The City strives to provide comments on all complete development applications within four weeks of submittal, a metric attained 90% of the time in 2018, and comments on all resubmissions within two weeks of resubmittal, a metric also attained 90% of the time in 2018.
Nevertheless, House Bill 3167, enacted by the Texas Legislature on May 21, 2019 and signed into law by the Governor on June 14, 2019, requires the municipal authority responsible for approving plats (the Planning and Zoning Commission) to approve, approve with conditions, or disapprove a subdivision plan, subdivision construction plan, site plan, land development application, site development plan, preliminary plat, general plan, final plat, or replat within 30 days of the date the application is filed. The Bill also requires the Commission to take final actions on any resubmissions within 15 days. House Bill 3167 applies to applications filed after September 1, 2019.
Currently, site development plans, subdivision construction plans, and other land development applications that are not plats only require administrative approval under the City’s Unified Development Code. House Bill 3167’s requirement that the Commission must approve, conditionally approve, or deny all plats, plans, and other land development applications would have required the Commission to have acted upon over 500 additional applications in 2018.
In particular, as the UDC is currently constructed, the new law will require the Commission to take final action on the following applications within 30 days of their filings:
1. Subdivision Plats
2. Side Development Plans
3. Stormwater Permits
4. Driveway Access Permits
5. Subdivision Variances
6. Heritage Tree Removal Permits
7. Heritage Tree Pruning Permits
8. Construction Plans approvals
9. Traffic Impact Analysis approvals
In order to bring these applications to the Commission for final action within 30 days of the date the application is filed, as well as all resubmissions to the Commission within 15 days of the date the response is filed, the City will be required to make various changes to its procedures for the review and approval of certain development applications. Potential changes include:
1. Limiting the days on which certain applications can be filed
2. Requiring certain applications to be approved as prerequisites for other applications
3. Increased application fees, to cover the cost of additional staff (or third-party) reviewers
4. Possibly requiring Council approval in addition to Commission approval
This Ordinance is an omnibus ordinance that authorizes Staff to make the procedural changes necessary to comply with House Bill 3167. It supersedes any conflicting provisions of the UDC as currently written. Staff intends to bring accompanying UDC text amendments to the Commission and Council in the coming months to resolve any such conflicts and/or amend the requirements of the aforementioned permits to allow for Staff, rather than Commission, approval.
This Ordinance also requires Staff to bring resolutions back to Council updating the application fee schedule and amending the Commission bylaws in accordance with this Ordinance. The Ordinance also directs Staff to amend the UDC Development Manual as necessary to comply with this Ordinance and House Bill 3167.
Staff recommends approval of this item.