The Bellaire City Council on Monday made a historic decision to approve a new Comprehensive Plan, which sets a vision and guidelines to shape the city’s future look and feel.
After debating on familiar topics like the maximum height for buildings and the possibility of apartments in Bellaire, the council unanimously approved the new Comprehensive Plan.
“It’s been a long, long road towards getting it done,” said Councilwoman Peggy Faulk. “So I’m very happy to support approving it tonight.”
The plan includes visions for many types of future development in Bellaire, including attracting businesses, developing quality public transportation options, and allowing higher-density housing like town homes or condos. The plan also suggests guidelines for facilitating redevelopment in two commercial areas to create pedestrian-friendly “urban villages” with local shops and restaurants.
The Comprehensive Plan has been in the works for years. The Bellaire Planning and Zoning Commission developed it based on input from a citizen’s advisory committee and planners from the Kendig Keast Collaborative.
Most recently in late October, members of the Bellaire City Council met in a joint session with the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission to ask questions and hash out possible changes to the plan.
Council members combed through the plan chapter by chapter, and made minor changes highlighting the priority for adequate lighting on pedestrian routes, construction of sidewalks on all city streets, and more.
Two council members proposed amendments that would have tamed down down the plan’s vision for higher-density housing like town homes or apartments, but the amendments failed to gain a majority vote.
However, the chapter about commercial redevelopment was successfully changed to indicate that no stand-alone residential buildings would be allowed in Bellaire’s downtown area.
At Monday’s city council meeting, newly sworn-in Councilwoman Mandy Nathan again proposed that the council strike the word “apartments” from the plan. But her proposal failed to gain a majority vote.
“I cannot support any amendment that would prohibit apartments in a transit-oriented development like we’re talking about in the north end of the city,” said Councilman Pat McLaughlan, referring to the plan’s redevelopment vision for the Research Development and Distribution District.
“It’s taking an option away from the city,” Faulk said.
Another major discussion during Monday’s vote on the plan dealt with the height limit for buildings in the city’s commercial zones. As a general rule, buildings are limited to six stories. But under one circumstance in the city’s code, buildings can be up to 10 stories in the downtown area.
In the Comprehensive Plan’s glossary, a “mid-rise” building was defined as three to seven stories while a “high-rise” was defined as eight to 10 stories. The council voted to remove those definitions from the glossary.
“Let’s let Planning and Zoning be the ones to bring forth a recommendation. What does the city want a mid-rise to be? What do we want a high-rise to be?,” said Mayor Cindy Siegel. “I think if we allow the process to work, take the concept and develop it, it will end up where we want to be.”
Although the Comprehensive Plan includes the vision and guidelines for all of this future development, changes will not materialize unless the city council works to change current rules and regulations to create a favorable atmosphere for the development.
Even if that is done, much of the plan’s success is up to the market to decide.
