Zoning for a new subdivision bordering Cameron Park that spurred the local neighborhood association into action earlier this summer will be up for Waco City Council’s consideration again Tuesday.
The development would bring 151 new homes with varying styles and lot sizes to a 36-acre site between the Waco Center for Youth and Cameron Park in North Waco. Members of the Cameron Park Neighborhood Association voiced worries that the development would bring unsustainable traffic volumes to their neighborhoods and environmental damage to the park.
Last month, developer Turner Behringer requested the council rezone the property to a Planned Unit Development, which allows for more flexibility than regular residential zoning categories.
After neighborhood association members voiced their concerns again during a public hearing on the item June 21, the council voted to hold off on a vote and to continue the public hearing during its July 19 meeting.
People are also reading…
After the postponement, Turner Behringer withdrew the PUD request.
Waco City Manager Bradley Ford said that means after the hearing Tuesday, the city council can vote to either approve Turner Behringer’s request to withdraw the PUD application, deny that request and rezone the property to a PUD, or extend the public hearing to a later date.
Some Cameron Park Neighborhood Association members may attend and speak during Tuesday’s meeting, said Kristin Dreyer, volunteer spokesperson for the neighborhood association.
“Our original hope is that city council looks at any proposals with the park top of mind,” Dreyer said.
The property is currently zoned for low- and moderate-density residential development as well as zero-lot-line homes, according to Waco’s subdivision ordinance, all of which are included in Turner Behringer’s initial application.
Ford said rezoning to a PUD gives a developer more creative freedom. If the zoning remains the same, the development could lose some of its more unusual features, like housing units developed around shared courtyards.
“That will go away in the event it develops under … traditional zoning,” Ford said. “And we’ll have much less influence on the matter.”
Dreyer said the developers have indicated that without the PUD they could fit more houses onto the property, but she wonders if that is the case.
“It would be interesting to see what somebody might come up with,” she said.
The limits of the current zoning would allow denser development than the PUD would allow, city Planning Director Clint Peters said during the June 19 council meeting.
Anyone who wishes to speak during the public hearing can register at https://bit.ly/3yLWeR7 or by emailing CSO@wacotx.gov. The public hearing is on the agenda for the council’s business session, which is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Bosque Theater at the Waco Convention Center, 100 Washington Ave.
