SECOND CONSIDERATION:  Consideration of and action on CITY OF SUGAR LAND ORDINANCE NO. 2119: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SUGAR LAND, TEXAS, AMENDING CHAPTER 6 OF THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN OF THE CITY OF SUGAR LAND BY ADOPTING AN UPDATE TO CITY'S LAND USE PLAN.

The purpose of this agenda item is to consider on second reading Ordinance No. 2119, an update to the City’s Land Use Plan. The Land Use Plan is the single most important document that will guide how the City positively and proactively responds to long-term market shifts and demographic trends – all with the goal of preserving our single-family residential neighborhoods and ensuring Sugar Land continues to be a premier place to live, work, shop and play in the region. This Plan is based on listening to community input over the last four-plus years, including a Council-appointed citizen Land Use Advisory Committee (LUAC), stakeholder interviews, public meetings, and online town halls.

City Council Public Hearing

City Council held a public hearing on June 26, 2018 where staff and LUAC co-chairs Debby Coffman and Bob Ring presented the draft Plan. In preparation for the public hearing, an online town hall was posted on the City's website from June 6 - 21. There were three responses to the online town hall, none of which expressed concern about the plan. The following summarized the feedback received:

• Asked for examples of text changes clarifying intent as guidance
• Requested credible reference for the 88% to 12% proportion of SF to MF recommendation
• Requested long-term plan for property adjacent to Smart Financial Centre
• Request for second elementary school in Riverstone

During the public hearing on June 26, six members of the public spoke, all in support of the Plan as drafted. City Council also expressed general support for the Land Use Plan update as written and for bringing forward a first reading of the ordinance on July 24. City Council asked questions about the Plan's recommendations and some concern related to the multi-family recommendations was expressed.

Specifically, City Council asked some questions related to the recommendation for multi-family in the University Boulevard Regional Activity Center. To clarify, the draft Land Use Plan recognizes that multi-family residential is an appropriate use in the City, and specifically in Regional Activity Centers (RACs). The Plan establishes a recommended number of multi-family units for each RAC based on developable acreage in the entire RAC and by applying a formula of three dwelling units per developable acre. For the University Boulevard RAC, the Plan supports the inclusion of 218 multi-family residential units in the center  based on a carefully-identified amount of acres in the overall center by the LUAC. Newland - owner of approximately 40 acres within the RAC, however, has not changed its commitment (made in a letter dated October 2015) that they will not include multi-family residential in the PD zoning application for their property. The Land Use Plan does not provide specific guidance on which tract or property the use should be located.

Staff recommends approving Ordinance No. 2119 on second reading.

PREVIOUS BACKGROUND

Update Overview
The Land Use Plan is one of the City’s eight (8) master plans and was last fully updated in 2004 (the Future Land Use Map alone was updated in 2012). The Land Use Plan documents the land use policies that guide development within the City and extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ). The Land Use Plan is published as Chapter 6 of the City’s Comprehensive Plan, of which Chapters 1 through 5 were updated and adopted by City Council in July 2012. The project to update the Land Use Plan, which began in 2013, will complete the Comprehensive Plan update and incorporate the City’s vision, goals, and other policy guidance into the Land Use Plan.

A primary focus of the Land Use Plan update is developing a vision, a set of goals and policies for land use and development based on the broader vision and goals established in the Comprehensive Plan. Establishing and documenting vision, goals, and policies will guide future City efforts and help the City respond to development proposals. Another focus of the update was to identify and prioritize recommended actions the City can undertake to accomplish the land use vision and goals.

Public Engagement
Community engagement has been a major component of the Land Use Plan update to ensure policy guidance is consistent with community preferences. Over the more than four years spanning the update process, there have been many different opportunities for public input including gathering initial community input via the City’s Online Town Hall tool and stakeholder interviews with a variety of community members; the Land Use Forum, which was a six-part speaker and community roundtable series highlighting a variety of land-use related topics in which nearly 200 people attended and participated; and two public meetings and subsequent Online Town Halls in December 2014 and September 2015 to collect feedback on the draft land use vision and goal on the draft policies and actions.

