Business owners, council members question ordinance’s wording
Commercial property owners on several major streets received a temporary reprieve from a new, vague façade and landscaping law after the Snyder City Council was unable to reach an agreement on its scope or purpose and asked the Planning and Zoning Commission to rework it and send a recommendation to the council for a final vote on Sept. 11.
The ordinance was initially approved at a previous city council meeting and would require all new buildings, and possibly some existing buildings, on Business U.S. Hwy. 180, (25th Street and Coliseum Drive), Business U.S. Hwy. 84, Hwy. 350 (College Ave.) and FM 1605, (37th Street between College Ave. and U.S. Hwy. 180) to meet new façade and landscaping regulations.
Council member Luann Burleson asked if the city staff had recommended the ordinance.
“I don’t think so,” Mayor Tony Wofford answered. “This is something councilman (Steve) Rich has been working on for a while.”
Richard Reed, whose family owns Southern Electric on College Ave., said the ordinance was inconsistent in which new and existing businesses would be impacted. He also said some of the landscaping requirements would be impossible at his and other business locations due to the proximity of the state highway.
“Will it affect existing businesses?” he asked.
“It can be interpreted in different ways,” Rich said. He said if there was room for landscaping, the property owner could put in landscaping.
“I’d like it written with no room for interpretation,” Reed said. “There’s a lot of buildings along these corridors that look like garbage. If the owners aren’t going to keep up their building, they aren’t going to keep up landscaping. And the next drought, what do we do there?”
Burleson said the council should respect the recommendations of the Planning and Zoning Commission, which had previously asked for more information about the proposed ordinance before ultimately recommending against it.
“If we’re going to appoint them, shouldn’t we support them?” she asked.
She also said that the new businesses she’s seen in Snyder are already doing what the ordinance would require and that she was hesitant to tell people how to spend their money.
“You put too many rules and regulations in place and they might say, ‘I can’t do it,’” she said. “This, I don’t think we need it.”
Bill Robertson, who owned the Big Apple Deli, said he thought the ordinance was a good idea.
“I think we’ve needed it for a while. I think the word ‘new’ needs to be all over this ordinance,” he said.
Art Shaw, who owns Better Machine and Manufacturing, said he disagreed with Robertson.
“I think the assumption that we need to force business owners to do something different with their money sounds like an unfunded mandate,” he said. “They can spend their money more wisely not being told how to spend their money. It shows a lack of respect for business owners’ property rights. It’s not respectful of business owners.”
Council member Ben Martin compared Snyder to Weatherford, Lubbock and Abilene.
“In Weatherford you have to run materials past the city. Weatherford sets the minimum at 40 percent. Lubbock requires a 75 percent non-metal façade,” he said, adding that Abilene has four distinct zoning districts. “If you look at the vision of Snyder, and the vision that some people have for Snyder, and look at the surrounding towns, we’re trying to build Snyder in line with them. One step at a time, one direction, moving forward.”
As it is currently worded all new metal buildings must have at least 25 percent of the building’s frontage covered in something other than metal, with the approved wall surface having a “contrasting color, texture or finish.”
Retail and commercial buildings built with conventional materials must have at least 25 percent (excluding windows) of the building’s frontage in something other than the primary surface material. The ordinance does not specify that the new rules would apply to only new buildings.
And all new buildings with gables at the end of the structure must have a false front.
The new ordinance also includes regulations for landscaping and property maintenance.
In commercial zones, all businesses on a half-acre tract or larger will be required to set aside at least 10 percent of the property for landscaping. Businesses located in manufacturing zones will be required to set aside 5 percent of their property. The ordinance does not specify that the regulations apply only to new businesses.
The revised ordinance no longer requires all businesses, new and existing, to purchase insurance policies for the maintenance of their landscaping, but does state that property must be cared for “consistent with the degree of care as the neighboring properties.”
The ordinance also outlines what kind of ground cover is permitted for new development projects.