Kerrville, Texas

Zoning Ordinance Diagnosis
   

For the City of Kerrville, Duncan Associates completed an Ordinance Diagnosis identifying weaknesses and deficiencies in the City’s existing zoning ordinance, subdivision regulations and related development regulations. The Diagnosis also identified ways to combine these documents into a single Unified Development Ordinance. The process began with the gathering of input through stakeholder interviews, and field surveys to better understand the applied effects of the regulations.

Our evaluation was guided by the belief that City officials, developers and the City’s residents and businesses are best served by development regulations that are easy to interpret, use, administer and enforce. In evaluating the substance and structure of Kerrville’s existing zoning, subdivision and development-related regulations, we focused on the following issues: document organization; format and usability; plan implementation; consistency among ordinance provisions; administrative efficiency; and regulatory clarity and legality. The Diagnosis resulted in recommendations for a dramatic overhaul of the City’s zoning, including the collapse of 39 zoning districts into eight or ten districts, to reduce duplication and cumbersome, repetitive language. Other key recommendations included: adoption of a broader approach to use classification that consolidates many uses into simplified use categories, defined in terms of: similarities in use of land, characteristics of the use, and common accessory uses; adoption of residential protection standards to address problems of compatibility between single-family, multifamily uses, and nonresidential uses; update in the approach to the regulation of manufactured housing to conform with emerging state law, and specific improvement in site development standards to enhance the attractiveness and livability of the city.