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.
House Bill 3167 additionally requires the Commission to provide the applicant a written statement that clearly articulates each of the conditions for the conditional approval or reasons for disapproval, including a citation to the law that is the basis for the condition or reason. The Bill applies to certain applications submitted after September 1, 2019.
The City currently requires certain land development applications to comply with various City manuals, standards, and policies in addition to the provisions of the City's Unified Development Code (UDC). Such documents include but are not limited to:
1. UDC Development Manual
2. City Construction Standards and Specification Manual
3. Drainage Criteria Manual
4. Downtown and Old Town Design Guidelines
5. Traffic Calming Standards
6. Utility Improvement and Extension Policy
7. Access Management Policy
8. Municipal Utility District Policy
9. Landscape and Tree Technical Standards
10. Public Improvement District Policy
11. City Addressing and Street Naming Policy
12. Neighborhood Traffic Management Policy
13. International Building Code
14. International Fire Code
Some, but not all, of these manuals, standards, and policies have already been adopted by ordinance. Accordingly, in order to comply with House Bill 3167, this Ordinance would adopt, or re-adopt, the current edition of some of these documents by ordinance. It would also require the current version of the adopted policies to be on file in the City Secretary's Office and available for public inspection.
Upon passage of this Ordinance, Staff will be able to clearly cite to the applicable ordinance and regulatory document underpinning any condition of a conditional approval or reason for denial. Applicants will also be better able to submit applications in conformance with all City ordinances, rules, and regulations, since said requirements will be centrally-located and available for public inspection.
Staff recommends approval of this item.