PROPOSED RESTRICTED OCCUPANCY OVERLAY (ROO)
Upcoming Meetings:
Thursday, April 15 at 6 p.m. - Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting
Monday, April 19 at 4 p.m. - Special City Council Meeting
Both meetings will be held virtually on Zoom. The meeting links and agendas will be available on the City
Calendar closer to the meeting dates. To sign up to speak at the meetings, please see the
Planning & Zoning Commission speaker protocol and the
City Council speaker protocol instructions.
The draft ROO ordinance language and process handbook are now available. The majority of the ROO ordinance specifications and the legacy clause are located in UDO Section 5.11.
UDO Section 1.10 - Transitional Provisions Redline
UDO Section 3.3 - Zoning Map Amendment (Rezoning) Redline
UDO Section 4.1 - Establishment of Districts Redline
UDO Section 5.11 - Single Family Overlay Districts Redline
ROO Policy Handbook
Stay updated by subscribing for the Restricted Occupancy Overlay
email list. Be sure to add
aschramm@cstx.gov to the safe senders list.
BACKGROUND
The College Station City Council asked staff to draft an ordinance and application handbook that would allow neighborhoods the option to restrict occupancy to no more than two unrelated persons. They requested a draft ordinance with a process that mirrored the
Neighborhood Conservation Overlay (NCO), and used the City of Bryan’s R-NC district as a base. The Restricted Occupancy Overlay (ROO) ordinance and rezoning application handbook were drafted and presented for feedback to Council in June 2020.
The purpose of the June meeting was to receive direction on whether or not to proceed with further research and potential adoption of an ordinance at a later date. At the June meeting, City Council decided that they were generally in favor of continuing to pursue research on the ROO, but wanted substantial public input before making any further decisions.
June 18 Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting (ROO discussion starts at 0:05:52)
June 25 City Council Meeting (ROO discussion starts at 0:02:40)
Aug. 3 Neighborhood Seminar Supper
Through discussions during the public input phase of the Restricted Occupancy Overlay (ROO) ordinance development, also known as "no more than two unrelated ordinance," city staff learned that there are substantial concerns regarding the city’s current definition of “related” and how it affects the determination of a “family.”
We paused the development of the proposed ROO to allow staff and the Council an opportunity to consider alternative definitions of “related” and “family,” and adopted the new definitions in December 2020. Public input began again in February 2021 with the new definitions in place.
City staff hosted a series of virtual, public input meetings and an online poll throughout February 2021. The meetings contained identical content but were tailored to specific audiences. This multi-prong public input approach allowed for meaningful discussions among each group and for City staff to adequately convey the content and tailor the language to each audiences’ familiarity with development terms and knowledge of zoning and City processes.
Recordings of the meetings are below:
Feb. 8 Meeting (real estate and development community)
Passcode: 5v1i+51@
Feb. 22 Meeting (students)
Passcode: yC.xA@6+
Feb. 23 Meeting (neighborhood organizations and associations)
Passcode: @T#jUb5P
The input collected from the meetings and the poll was consolidated and presented during workshop sessions of the Planning & Zoning Commission on March 4, 2021 and City Council on March 11, 2021. Recordings of the meetings are below:
March 4 Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting
March 11 City Council Meeting (ROO discussion starts at 0:43:00)
At their workshop, a majority of City Councilmembers provided direction to proceed with developing the draft ROO ordinance. A majority of the Council preferred “50% plus one” as the required percentage of property owners needed to sign the petition in support of the ROO. The petition would be required when submitting a ROO rezoning application. Council also gave direction to draft a legacy clause (also known as “grandfathering”) that would permit existing occupancy levels to continue in a subdivision that successfully gets a ROO and would set parameters for what causes those properties to need to come into compliance with the ROO occupancy restrictions. City staff are currently working through the details of how the legacy clause will be written.
The City Council directed staff to bring the draft ordinance back as a regular agenda item at a special City Council meeting. The City Council could potentially take action on the proposed ROO ordinance at that meeting. That special City Council meeting will be held at
4 p.m. on Monday, April 19. Before the draft ordinance goes before the City Council, the Planning & Zoning Commission will also consider the proposed ROO ordinance as a regular agenda item and potentially take action. The Planning & Zoning Commission meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 15. (Note: for ordinance amendments the Planning & Zoning Commission serves as a recommending body and City Council has the final decision).