On Tuesday, December 13th at 3:00 PM the Georgetown City Council will hold a workshop to examine progress made by the Lone Star Rail District.
The District aims to connect San Antonio to Georgetown, with points in between and points beyond. Passenger rail seems to be on everybody’s wish-list in Georgetown, and it’s an obvious necessity for a sustainable future with lighter energy consumption.
But it’s also in some jeopardy. The District came under a vicious attack from three members of the council during the fierce late-night budget deliberations in the August/September meetings, and five years of work and investment were almost destroyed by the stroke of a pen. So it’s important to show support and learn more about this long-range, hugely successful to-date project.
Please show up to show support and interest, and to get the full story on the Lone Star Rail District on Tuesday. The workshop is open to the public and will be held at Council Chambers, on the northeast corner of the Square at 7th & Main. We will be able to ask the District officers questions after the workshop is over, when the City Council leaves the dais and goes into Executive Session.
Take a look through the presentation below and get your questions ready.
Current city codes prohibit depositing grass clippings back onto our lawns, or adding any organic material. Mulching lawnmowers cutting the grass without a catcher, landscapers applying mulch, and gardeners applying compost are all breaking the law and could be subject to a $2,000 fine, EVERY DAY until the material is removed and taken to the landfill.
If you want to help change this join us at Council Council Chambers tomorrow evening, Tuesday, June 14th, at 6 pm. That’s on the corner of Seventh and Main Streets.
The mulching and composting prohibitons come from our city’s current Code of Ordinances, Sections 13.12.030 and 13.12.060. It’s a careless piece of legal drafting that just came to light because it’s about to be amended – but NOT in order to make things better.
Tomorrow’s city council meeting will conduct the second reading of proposed amendments to these sections in order to clamp down on people leaving trash at the curbside for too long, dumping waste on empty lots, and such. You may have read about this in the weekend Sun.
But although citizen input has been presented to city staff about this prohibition on mulching and composting, it’s been ignored. So now it falls to Council to make this right.
This is not a storm in a teacup, it’s a very badly written law that is about to get worse. The proposed amendments will place absentee owners in some jeopardy from vandalism beyond their control. Penalties and liabilities are being tightened. Organic refuse can be subject to a fine of $2,000 per day. Rocks and minerals after 7 days can be deemed organic refuse.
You get the drift? The law stinks – this law should be fined $2,000 per day, not us.
And it will only take a few paragraphs of common sense to sweeten this law and make it useful to the community. Along with a few other standard provisos, we simply need to exclude intential soil enriching and amending from the category of trash dumping.
Ironically, tomorrow evening marks councilwoman Rachael Jonrowe’s introduction of a conversation about urban farming. She wants to make sure there are no roadblocks in the way of homeowners trying to garden organically, and trying to keep their soil nutrients in their soil, instead of being sent to the landfill.
On Tuesday , January 25th, the City Council will review proposed changes to the UDC that currently control how people work out of their homes. There are two main schools of thought – regulate or don’t regulate.
There are also two different geographic views: regard the Old Town Overlay District as a distinct area to be treated separately, OR treat it just like the rest of the town.
After several months’ worth of task-force discussion these two sides remain opposed. Council must decide, and if you care you should attend. Speak if possible, and email all Council members.
Note that if you address Council either in person or by email on this matter – if you favor the Old Town Overlay District being treated separately and being granted regulations to protect neighborhoods, refer to the option you’re supporting as “Section 5.03.020.F – Option 4.”
Home Based Businesses
The current ordinance relating to home-based occupations forbids “on-site retail sales or services.” This essentially prohibits visits from clients and customers.
The proposed amendment will liberalize the existing UDC and allow customer visits to home-based businesses.
Lines are largely drawn between two main camps – those who wish to allow customer visits with very little or no regulation, and those who are willing to allow customer visits with appropriate safeguards and regulations crafted into the law.
The proposed changes are complicated, with alternatives available at each sub-section.
But in general there are two main options.
One is to apply the proposed amendment across the whole city INCLUDING Old Town – this is the currently recommended option.
The other is to apply the proposed amendment to the rest of the city and a special set of regulations to the Old Town Overlay District.
