City Council adopted an update to the City’s Land Use Plan (Plan) on August 7, 2018 (Ordinance No. 2119). The Land Use Plan is Chapter 6 of the City’s Comprehensive Plan and one of eight official master plans. The Plan is intended to guide the development and redevelopment of Sugar Land into the future.  
 
The Land Use Plan outlines policy direction and guidance for making land use decisions and reaching the City’s long-term vision. An essential element of the long-term vision is the creation of Regional Activity Centers and Neighborhood Activity Centers, which will be mixed-use areas that are regional and neighborhood hubs of activity (Land Use Plan Goal 2). The Plan supports the inclusion of residential in Activity Centers and recognizes the importance of providing a range of housing types to meet the needs of a wide range of people of various ages and stages of life (Land Use Plan Goal 3). Goal 8 encourages balanced growth through development and redevelopment, connecting the City’s land use decisions with its long-term financial health. In a new focus for the City, Goal 9 urges the City to foster redevelopment, including supporting rehabilitation and redevelopment to prevent declining retail centers, and supporting infill development where opportunities still remain. 
 
One of the High Priority Action Items in the Land Use Plan directs the City to evaluate the best way to implement Activity Centers, including consideration of creating new zoning district(s) or utilizing the Planned Development (PD) District. As a result, in early 2021, the City initiated a project to identify appropriate methods for promoting mixed-use development and redevelopment in the Activity Centers through zoning and economic incentives.  
 
This workshop will be a joint workshop with the City Council and the Planning & Zoning Commission. The purpose of this workshop is to review and discuss recommendations for implementing Activity Centers.  Staff presented the recommendations to the City Council Economic Development Committee on September 28. During the workshop, staff will seek concurrence with proceeding with implementing the recommendations.  

 

Introduction to Regional Activity Centers and Neighborhood Activity Centers  

The Land Use Plan establishes fifteen land use categories, ranging from Suburban Neighborhood to Light Industrial, and includes multiple mixed use categories, such as Regional Activity Centers (RACs) and Neighborhood Activity Centers (NACs) (see Exhibit A). Regional Activity Centers “are envisioned to be the commercial and civic hubs of the City that attract people from around the City and across the region to work, shop, eat, and attend events. Each should contain a mix of uses such as offices, retail, residential and civic institutions, integrated together in a compact, walkable area and have its own unique character.” Neighborhood Activity Centers are envisioned to be “small commercial centers that act as a “main street” for nearby neighborhoods.” Additionally, NACs “will be mixed use and walkable and they will be small in scale and designed to serve the surrounding neighborhoods.” The Plan further details the vision for these centers in the Regional Activity Center and Neighborhood Activity Center category descriptions (Exhibit B) as well as in Goals 2, 3, 4, and 7 (Exhibit C).  
 

Most of the areas designated as RACs and NACs are largely developed and will require infill or redevelopment to become the mixed use areas the Plan envisions. Currently, the Planned Development (PD) district is the available zoning mechanism to create mixed use areas. However, there is potential for utilizing a different approach in the long-term.  

 

Current Zoning Process - RAC & NAC Implementation  

The PD process is intended to permit flexibility in development proposals and encourage new or innovative concepts in land development that are not permitted by other zoning districts. Chapter 2, Article 2 of the Development Code establishes two different types of Planned Development Districts: Suburban and Urban Final Development Plan. The two different types of PD Districts were intended to create certainty around what the City could expect would be developed within a PD district, and there was a realization that simply having one type of PD District was not going to fully achieve that goal. Another objective was to define what constituted a superior development and the best way to achieve that was to distinguish between two types of Planned Development districts. These requirements ensure against the misuse of that increased flexibility and provide certainty around the types of development proposals the City receives.   

 

Project Overview and Work to Date 

In order to accomplish the Activity Centers implementation project, staff developed a two-phased approach. The first phase consists of researching best practices for zoning and other tools to implement mixed use through redevelopment, and developing a set of recommended next steps based on that research. Phase II of the project will focus on implementing the recommendations.  

 

To conduct Phase I, the City contracted with Clarion Associates, a firm with nationwide experience in writing, updating, and researching development codes with an emphasis on redevelopment. Clarion has evaluated existing Sugar Land PDs and the Development Code, conducted stakeholder interviews, and conducted peer city benchmarking to see how other cities implement mixed use through redevelopment.  

 

Earlier this year, the project team conducted interviews with external stakeholders, including property owners in several of the Activity Centers, as well as a few professionals that have been involved in the PD process over the last several years. Additionally, the project team held interviews with key staff members, the City Council Economic Development Committee, and the Planning and Zoning Commission. Some of the interviews were more focused on processes in the past, while others were focused on potential barriers to redevelopment.  
 
The project team also studied six case-study cities that have been successfully pursuing mixed-use redevelopment over the past decade: Plano, Lewisville and Fort Worth, Texas; Henderson, Nevada; Cary, North Carolina; and Arlington County, VA. This study included both an evaluation of the codified regulations and economic incentives, as well as interviews with planning and/or economic development staff from several of these communities to hear first-hand about lessons learned that could apply in Sugar Land.  

 

 

Next Steps

Upon receiving concurrence on the consultant recommendations, staff will initiate Phase 2 of the project. In Phase 2 staff will work with Clarion to draft regulations for the new mixed use zoning districts.