By Matthew Bartosh
Contributing Writer

The Boerne City Council delayed its vote to rezone 69 acres of land at 20 Old San Antonio Road from residential to commercial on July 22, tabling the hot-button issue for at least 30 days.

The request to table the vote came from the property owner’s representative, Pamela Hodges, who lobbied for the delay because of a city recommendation that did not reach her until the day before the vote was scheduled.

“There was not sufficient time to properly review it,” Hodges said. “So what we are asking for is time to review that late arrival.”

Upon the council unanimously granting the request, Mayor Dan Heckler urged Hodges to continue to build and incorporate community relationships into a development agreement so that “the citizens of the neighborhoods and those other affected areas be allowed to participate and submit their suggestions for any kind of resolution to this process.”

Councilman Bob Manning agreed that the additional time would be best spent in “good faith discussion” with neighborhood residents.

“I’m a firm believer in more, rather than less, community discussion,” he said.

Many of the residents in attendance disagreed with the tabling and pressed the council to follow the recommendation of the Planning and Zoning Commission, which previously voted 4-3 against the rezoning.

Former City Councilman John Moring praised the city for its hard work in attempting to address residents’ concerns, but he maintained that too many questions remain unresolved.

Moring said: “Unfortunately, on behalf of the 30 to 40 families in that neighborhood who will be directly affected by this, I ask that you not table it and take action tonight and deny the zoning request—not because we don’t want development down there, but because there are way too many questions at this time to make a rational decision about how to handle what’s going to happen down there.”

Paula Hayward, a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission who voted ‘no’ to the rezoning, suggested that the city perform additional economic studies to determine the true benefits of rezoning the property.

“We asked for a drainage study, we asked for a traffic study, we asked for an environmental study. I propose that it is time for us to ask for an economic study that will prove to us that bringing something like this in won’t actually cost us more in the long run,” she said.

She used her business, Bear Moon Bakery, as an example of the type Boerne establishment with strong community ties that might be hurt by the infusion of big retailers.

“Today I stand before you advocating for myself and my peers of what you call mom-and-pop style business in this community,” she said. “Please, please think hard before you make this decision.”

City Planning Director Chris Turk agreed that an economic study warranted additional attention, but he pointed out that much of the talk of big retailers might be just that, talk.

“A whole lot of that is going to be smaller developments,” he said. “There may not be a large box there at all.”

Turk also addressed the pre-existing flooding problem. It is a problem, he said, adding, “But, if anything, this property will help us alleviate the problem by providing an easement to get water from Bandera over to Frey Street.”