Growth is inevitable for an attractive community like Boerne. Given the quality of our public schools, our vibrant Main Street and small-town feel, and our proximity to a large metropolitan area and the jobs it generates, individuals and families alike will want to come here.
How we as a community manage that growth, however, is entirely up to us.
I currently serve on Boerne’s Planning and Zoning Commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Council. I have had the privilege to be appointed as commission chairman by two different mayors and approved by two different City Councils.
During my nearly five years on P&Z, I have worked to ensure that the decisions made by the commission reflect the values of our community.
These value judgments are best exemplified by two specific approaches taken by the commission to responsibly manage Boerne’s growth.
The first significant approach was our recommendation several years ago that City Council adopt a new Unified Development Code, which the council did adopt in 2021. In fact, the Boerne Star that year recognized the city’s adoption of the new UDC as the second most important news story of 2021, surpassed only by the record February cold snap earlier in the year.
The new UDC was the first major project undertaken to implement the updated 2018 Boerne Master Plan and, for the first time in the city’s history, combined various city ordinances relating to development into a single document.
T h e s e c o n d significant growth management action taken by the commission to manage Boerne’s growth is to recommend that City Council approve only those zoning changes that the commission believes are compatible with responsible growth.
Although perhaps not as high-profile as the adoption of a new UDC, the fact the Planning and Zoning Commission in the past nearly five years has recommended Council approval of only two sizeable developments — one off four-lane Highway 46 to the east, and one off the Interstate 10 access road, to the west — is a profound departure from past practice.
In both instances, the commission was satisfied these developments were not only consistent with the city’s 2018 Master Plan but also that, located along wide thoroughfares, these developments did not pose traffic safety or congestion concerns.
By contrast, P&Z has not supported projects which we believe pose significant safety, congestion, and/or other concerns incompatible with responsible growth.
These denials included: proposed zoning changes for a 200-plus unit residential development on two-lane Old Fredericksburg Road at Cascade Caverns Road; a 300-plus unit apartment complex on two-lane Old San Antonio Road; and, very recently, a 200-plus unit residential development on two-lane Highway 46 west of the Home Depot, known as Spencer Ranch.
In each of these instances, the commission did not believe that the proposed high-density residential development was in the long-term best interests of the community. In fact, the commission unanimously voted to recommend the City Council deny the proposed high- density zoning change for Spencer Ranch.
The development is located on a dangerous stretch of two-lane State Highway 46 between I-10 and Highway 16, a stretch of road which the deputy district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation told Kendall County officials, the very next day following the commission vote, had 337 reportable crashes, six of which resulted in one or more fatalities, for the period 2019-2024, twice the national average for a comparable stretch of roadway.
According to the latest City Community Survey results revealed just last month, the two most important issues for citizens are management of (1) “the growth and density of the City through land use and zoning codes” and (2) “traffic and road congestion.”
In recommending the City Council deny proposed high-density residential projects along narrow two-lane roadways, the Planning and Zoning Commission continues to represent the will of Boerne residents in properly managing growth.
I know that all of my fellow commissioners approach their decision- making with the same mindset — to assist the City Council in responsibly managing the city’s growth and in keeping Boerne, Boerne.
Tim Bannwolf has lived in Boerne with his family since April 2017 and has served as chairman of the Boerne Planning and Zoning Commission since June 2020.
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