.

Is there a second?

Oh, I second.

Okay. Let me get that down real quick. Alright. Daniel Sommers?

Yes.

Maddie Roberts? Yes. Cody DeSalvo? Yes. William DeSoto?

Yes.

Jessica James? Yes. Alright. Motion passes, and congratulations, chair.

Thank you. I will now accept nominations for vice chair. Anyone? I'll volunteer. I second. You're about to say something. No? Okay.

Any If you really want it,

I'm happy to give it to Okay. Alright.

Alright. Since we only have one nomination, staff, will you please call the roll?

Maddie Roberts. Yes. Cody DeSalvo.

Yes.

William DeSoto.

Yes.

Jessica James. Yes. And Daniel Summers?

Yes.

Motion passes five to zero. Congratulations, vice chair.

Item number eight is question and answer with the press and public. The board and staff may respond to questions related to items on this agenda. Is there anyone in chambers who wishes to speak on this item?

No, sir.

Didn't think so. Staff, do we have anyone signed up for this agenda?

No, sir.

May I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Is there a second? I second. May we have a roll call vote?

Cody DeSalvo? Yes. William DeSoto?

Yes.

Jessica James? Yes. Daniel Sommers?

Yes.

And Maddie Roberts?

Yes. We're adjourned at 06:31. Thanks, everybody.