McAllen ponders overhaul of planning code

Opportunities for offering input

> Dec. 6 - Public forum at McAllen Convention Center from 7 to 9 p.m. Presentation followed by question time.

> Dec. 10 - Public hearing and possible vote at McAllen City Hall at 4 p.m.

McALLEN — A document that could rewrite how neighborhoods are built and limit the presence of the so-called big-box stores in McAllen city limits for decades to come is under consideration by the City Commission.

“It’s a change in paradigm for our planning department and for developers,” said McAllen City Commissioner Jim Darling.

“We have to be cognizant that we have surrounding communities that developers will go to if they don’t like what's going on in McAllen. At the same time you can’t allow that to stand in the way of progress.”

The Foresight McAllen plan, a lengthy document that will serve as a guide for overhauling city planning and zoning ordinances over the next 18 months, was completed earlier this month and is scheduled for a Dec. 10 commission vote.

An update of the city’s 1998 master planning document, Foresight took more than two years to complete, a process that was bogged down by disagreements between the Sugar Land consulting firm hired by the city and the residents committee working on the project.

“I hope (when this goes before the commission) we don’t get into a lot of nitpicking on the details, because those things put this on hold for years and almost destroyed it,” said Nedra Kinerk, a member of the public interest group Futuro McAllen who sat on the Foresight committee.

While the document gets into fine details like the distance between cross streets on major roads, its real meat lies in the concept of what Kinerk calls character zoning.

Individual decisions, like allowing a property to be rezoned as commercial in a residential neighborhood, would be made in the interest of protecting the neighborhood as a whole, whether it’s a downtown commercial block or a suburban subdivision.

“When a developer comes in and puts up a store, it change the character of a neighborhood and can have disastrous effects,” Kinerk said.

“This gives protection.”

The proposed changes are also intended to clarify city regulations for developers. Instead of going back and forth between the various codes that pertain to real estate development, all regulations would be contained within a single development code, said Assistant City Manager Pilar Rodriguez.

“It should make staff‘s job more effective and efficient — what will and will not be allowed will be real straightforward,” he said.

The only question is how developers will respond.

A number of commercial and residential developers contacted Wednesday were either unfamiliar with the Foresight document or did not return phone calls for comment.

But Darling said he imagined there would be at least some opposition.

“Any change is going to be difficult,” he said.

“If it doesn’t work I just hope we can put it back in the bottle.”

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James Osborne covers McAllen and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4428.