Twilight Zoning

Schulenburg Zoning Discussions Get Dramatic; Mayor Breaks Tie

A big crowd showed up at the Schulenburg City Council meeting Monday night, March 1, to speak about a rezoning request for The Texan Travel Center that developers plan to build at the corner of Interstate 10 and US 77. The Yorktown-based Texan Stores company asked the City to rezone the property from industrial to commercial. The Baumgarten family, which owns the neighboring Schulenburg RV Park, opposes the company’s plans to build a parking lot for 18-wheelers along the north side of their property.

“In order to get their venture up and running, the Texas will try to convince you in trying to provide parking spaces for 47 semis, that they’re not a truck stop,” said Jeremy Baumgarten, who runs the RV park with his mother Loretta Baumgarten and sister Holly Hutchins. “They don’t want residents to think about all the negatives that a truck stop brings with it.”

Eleven different people spoke during the public comment period at the meeting.

Among those were Loretta Baumgarten, Jeremy Baumgarten’s wife Ashleigh, two parttime residents at the RV Park, local businessmen Dennis Johnson and Arvin Gresham, and two residents who live in the neighborhood west of the Texan property, Ronnie Bohac and Walter Irwin. All of them raised concerns about the development.

Ashleigh Baumgarten said she believes the truck drivers will bring illegal drugs and prostitution to her neighborhood. One of the RV park residents, Herb Bidwell, said the truck drivers will generate litter and attract a “class of troublemakers.” Johnson raised concerns about diesel exhaust and noise pollution.

Some of the speakers advocated for a compromise. Gresham suggested that the developers could modify their plans to place the truck parking lot along Interstate 10 instead of next to the RV park. Some of the store’s opponents voiced openness to that idea.

“If the trucks are parked next to the interstate, that makes more sense than them being parked next to a neighborhood,” said Ashleigh Baumgarten.

Tina Bohlmann, chairwoman of the City’s planning and zoning board, reported that a large crowd of citizens also spoke at a zoning hearing last Thursday. Most of them were opposed to the location of the proposed truck parking, she said.

“We have nothing to say (about) what they are putting on this property,” Bohlmann said. “Our duty was to say are we rezoning it from heavy industrial to commercial? After taking a vote from the committee, it was approved to change it from heavy industrial to commercial. That is our recommendation.”

Bohlmann said her committee looked at the kinds of land uses allowed in areas zoned for heavy industrial.

“It goes anywhere from a slaughterhouse to aboveground storage fuel facilities for propane or a salvage yard,” Bohlmann said. “Do you want that right there or do you want commercial there? That is what helped us make up our mind.”

“We would rather have a salvage yard,” said Jeremy Baumgarten. “We would rather have a slaughterhouse there than a truck stop with trucks 24 hours a day.”

Councilman Ben Herzik asked Baumgarten whether he has discussed the parking plans with the developers.

“We have been unable to have any meaningful discussion with a representative from The Texan,” Baumgarten said. “We have attempted and they have declined three times.”

“There are concerns, I get it,” Councilwoman Wendy Fietsam said. “But like Tina said, this is zoning. We don’t want industrial there at all.”

Fietsam made a motion to accept the planning and zoning board’s recommendation. Councilman Larry Veselka seconded the motion. The two of them voted to accept the recommendation. Herzik and Councilman Clarence Ahlschlager voted to deny. Councilman Chip Bubela abstained from voting due to a conflict of interest.

With a 2-2 vote, Mayor Elaine Kocian was forced to cast a deciding vote. Kocian took a few moments before casting her vote. During the pause, Jeremy Baumgarten addressed the mayor.

“Hey, we’re not going to have any hard feelings,” Baumgarten said. “We want it our way, and we want it our way bad. But that’s not who we are. What happens is going to happen. We want you to do what’s right, and we believe our side is right. But there will be no hard feelings from the Baumgarten family.”

After a few more minutes of thought, Kocian voted.

“I’m going to go ‘for,’” she said. “The motion carries.”

On Tuesday morning, The Record left a message for Brian Dlugosch, president of The Texan Stores, to ask about the layout of the property. He has not returned our call as of press time.

Council took up one other rezoning request Monday night concerning a piece of property on US Highway 90 at the eastern edge of town. According to City Administrator Tami Walker, the company Texas Contract Floors Inc. wants to build a 20,000 square foot facility that would be used for business-to-business flooring sales. The business asked the City to rezone the property from residential to commercial.

Bohlmann reported that the planning and zoning board heard from several neighboring citizens who opposed the development at the zoning hearing last Thursday. She said one board member made a motion to recommend the rezoning request, but it failed for lack of a second. The board instead voted to recommend that the Council deny the request and keep the property zoned for residential use.

On Monday, Veselka made a motion to accept the board’s recommendation to deny the request. His motion failed for lack of a second. However, no one else made a motion to approve the request before Kocian moved on to the next item on the agenda.

The bizarre non-vote leaves the property zoned for residential use, just as the planning and zoning board recommended, even though Council refused to accept their recommendation.

Walker said the Council will likely reconsider the request at a future meeting.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the Council voted unanimously to reopen the Schulenburg Public Swimming Pool in Wolters Park this spring and summer. The pool was closed last year. Walker said the City would need to spend just under $1,000 for painting and other maintenance items before the pool could open.