One of the most significant means of gathering community input for the update was through the citizen advisory committee. At the beginning of the process, City Council appointed residents from the city and ETJ to form the Land Use Advisory Committee (LUAC). The committee held almost forty working meetings throughout the process to draft the Land Use Plan update. LUAC unanimously endorsed the draft Land Use Plan prior to sharing it with the public online on September 29, 2017, and at an open house on October 11, 2017. Approximately forty Sugar Land and ETJ residents attended the open house and had the opportunity to learn about the Plan’s recommendations and ask questions of LUAC and staff.

Key Highlights of the Plan Update
The update to the Land Use Plan provides in-depth recommendations that will guide land use decisions to achieve the Plan’s 20 to 25-year vision. The Plan covers a broad range of land-use related topics over 140 pages and is divided into six main sections:

              Section 1: Executive Summary
              Section 2: What is the Land Use Plan?
              Section 3: Setting the Stage for the Land Use Plan Update
              Section 4: Process for the Plan Update
              Section 5: The 20 to 25 Year Land Use Vision for Sugar Land

• Land Use Vision, Goals, and Policies
• Areas of Change
• Future Land Use Map
• Land Use Categories
• Community Character & Standards (CUP Guidance)

              Section 6: Roadmap to Get There [Action items]
              Appendix

The following are some key highlights of the Plan:

• The updated Land Use Plan establishes a vision for land use and development, 10 goals, 36 policies and 50 recommended action items.
• This Plan prioritizes the preservation of single-family neighborhoods in Sugar Land and encourages increased coordination with the school districts.
• The Land Use Plan provides guidance for stronger restrictions on multi-family development, including a definitive statement that no new stand-alone, single-use, multi-family residential development within the City should be approved.
• The success of Sugar Land Town Square is a model for future new walkable mixed-use Regional and Neighborhood Activity Centers.
• Redevelopment is critical to maintaining the long-term fiscal health of the City but must always be balanced and considerate of the impact on any adjacent single-family neighborhoods.
• Maintaining amenities such as retail, restaurants, hotels, cultural institutions, parks, entertainment and recreational destinations are important in attracting residents, tourists and visitors. The Plan encourages these amenities to be located in appropriate locations respectful of adjacent single-family neighborhoods.
• Continued commercial development is vitally important to the City from both an economic perspective as well as the civic services and amenities it provides to residents and visitors.
• The Plan recognizes the benefit of utilizing Land Use strategies to increase overall mobility and reduce traffic congestion.

Planning and Zoning Commission Review - 2017
The Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing and discussion on October 26, 2017. Prior to the meeting, the draft Land Use Plan update was placed on the City’s website on September 29 and an Online Town Hall opened on October 2, where residents were able to read the Plan and provide feedback. The Online Town Hall closed on October 23, and the comments from nine City and ETJ residents were provided to the Commission on the evening of the public hearing on October 26. The comments were both in support of the Plan’s policies and comments expressing concern about the draft Plan. One resident spoke during the public hearing and shared concerns with the limitations on multi-family residential development. Following the public hearing, the Commission discussed the draft Plan update and provided feedback to staff. The Commission supported the majority of the recommendations in the Plan. However, through discussion there was an emerging consensus that the majority of the Commission did not support the draft Plan’s guidelines for multi-family caps. Specifically, several Commissioners expressed the desire to either eliminate the recommended 12% citywide cap, or to increase it to 20%. Commissioners also indicated a preference to remove the formula for the site-specific caps identified for Regional and Neighborhood Activity Centers and Medium Density Mixed-Use areas.

The Planning and Zoning Commission held their consideration and action on the Land Use Plan update on November 14. The Commission voted 6-3 on a recommendation of approval of the Land Use Plan update to the Mayor and City Council with the following recommendation for changes to the Plan:

• Remove the citywide cap on multi-family;
• Remove the formula to determine site specific caps on multi-family;
• Remove language that multi-family should only be in vertically mixed-use buildings; and
• Remove language indicating a preference for condo ownership in multi-family.
  

