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 protecting 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 years, including a City Council-appointed citizen Land Use Advisory Committee, stakeholder interviews, public meetings, and online town halls.

City Council last held a workshop on the draft Land Use Plan on December 5, 2017.  As part of the 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.  The purpose of this workshop will be to confirm next steps prior to proceeding with seeking additional input for LUAC review and after which the City Council public hearing would be rescheduled.

With that said, the history of multi-family has been an ongoing topic of discussion for many years both in the community and from a policy guidance standpoint – and continues to be today regarding the Land Use Plan update.  For reference on this specific topic, please see the summary below:

While the majority of multi-family that exists today was built prior to be annexed into the city limits, in the early 2000's, proposals for master planned communities - such as Imperial, Telfair and Riverstone - included multi-family uses as part of their overall general land plans including number and locations. 

Recognizing that the existing guidance in the Comprehensive Plan applied to the City’s standard R-4 multi-family zoning district, of which no additional undeveloped acreage existed, City Council attempted to provide additional guidance at a policy level regarding the quality and style of multi-family that was desirable in Planned Development zoning districts as these developments started to develop.  In 2010, City Council passed Resolution No. 10-21 (attached) to provide clarity and guidance for determining how multi-family and non-conventional single-family residences should be integrated into the surrounding development.  The Resolution specified twelve important principals when considering projects and directed the Commission to draft guidelines that could amend Chapter 6.   Resolution No. 10-21 informed Planned Development (PD) applications and staff and the Planning & Zoning Commission applied the guidance through the PD process.  As PD applications came forward for Imperial and Telfair developments, the number of units were also further refined through the PD process. 

In July 2015, City Council approved updates to the Development Code including more specific requirements for PD zoning.  The next month, in August 2015, Newland Communities proposed a development plan for Tract 5 which was not widely supported by the community.  In November, City Council approved Resolution No. 15-37 (attached) which directed the Planning & Zoning Commission to consider amendments to the PD zoning section of the Development Code.  The considerations included (1) repealing the recent changes to the Development Code regarding Planned Developments, (2) replacing the previous Planned Development code language, and (3) adding a new regulation capping the number of multi-family units within a PD to 200 units.  The Commission spent several months hearing public input and discussing many aspects of multi-family.  In May 2016, the Planning & Zoning Commission finalized their recommendation on the considerations in Resolution No. 15-37.  The Commission did not recommend changing the updated PD regulations or placing a 200-unit cap on multi-family within a PD.  The Commission felt the updated PD requirements provided a stronger baseline for review of PD applications.  However, the Commission did identify additional design elements that could be considered such as structured parking garages serving multi-family could be wrapped by other uses and that access to units could be from internal closed corridors.  The Commission also acknowledged that the Land Use Plan update was ongoing, and that the process should be completed before considering any changes to the Development Code regulations.  Additionally, the Commission recognized that a citywide target or ratio for multi-family may be appropriate but this guidance should be incorporated at a policy level, such as through the Land Use Plan, rather than as part of the development regulations.

In June 2016, the Land Use Advisory Committee began considering the Commission's recommendations on multi-family as part of the Land Use Plan update. Ultimately, the Land Use Advisory Committee's recommendations included new policy guidance for stronger restrictions on multi-family.  These included an overall citywide cap of 12% of housing stock as multi-family, limitations on certain land use categories where multi-family uses are appropriate, site specific maximum unit caps, specific design guidelines such as multi-family units should be within vertically mixed use buildings and not in stand-alone multi-family buildings, multi-family should be served by structured parking garages, preference for condo-ownership rather than rental, and school impact and multi-modal transportation analyses should be completed to mitigate impacts.

The Planning & Zoning Commission reviewed and provided a recommendation on the draft Land Use Plan.  While overall the Planning & Zoning Commission was supportive of the majority of the draft Land Use Plan, the Commission's recommendation of approval to the City Council included recommended changes to the multi-family guidance in the draft Plan.  The recommended changes included removing the 12% citywide cap on multi-family, removing the formula used to determine site specific caps on multi-family, removing language from the Plan that multi-family should be in vertically mixed-use buildings, and removing language that indicated there was a preference for condo-ownership rather than rental of multi-family units.

Again, the purpose of this workshop will be to confirm next steps prior to proceeding with seeking additional input for LUAC review and after which the City Council public hearing would be rescheduled.  As part of this workshop, staff will outline next steps for the Land Use Plan update with the ultimate goal of working towards City Council approval of the Plan.