The Taylor City Council voted last week to allow a new neighborhood development to go off-plan by including less civic space than the city’s Land Development Code requires. In the words of Taylor Swift, “Just because you make a good plan, doesn’t mean that’s what’s gonna happen.”
“As the population grows the parks and trail systems should grow proportionately to ensure that the level of service for existing residents remains consistent. As new development occurs care should be taken to ensure adequate accessibility to parks,” reads the Envision Taylor Comprehensive Plan.
But at the March 1 City Council meeting, Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis asked council to consider allowing a developer to create a new neighborhood with significantly less civic space than the 10% allotment set in the Land Development Code the city approved just months ago. The variance was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission before presentation to council.
Yantis said the deficit in green space fulfilled the spirit of the plan, if not the actual recommendations, because “you can take into consideration what else is within what we call the ‘pedestrian shed,’ which is that five-minute walk from the center of the neighborhood,” Yantis explained. “Because the existing Castlewood neighborhood has already allocated civic space that is taken into consideration.”
The 715 CGP Neighborhood Plan would bring 493 residential units plus a grocery store, hotel, gas station, restaurant, office and retail buildings to a site at the corner of FM 973 and Carlos G Parker Blvd., between the Castlewood and Davis Tract developments.
The plan was introduced at the March 1 council meeting, and voted on at the March 15 meeting. Council voted 3-2 to allow the deficit in civic space, with councilmen Dwayne Ariola and Mitch Drummond casting the opposing votes.
“Fairly high density development is necessary. We need these. But there’s going to be families, kids... they need places to play, Drummond said. “We have a comprehensive plan, this is what the community wanted and I think we need to stay with that.”
Combining the new neighborhood’s 2.5% of civic space with that of the Castlewood and the Davis Tract developments, city documents show the total amount of land put aside would be 6.3% for the entire pedestrian shed — still under the 10% of civic space called for by the land development code.
Yantis pointed out in the initial meeting that the hotel and apartment complexes would most likely have some types of amenities which could be counted toward the total, but as yet those were unknown.
Councilman Ariola said that such amenities were privately owned and unlikely to be open to the public as civic spaces. He also said that the civic spaces in neighboring developments might be controlled by Home Owners Associations, and therefore also not truly open to the entire community.
“If [HOA] didn’t want others to use that, then they could not let us use that. So I would rather, at this particular property, follow our comprehensive plan and have those civic areas for their residences, not...hoping they could share them with future landowners that don’t have their concurrence as of yet,” Ariola said.
The city’s land development code, adopted in November 2023, states that “The Neighborhood Plan shall designate Civic Space Place Types dedicated for public use within 660 feet of every lot with a residential use. The civic space must be active with a playground, fountains, benches, tables and/or other public furniture to spur the gathering of people.”
In a statement to the Press, Yantis said the rule applies in general, but there may be exceptions.
“Neighborhoods that do not form a complete Pedestrian Shed, an area with a ¼ mile radius, may not have to allocate the full 10% of their area as Civic Space if other parts of the Pedestrian Shed have already allocated sufficient Civic Space for the Pedestrian Shed,” Yantis said. “Variances may be granted by P&Z and Council when considering approving a new Neighborhood Plan. In general, we would not expect variances to be the norm, but the exception.”
Drummond and Ariola both stated the variance set a bad precedent.
“We desperately need houses, but I’m not willing to give up quality for numbers,” Drummond said. “We need to build it right. We need neighborhoods where people can enjoy living.”
