The Fair Oaks Ranch City Council on Oct. 2 approved the first reading of an ordinance enacting comprehensive amendments to the city’s Unified Development Code. Jessica Reducio, city planner, told council the changes were designed to incorporate state statutes, clarify existing standards and update regulations to reflect the city’s current needs.

The proposed amendments — the product of more than four years of workshops with the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council — include changes to landscape screening (requiring opaque screening in some contexts), revisions to conservation development alternative standards (maximum gross densities and minimum lot sizes), minimum street frontage for cul-de-sac lots, a 200-foot maximum block length standard in subdivisions, clarified plat waivers and variance processes, regrouping and consolidation of land-use tables and parking standards, and reorganized sign regulations with statutory updates.

On tree protections, staff said revisions clarify when tree mitigation applies and exempt certain residential redevelopment from the mitigation requirements as presented; staff also said they are researching legal approaches with the city attorney for other possible changes. City planner Jessica Reducio told council, “No, no it has not. We are still looking into it doing research with the City Attorney’s Office, but no changes have been made in relation to that, to this UDC,” when asked whether a retroactive mitigation approach had been adopted.

Council members thanked the Planning and Zoning Commission and staff for a multiyear effort to update the roughly 250-page code and discussed how the amendments aim to preserve the city’s Hill Country aesthetic while clarifying application and enforcement. The motion to approve the UDC amendments on first reading passed unanimously. The ordinance will return for final action at the Oct. 16 council meeting.