Houston open for business

MAT-SU -- The city of Houston has opened the floodgates to commercial and residential development -- or so they hope.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly, Tuesday, unanimously approved a large rezone request that creates a new zoning district along the Parks Highway, creating more opportunities for commercial and residential development and adding in a few development standards.

Although the borough planning commission asked that the ordinance be returned to the city of Houston for revisions after significant concerns were raised at its June 2 meeting, resident support for the changes apparently won out -- which makes some Houston residents happy.

Angela Rosas, a Houston council member and former deputy mayor, said Friday the changes have been a long time coming.

"We've been petitioning for a whole year to get this changed," Rosas said. "People are wanting to put businesses out there."

In a second-class city which must rely on the borough's zoning powers to make zoning changes, Rosas said the new Parks Highway district gives the city more of a hand in its future, and gives residents a wider range of opportunities than the "light commercial" zoning classification that previously occupied much of the highway frontage. The light-commercial classification, Rosas said, is a holdover from the capitol-move push of the 1980s.

"A lot of people had the thought that the capitol was moving here," Rosas said. "They rezoned to light industrial and residential … we need more commercial so people can put businesses here."

With the help of borough staff, changes were made to Houston's zoning map that change the area along the Parks Highway corridor bisecting the city to "mixed-use development," a zone that will allow for a blend of light industrial, commercial and residential. According to information from borough staff, it allows for a mix of residential and commercial uses, but limits size and overall impact of development by putting in requirements for conditional use permits.

Once the changes were made to the city's zoning districts, the matter was forwarded to the planning commission. The commission reviewed it, but found several potential pitfalls and referred the request back to the city for changes, to be completed by the commission's Aug. 4 meeting.

"The problems range from permitting incompatible uses to increasing commercial traffic on and excessive access to the Parks Highway," Commissioner Lee Sharp wrote in a letter sent to the assembly prior to its July 22 meeting. "Further action by the assembly to adopt any of these ordinances now leaves unresolved important land use and traffic issues that will come back to haunt the City of Houston and the borough."

But changes were made by borough staff addressing some of the commission's concerns and the matter was sent to the assembly for adoption.

Borough staff, in their report to the assembly about the ordinances that would change the city's zoning map and comprehensive plan, said a public petition in favor of the changes, positive testimony at public hearings and the city of Houston's request for prompt action resulted in their recommendation that the assembly approve the plan.

Houston Mayor Dale Adams told the assembly the ordinance was well-supported in the community.

"I haven't heard one person complain in Houston about this," Adams said.