Cleaning up language and shoring up missing items from former zoning and planning codes are issues 77 amendments to Lubbock's Unified Development Code seek to address.
Here are the top two takeaways from the public hearing the Lubbock City Council hosted Thursday night.
Where did these amendments come from - City staff or private citizens?
One striking issue from the meeting was where these amendments came from. Jordan Wheatley, chair of the city's Planning & Zoning Commission, noted during the meeting that the city's staff did not discuss the amendments with the commission prior to Thursday's meeting.
The city's attorney said that this meeting was only a public hearing and that the amendments would be sent to the commission to discuss in detail at a later meeting.
However, Terry Holeman, a private citizen associated with the West Texas Homebuilder Association, presented the council and commission explanations of some of the amendments pertaining to landscaping he said the association worked with city staff to craft.
Since the meeting was a public hearing, Mayor Mark McBrayer noted at the beginning that private citizens should limit comments to three minutes. Holeman and his associates were able to speak for under an hour and were asked questions from the council.
At no time during this timeframe did the city's planning director speak or answer any questions about the amendments.
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'Oversight' from city's department on missing items raising concerns from citizens
Three citizens opposed some of the amendments, with one being Amendment 23, which relates to the council requiring a supermajority vote to override a recommendation the P&Z commission votes against.
Kristen Sager previously told the A-J that this process was in the former code but was unintentionally left out during the drafting of the first version of the UDC.
A citizen was concerned that the proposed amendment "takes power away from those elected."
Dr. Jennifer Wilson, councilwoman for District 5, raised a question of whether the P&Z commission was consulted about adding the amendment back into the UDC, to which Wheatley replied no.
Another citizen was concerned about the provision protecting the brick roads downtown also being left out from the UDC — and was told by Sager that it was an oversight on her part.
City staff recommended that if the council chooses to consider adding the ordinance back, they could add it back but not in the UDC, but in Chapter 36 of the city charter pertaining to streets at a later date.
What's next?
No vote was taken at this meeting as it was only a public hearing. The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the amendments at its regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 1.
The city council will then consider the amendments on Aug. 13.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Citizens concerned with missing provisions in UDC due to 'oversight' from planning director
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