Residents get look at land use plan
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Follow the leader Audience follows along in packets as planner Dan Sefko of the Dallas firm of Duncan Sefko Associates explains the concept of a land use map at a city open house on Wednesday, Aug. 30. The open house was one of a series of events leading to the adoption of the city's first land use map, expected later this year. Public hearings on the plan have yet to be held.

A crowd of more than 50 got its first real look at a proposed Port Aransas land use map in an open house/briefing at city hall on Wednesday, Aug. 30.

Planner Dan Sefko of Dunkin/Sefko Associates in Dallas held the floor with a presentation on land use, land use maps in general, and a draft of the proposed map for Port Aransas.

The plan has been under way since residents, in a visioning process, told the city in 2004 that they wanted a comprehensive plan. The land use plan is a major element of a comprehensive plan.

Sefko, working with the city staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission, developed a map of how land is currently used in the city by December 2005. They then began work on a draft version of a future land use map, the one Sefko used in his presentation on Aug. 30.

While the city already has zoning maps, a land use map deals not with lots and parcels, but with an overall look at areas of the city.

A future land use map, Sefko said, is a community's visual guide to future planning.

"The future land use map should bring together most, if not all, of the elements of the comprehensive plan such as economic development, natural resources, housing and transportation," he said.

"It is a map of what the community wants to happen; it is not a prediction."

Sefko adds, and adds frequently, that a land use plan isn't a zoning map, either. It only displays general categories of how land is used - and those categories don't necessarily have to be the same ones in the city's zoning ordinance.

City records show Port Aransas has already had five comprehensive plans. The first, in 1971, was through the Coastal Bend Regional Planning Commission; the second, in 1980, was in cooperation with Nueces County. Neither of those plans was officially adopted by Port Aransas.

Comprehensive plans were adopted in 1982, 1989 and 1994. However, none of those included a future land use map.

The 1994 comprehensive plan is the one currently being used by the city. The plan now being worked on will replace that, possibly sometime next year.

The future land use map is expected to be finished this fall, Sefko said.

Public hearings on the map and plan will be held before the city officially adopts it, said David Parsons, Planning and Projects Director.

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The land use map provides for 17 general types of use: Single-family homes, town homes, duplexes, multi-family housing, condominiums, manufactured homes, retail uses, office buildings, commercial use, public and semi-public areas, light industrial areas, heavy industrial uses, utilities, parks and open space, water, vacant land and the rest of Mustang Island.

Single-family homes are limited to detached homes of low density,

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1-5 per acre.

Town homes are single-family attached homes; they would be allowed at a density of 6-11 per acre.

Duplexes, two-family residences, can be at 5-6 per acre.

Multi-family homes, or apartments and four-plex units, as well as condominiums, can be from 12-20 per acre.

Retail use is separated from commercial use by defining retail as establishments that offer items for retail sale. Those include malls, day care, restaurants and bars, grocery stores, souvenir shops and other similar uses.

Commercial is divided into light (warehouses and mini-warehouses, hotels, motels, auto repair and rental and car washes) and heavy (welding shops, green houses and nurseries, manufactured home or recreational vehicle sales and other uses that need outside storage of large equipment).

Light industrial includes manufacturing and light assembly of products and parts; heavy industrial means an outside storage yard as a primary use as well as gas and oil storage tanks, auto or metal salvage and landfill.

Because of its size, the Port Aransas nature preserve, under development by the Parks and Recreation Board, was included as well, though such areas are infrequently included in future land use maps.

In general, the draft land use plan leaves much of Port Aransas the way it is today: retail stores are lined along

Alister Street, Cotter Avenue and Cut-off Road while the bulk of the remainder of the city is residential in one form or another.

A new use foreseen by planners is called "mixed residential." In this type of use they see small retail shops scattered among mostly single-family homes.

The complete draft land use plan is available at city hall. No dates for hearings have been announced.
    1999-2000             Comprehensive plan update discussed as .top priority'
NOVEMBER 2002         Council authorizes hiring a planning consultant
      MAY 2003               Council approves planning contract with WRT consultants
SEPTEMBER 2003         Series of three visioning public forums conducted for resident input
DECEMBER 2003         Draft "community analysis report" presented to council; not adopted
  JANUARY 2004           Planning & Zoning forwards vision statement to city council
  FEBRUARY 2004           Council approves vision statement. City manager retires, assistant city manager resigns
MARCH-MAY 2004         Comprehensive plan stalls
      MAY 2004               Council directs comprehensive plan to be more .in house'
      JULY 2004               City ends contract with WRT consultants
  AUGUST 2004             City manager terminated
NOVEMBER 2004         Planning director resigns
DECEMBER 2004         New city manager hired
    MARCH 2005             New planning director hired
      JUNE 2005               City advertises for proposals to do land use plan
  AUGUST 2005             Dunkin/Sefko Associates hired to do land use element of comprehensive plan
  SEPT-DEC 2005           City staff digitizes city map, creates existing land use map
MARCH-JULY 2006         P&Z (as steering committee) meets with consultant on land use plan
  AUG. 30, 2006           Public open house presents draft future land use plan
SEPTEMBER 2006         Address comments regarding land use plan; tweak future land use map
  OCTOBER 2006           Present land use map to Planning and Zoning Commission for recommendation
NOVEMBER 2006         Present land use plan and map to city council for approval

How it went

Timeline, above, shows the progress of the land use plan from a discussion item in 1999 through the presentation at an open house (in shaded area) and the next steps to come.