Crockett planning consultant urges zoning changes to make downtown more walkable, allow upper-story housing

Wade Thomas, a board member of the City of Crockett Planning and Zoning Commission, presented proposed text changes to Section 201.7, the C3 City Center Shopping District, and submitted an executive summary of the Crockett Downtown Plan prepared by Mark Priesner of Planning Concepts.

"I'm a board member of the City of Crockett Planning and Zoning Commission," Thomas said as he introduced the commission's recommendations and noted the commission had reviewed and approved the changes before forwarding them to council. Consultant Mark Priesner told council the plan focuses on parking, circulation and land uses to restore a more walkable downtown core.

Priesner summarized the proposal's core goals: discourage high‑parking, high‑traffic generators in the C3 core; encourage restaurants, offices and upper‑story residential uses; and shift some former by‑right allowances into a specific‑use permit process so council and Planning & Zoning can review more intense proposals. "The character of a downtown is in the cluster of buildings, not a single building," Priesner said, arguing that preserving building clusters and limiting surface parking will help revitalize downtown.

Council and staff discussed how existing, currently allowed uses would be treated if the text amendment passes. Staff said legal nonconforming uses would continue so long as they remain; changes or expansions could require conformity or a specific‑use permit. Staff also confirmed the public‑notice radius for hearings is 300 feet from affected property owners and described a multi‑step process: Planning & Zoning public hearings, refinements, then council public hearings before any ordinance adoption.

No ordinance vote on the C3 amendments occurred at the meeting; council and staff set the public‑engagement steps that will follow the required ordinance process. The council packet included an executive summary and staff said subsequent phases of the downtown master plan (traffic routing, sidewalks and crossings, truck routing) will be addressed later.