In this video, Mary Johnson, President of the Monte Vista Terrace Neighborhood Association, explains some of the problems with San Antonio’s UDC Sections 35-310 and 35-517, which deal with building heights on properties zoned MF-33.
Background
In 2017 the Monte Vista Terrace Neighborhood Association faced a development on a property in their neighborhood that was zoned MF-33. The property is surrounded by single-family homes, but the proposal included four new condos, detached from one-another, each four stories high.
When the section of the UDC dealing with MF-33 zoning was written, this development pattern was not anticipated. Historically, a multi-family property in a neighborhood would have attached units, for example a duplex, triplex or quadplex. Developing the lot with detached units creates a far more intense development while maintaining the historic density of the property’s zoning. While it’s still just four units, the units themselves are larger, taller, and taking up more of the lot.
The Monte Vista Terrace Neighborhood Association filed an appeal with the Board of Adjustment when they found out that the project was approved for building heights exceeding what was specified in the Unified Development Code.
When Mary and her neighbors went to the city after reading the code, it was discovered that there was a typo in the UDC. The code is written to allow growth while at the same time protecting neighborhoods. This typo is being exploited.
The way developers and the city staff are interpreting the code is allowing excessive heights on lots zoned MF-33 and RM-4 that are adjacent to single-family homes or adjacent to single-family districts. This affects how other parts of the UDC are applied on projects such as storm water requirements.
These interpretations have led to many RM-4 and MF-33 projects being built with a higher intensity than some projects being developed on lots zoned IDZ. The projects are having much greater impacts on neighborhoods than what has historically been built on RM-4 and MF-33 lots, which were originally intended to be low-density zoning designations. Because there is no rezoning required for these lots, neighborhoods have little time to react.
What is being done?
In response to these problems, District 1 City Councilman Roberto Treviño filed a CCR to review these zoning designations. There is a Task Force working to strengthen and clarify the UDC for the RM and MF properties in our neighborhoods.
The RM/MF Task Force is made up of a mix of neighborhood members and representatives from the development community, including developers who have been using the RM-4 and MF-33 zoning designations to their advantage. The task force is being facilitated by Cat Hernandez in the Development Services Department.
At the most recent meeting, there was pressure from the city and the developers to leave code largely unchanged and rely on Neighborhood Conservation Districts and Historic Districts to protect neighborhoods. This is not satisfactory, since we know that many of our most vulnerable neighborhoods do not have NCDs or Historic Designation to help them, and even those that do are still seeing this kind of development occurring. In the same way, we cannot rely on the land use categories to protect us. The code as it is written is unclear and is being manipulated for profit to the detriment of the surrounding neighbors.
It is important to remember that the council and the mayor set the agenda for the task force; our council has asked for this CCR because the constituents in the various districts have asked for help concerning the incompatible, intense, and dense development in our traditional neighborhoods. It is the job of the task force to set the policy concerning MF and RM zoned lots scattered throughout our traditional neighborhoods. Those task force members representing neighborhoods need to keep pushing for accountability when the city and developers want to rush to conclude the task force meetings without meaningful changes to the code’s language that make the code clear.
How Neighbors Can Help
Community is allowed to attend/observe the RM/MF Task Force meetings. Having members of the community there is important for transparency and accountability. The neighborhood representatives on this task force need community support in the room, and the city needs to see that this is an issue that the community cares about. Please plan to attend the next RM/MF Task Force meeting. It has been scheduled for 2:00pm on May 28th at 1901 S. Alamo.
You may read a summary of the CCR and the Task Force meetings so far on the city’s website, here.
I see the problem, but you never revealed “the loophole”. What is the language in the code that is a “loophole” for developers that the Board of Adjustment could “manipulate “ for them?