Previous City Council Review
City Council held a workshop on November 21, 2017 where staff presented the draft Plan as unanimously endorsed by the LUAC in August 2017. City Council provided feedback and direction to postpone the planned public hearing on the Land Use Plan to after the new year to ensure the greatest opportunity for public participation. Additionally, the City Council decided to hold another workshop on December 5. As part of the December workshop, City Council had the opportunity to ask questions of staff and the Land Use Advisory Committee about the Plan's recommendations and provide feedback and direction on next steps for the Plan. The City Council had a wide variety of questions and input on next steps.

Based on City Council's feedback and input on next steps at the December 5 workshop, staff presented a follow up workshop on January 23, 2018 to confirm an action plan for moving forward with the Update. As part of the next steps, City Council asked the Land Use Advisory Committee (LUAC) to reconvene to review the multi-family recommendations in the draft Plan. As part of the process, City Council asked that LUAC consider feedback from the local business/major employer community on the topic of multi-family, seek input on the plan’s recommendations from a development community representative and involve the Planning & Zoning Commission in the discussion. After considering all of the input, LUAC should bring a recommendation back to City Council. However, the City Council expressed that, though they have directed the Land Use Advisory Committee to have some additional discussion, it does not mean they expect the LUAC to ultimately change its recommendation.

Additional LUAC Work - 2018
Following City Council direction, LUAC met four additional times - twice where Planning & Zoning Commission was invited to attend and twice as LUAC members only to have discussion and consider their final recommendation. At the first meeting on May 2, staff reviewed a comprehensive report regarding multi-family including resident feedback since the start of the project, updated multi-family data, and responses from a survey sent to the local business/major employer community. A development expert also attended the meeting and was available to answer questions from LUAC and the P&Z Commission.

Some highlights of the first meeting include:

• Mr. Shon Link, mixed-use developer and Sugar Land resident, shared his thoughts on multi-family development and the guidance outlined in the draft Land Use Plan. His comments included that:
  • The City is on the right path by being proactive in defining the type of development and redevelopment that is appropriate in the City.
  • Clear expectations are helpful to the development community, but it can limit creative developers.
  • Typically, a minimum of 200-240 units is needed to make a multi-family project economical, but there are creative ways to build projects with smaller numbers.
• Through a survey of the City’s major employers, a majority of respondents indicated that they believe the City has the right amount of multi-family, that the availability of it has not impacted their ability to recruit new employees (nor do they anticipate it impacting retention and recruitment in the future).

At the second meeting with LUAC and Planning & Zoning Commission on May 7, the two groups discussed the Plan’s recommendations. During this meeting LUAC further explained the draft Plan to the P&Z, and the Commission further explained their recommendations.

LUAC held a meeting on May 9, to finalize their recommendation. After extensive discussion, LUAC came to the conclusion that the multi-family recommendations they had made in the Plan were appropriate. However, they supported clarifying some language in order to reduce the opportunity for their intent to be misinterpreted and lead to unintended consequences. As such, LUAC recommended the following:

• Maintain the proportion of single-family to multi-family (88 percent to 12 percent, respectively), clarifying the ratio is the community’s vision today and in the foreseeable future.
• Maintain three multi-family units per developable acre for Neighborhood and Regional Activity Centers and clarify this general guidance is intended to ensure dispersal throughout the city and to avoid congestion.
• Maintain the preference for multi-family to be located in vertically mixed-use settings – clarifying the importance of this in activating pedestrian areas in mixed-use centers. This can be achieved through first-floor fitness centers and leasing offices or front porches and stoops along pedestrian areas. LUAC also agreed that its goals could be achieved without vertical integration if a single application integrates mixed uses within a walkable pedestrian-friendly development and is phased so that multi-family is developed after other uses.
• Maintain the preference for condo ownership over apartment rental, emphasizing the preservation of single-family neighborhoods and the Comprehensive Plan recognition that a high-percentage of owner-occupied homes supports great neighborhoods.
• Additionally, LUAC also recommended minor modifications to further clarify that the intent of the Plan is to provide guidance – versus regulations. They also recommended additions to provide guidance for and encouraging future public input and review by both the Planning & Zoning Commission and City Council if an ex ceptional development proposal is brought forward, which is in accordance with the spirit of the Plan but may deviate from the specific guidance established in the Plan.

LUAC met one last time on May 23 to finalize their recommendation and the text revisions to the draft Land Use Plan.