McAllen holds town halls for input on development regulations overhaul

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McALLEN — As part of a push toward modernization and urbanization, city officials here are planning a massive overhaul of the ordinances that regulate land use and development.

It will be the first time in decades that McAllen has updated its land use and zoning ordinances.

But the proposed new system, dubbed the Unified Development Code, or UDC — which has been in the works for approximately three years — has come as a surprise to some residents.

During an open house held at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce last month, those residents suggested city officials do more to solicit the public’s opinion on the proposed UDC.

As such, McAllen city commissioners have been hosting a series of town halls to do just that.

Last Thursday, the task fell to District 2 Commissioner Joaquin “J.J.” Zamora, who, along with the city’s planning department, hosted a town hall at the Lark Community Center.

There, a group of just over a dozen residents listened as officials explained what the UDC is and how its implementation would change McAllen’s landscape, literally.

“The UDC aims to fulfill the visions and the goals that are established through the comprehensive plan,” Sam Nuñez, one of the city’s senior planners, told residents who had gathered at the community center.

Nuñez was referring to the city’s master plan, called “Envision McAllen 2040,” which city leaders adopted last April.

The plan addresses the city’s growth and development goals in every sector imaginable, from residential and commercial areas, to parks and quality of life goals, to transportation plans, to economic development and more.

Officials spent months seeking the public’s input on how they’d like to see McAllen grow and develop between now and the year 2040.

Nuñez said the UDC grew out of the Envision McAllen plan as a way to put the plan into action.

“The comprehensive plan establishes the goals and the visions, and the UDC gives developers the tools to bring it about,” Nuñez said.

If approved by the McAllen City Commission, the UDC will bring sweeping changes to the city’s land use and development ordinances, and will require up to six months to rezone the entire city.

For instance, one of the biggest changes will be in how the UDC consolidates zoning classifications for residential and commercial land, paring them down to just a handful of classifications that will be based more on “density- and intensity-specific districts,” Nuñez said.

Industrial land use zoning will largely remain the same.

The UDC will also introduce four entirely new types of districts, including hybrid residential/commercial districts that will allow for so-called “mixed use” development.

Officials hope that such mixed use districts — along with regulations regarding pedestrians and cyclists, landscaping, and road infrastructure — will spur urbanization in McAllen’s “core.”

But even sprawling residential areas will see more compact development in the future via the UDC’s shortened setback requirements, new flexibility in allowing single-family homeowners to build accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, colloquially referred to as “mother-in-law units,” and more.

Repeatedly, Nuñez described the UDC as a tool that will give property developers more freedom to develop their land without unnecessary encumbrances.

But that didn’t sit well with some of the residents who attended last Thursday. Nor did their perception that McAllen is moving forward with the UDC without much public input — or notice.

“How widely did you solicit input? What was the scope of the input that you got as far as quantity of people providing input?” asked a resident named Stacy Solis who said she lacked confidence in the city’s transparency.

City officials replied they had spent months on a publicity campaign via surveys, workshops and in-person events as part of the planning for Envision McAllen.

Other residents expressed concerns that the UDC favored developers over residents.

“It seems like this whole plan is for the developers … and I am a citizen, so I am concerned that the city should be thinking about the citizens, too, of what we are gonna be left with after they’ve made all their major profits and all that,” resident Ann Anderson said.

“It really does seem like it is pro-developer,” another resident said, adding that he was concerned about how smaller residential lot sizes, closer setbacks and reduced parking requirements could lead to congestion on residential roads.

“I’m trying to wrap my brain about where the pros are for the citizens,” the resident said.

A single person spoke in favor of the UDC — UTRGV student Ethan Rodriguez.

“I’ve read through the entire thing. I really love it, personally,” Rodriguez said of the 400-page draft UDC, which first became available for public viewing just two months ago in September.

“I’m excited to see how it improves like the Old Town area. I feel like those areas need a lot of revitalization,” he added a moment later.

Still, for at least one resident, Thursday’s town hall was far too reminiscent of another that McAllen officials held last summer on the south side of town at the Palm View Community Center.

There, city officials were subjected to the ire of dozens of residents who opposed McAllen’s plans to sell a beloved park and disc golf course, Green Jay Park, to an Austin-based tech company called Zoho Corporation.

Despite months of vociferous protest from neighboring residents, environmentalists, members of the disc golf community and McAllen’s own Planning and Zoning Commission, city leaders agreed to rezone the 90-acre green space as industrial land.

It marked the first step for Zoho to turn the land into what it called a tech “campus.”

One of the loudest voices of protest during those public meetings in the summer of 2023 belonged to self-confessed avid birdwatcher, Gloria Galindo.

More than a year after the Zoho debacle, Galindo still had a sour taste in her mouth.

“I’m sorry, but, McAllen historically has not shown a lot of consideration for the citizens’ opinions, petitions, planning and zoning denials. You just do whatever you want over our concerns,” Galindo said.

“There is a lack of trust from the citizens of McAllen after the whole fiasco with Green Jay Park being rezoned,” Galindo continued a moment later.

Galindo questioned how residents could trust McAllen officials with such a large-scale task like rewriting the city’s development codes when McAllen had ignored many residents’ desires to keep Green Jay a public space.

But as she continued to press, Galindo was ultimately shouted down by other residents, even some who had also expressed doubts about the UDC.

City leaders will hold one final town hall at the Lark Community Center, 2601 Lark. Ave., on Thursday beginning at 6 p.m.

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