SAN ANGELO, Texas — San Angelo’s planning commission held a special meeting Monday to talk about potential changes to regulations on sidewalk requirements for new developments.
The City of San Angelo proposed a sidewalk ordinance as part of its comprehensive plan. Initially, the sidewalk policy intended to apply to both public and private streets. However, the planning commission decided not to mandate sidewalks with new home developments on local streets and neighborhoods.
“We are not going to require sidewalks on local streets, so really the major crux right now are going to be minor collectors so that is what we are going to bring back to the table to discuss,” HomeBuilders Association of San Angelo Executive Officer, Kristen Oliver, said.
The planning commission will still decide whether minor collectors will require sidewalks. Minor collectors are the main roads in neighborhoods or commercial areas collecting traffic and providing connection to nearby towns or highways.
“Basically the big question today was whether or not to require sidewalks with new home development and the direction from the commission was no. What we were looking for as staff is direction from the plan and commission and we had given them some different options on when and where to require new sidewalks because our ordinances aren't that clear,” COSA Director of Planning and Development Services, Jon James said.
Sidewalks are not required on major collectors and arterial streets when new development or major redevelopment occurs near those streets.
“We got a lot of direction today so now we can work on updating the draft of the ordinance to reflect the comments that we heard from the commission today,” James said.
The planning commission did not make a final decision during Monday’s meeting. The City of San Angelo will update the ordinance and the decision from the planning commission will be discussed in future meetings.