The Planning & Zoning Commission in its review of the proposals DECLINED to treat the Old Town Overlay District as a distinct area with unique requirements. So if you think it can be taken for granted with our city boards and commissions that Old Town is worthy of unique consideration, think again, and be warned.
Here are some reasons why Old Town is different from the rest of the city.
Old Town has a very diverse mix of housing, from very small modest homes to large Victorian ones, and includes a lot of rental property.
Old Town has 100-year old utility lines.
Old Town has narrow streets – in some areas when cars are parked both sides fire trucks cannot get down them.
Old Town has no homeowners association, nor deed restrictions such as many of the city’s more modern communities enjoy. Old Town is completely dependent on the zoning ordinances to protect its neighborhoods.
The Old Town Overlay District Option
Of the two main sets of options being brought to Council, the regulations proposed for the Old Town Overlay District sets limits on the area being used for the business, the number of customer/client visits per day, hours of operation, parking, the number of customers in the home at one time, and the proximity to other home-based businesses, and forbids signage.
The Old Town Overlay District option prohibits retail sales and excludes certain types of business known to generate high traffic or noise. It requires businesses to obtain a permit in order to receive customer visits to the home, and the permit process would notify neighbors within 200 feet of a public hearing at the Planning and Zoning Commission. You should refer to this option formally as “Section 5.03.020.F – Option 4.”
The Whole-Town Option
The recommended option allows signage, and places no limits on the area being used for the business nor the the number of visits received in a day. Parking is restricted only to the extent of the property line, and retail sales and services are unlimited except by a list of prohibited business types. No permits or notifications are required.
This option is proposed for all of Georgetown INCLUDING the Old Town Overlay District. The Old Town Overlay District is a defined historical area of Old Town, and includes most but not all of Old Town. Adoption of the Old Town Overlay District option would offer its safeguards to the Overlay District at least.
The whole-town option has been recommended by staff, and is now recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission. So the idea that Old Town is different has so far NOT been supported.
Is Old Town different? The answer seems to be up to us.
Also coming before Council on Tuesday, January 25th is an amendment designed to establish design guidelines and HARC involvement with regard to residential changes in the Old Town Overlay District.
Old Town Overlay District Limitations on Residential Additions and Infill.
Coming for its first hearing with City Council on Tuesday, January 25th is a welcome amendment to the UDC that finally gives HARC the discretion to forbid the demolition of a historic property.
Certificate of Design Compliance for Demolitions.
Currently any historic structure may be moved or demolished 175 days after the Historic and Architectural Review Commission has denied approval for this to happen. Our current law provides for a “cooling off” period only. HARC can disapprove a petition to move or demolish a historic building but the applicant can return after 175 days with the same request, and HARC is forced then to approve it.
Here in Georgetown we have been enormously lucky to receive the benefit of top journalism coming from The Austin Bulldog. Thanks to publisher and editor Ken Martin, we have gained access to a lot of back-room maneuvers that our elected representatives would prefer to keep secret from us.
Some people may still be thinking that the only media fit to carry the news are newsprint and its new-fangled rival, the television screen. We know better at Old Towners of course – we know the Web carries the best journalism, and the best journalists publish on the Web because their corporate bosses aren’t supportive of journalism anymore (if they ever were).
So it’s an exciting time actually, not at all a dispiriting one, to see the fragmentation of the old media as publishers scurry around looking for ways to sell what’s left of their ethics for what’s left of the old-media advertising revenues.
Enough of my opinions. Ken Martin has plenty of his own, especially about the new media, and the old-school journalism, good as it ever was.
Several weeks ago Ken wrote a letter to Ben Trollinger, editor of the Williamson County Sun. It was never published, perhaps because it’s a “think piece,” perhaps because it cuts too close to the bone for the Sun. Who can say, but here it is for you to read. It’s been updated by several more of Ken’s scoops since this – but you know all about that because you subscribe to his Alert List, right? more…
We make no secret that we eagerly await the Williamson County Sun’s take on all this on Saturday, but credit where credit is due – the people with blogs and websites have scooped the newsprint people yet again. If only Mr. Sokolow would understand that being a blog doesn’t make it wrong if you’re telling the truth; and being a lawyer doesn’t make you right if you’re not.
City Codes Prohibit Mulching and Composting
