by KAY RICHTER

Recalling past fights over land use in the city’s most established areas, Old Town Kyle residents prevailed on the city council last week to not change the zoning designation for the new library site on Scott Street.

Plans for the $3.5 million facility include some elements such as a children’s tower, that do not meet the 25-foot setback requirement under the property’s current Central Business District 1 zoning.

To make the project comply with the city’s own rules, design plans will either have to be altered or the property rezoned to Central Business District 2, a designation that allows construction up to the edge of the property line.

City staff at the council’s regular meeting last week recommended the latter. The city council appears inclined toward redesigning the building or finding a different solution.

“The engineering firm made the error. Our city staff is already bogged down with too many items,” Councilmember Russ Huebner said of Austin-based Raymond Construction Inc.

A handful of residents who live in the area turned out to protest the proposed zoning change, saying they fear it would open more of Old Town Kyle to denser redevelopment than is allowed under CBD 1 zoning.

More than one recalled the 2008 fight over Shipley Donut’s request to change the zoning on a Center Street lot from CBD1 to CBD2, a request the city council at the time granted.

“You give [businesses] an inch, and they take a foot,” said Angie Chapa, who lives on Center Street and helped organize opposition to the earlier rezoning.

Her neighbor, Helen Brown-Kay, said the proposed library tract rezoning was a “downgrading of a historical neighborhood.”

The council at its Sept. 21 meeting did not act on the proposed rezoning but also did not resolve the issue. Possible solutions “include, but not limited to, changing the zoning, having the city donate right-of-way to extend the lot, or moving or redesigning that portion of the building,” said Jerry Hendrix, the city’s spokesperson.

The new Kyle Community Library will be built on 2.2 acres in the 500 block of Scott Street, where it turns and becomes Moore Street.

CORRECTION 9:20 a.m. OCT. 4: The article “Residents resist zoning of future Kyle
Library,” published in the Sept. 29 edition and later on the internet, should
have referred to neighborhood opposition to a doughnut shop on Center Street was
to variance requests, not a rezoning request.