HomeMy WebLinkAboutMike Luther on Southside infill 2001 Mike Luther
Drawer CA
College Station, TX 77841
January 28,2001
The City of College Station
Jim Callaway, Director of Development Services
Box 9960
College Station, TX 77840
Dear Jim:
I am very grateful you and Harvey Cargill are sincerely trying to help solve
the inappropriate infill problem in the older Historic Areas of College
Station. None of us want to proliferate unworkable retention of structures
which should not, cannot be saved. But several of us spoke to the loopholes
we thought were in the suggested full -dress ordinance rework at solving this.
We, for example, saw the actual wording used simply had no application for the
problem where a given property was the only one on that block face! For
example, should Mrs. Miller's home be, somehow, destroyed, it's the only plat
in that block face! Strictly per Harvey's suggested format, in truth, the
plat for that site is actually composed of three distinctly platted and
delimited 50 foot lots on the Guernsey Street as set up in 1921 for College
Park! In theory, anyone owning it then could build three 5000 square foot
site units, one on each, totally circumventing what none of us intended!
An extrapolation is in order! The property owner next to Mrs. Bell, on Park
Place, told me he envisions building two structures on the corner lot next to
Mrs. Bell! He could buy the Bell property, co- mingling it with his current
place. He then could, as this is written, put in four units, re- orienting all
this so that one faces Welsh on Mrs. Bell's current site, the other faces Park
Place! He does same thing with the corner at Park Place and Fairview!
This is exactly what the City squashed as a proposal once before, if my memory
is correct, with the old Burchard homesite at the corner of Fidelity and
Montclair! That developer wanted to turn the original home 90 degrees, then
build another on the corner complex- property that could be wormed into the
current development standards, technically. Yes he failed, but unless we work
now to prevent this gerrymandering of lot size, face distances, and so on, we
can't solve the problem as it needs to be solved.
Accordingly, I and Dock Burke, after meeting to discuss this per Dennis
Maloney's suggestion, think we could word the ordinance, and, as well the
final part of the permanent ordinance as follows. Per the original wording of
18 -A's exceptions would be reworded as to 18 -A.2 as follows:
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18 -A
... except as follows:
18 -A.2 Plats which do create an additional lot or building plot when
all lots resulting from the filing of such plat provide a
width, measured along the street frontage, which meets or
exceeds the average width, measured along the street frontage,
for all of the lots in the block, and;
a.) Contain at least 8500 square feet of space for each
dwelling unit, in any residential subdivision older
than 30 years as of the date of filing of the proposed
plat, and;
b.) In any designated Historic Area of the City of College
Station, have been submitted with advance notice for
hearing to all owners of property within 200 feet of
the proposed plat, and;
c.) Are not in the Historic Northgate Area further defined below.
Harvey can, perhaps, suggest better construction to most clearly stop future
court fights over the phrasing, but the above should be clear. The notice
requirement is absolutely necessary in these older Historic neighborhoods as
the lot sizes get smaller. For example, what was once not a problem with a
bedroom being only twenty feet from a neighboring driveway that had one car,
is, literally, a nightmare when four to eight cars are in and around it, now a
watering hole all night long. With notice, all this will properly come to
focus early on; be addressable. Without it, the area degenerates into a
police and code enforcement cesspool.
Thank you for your help.
Sincerely • . s.
� �% .//
Mike Luther
cc:
Dock Burke
Dennis Maloney
Historic Preservation Committee
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