The Village of Salado withdrew its plans to rezone the Mill Creek Country Club after it received an application for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to operate the golf course on the property that is currently zoned Single Family Residential.
Village administrator Don Ferguson told Salado Village Voice that the Village received the application for the CUP hours before an executive session meeting with its village attorney to discuss the rezoning proposal.
The CUP will now go through the proper process, which will include notifying adjoining properties and conducting public hearings at the Planning & Zoning Commission and Board of Aldermen.
The Board of Aldermen will be the ultimate body to decide whether a CUP will be issued to Mill Creek Country Club and what, if any, conditions will be required under the CUP.
Because the Village is withdrawing its request to rezone the golf course property, the public hearing and vote planned for Feb. 7 will be unnecessary.
The process for the CUP will take about the same amount of time (40 days) as the rezoning request due to requirements for public notice hearings.
No dates are set for the public hearings for the CUP, but will be published in the Salado Village Voice as the newspaper of record.
Aldermen were set to conduct the public hearing on the rezoning of the Mill Creek Country Club at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 7 and then to vote on the proposed rezoning.
The meeting follows the public hearing and vote by the P&Z on Jan. 22 in which commissioners voted 4-1 against the rezoning of the Mill Creek Country Club property. K.D. Hill, Tom McMahan, Susan Terry and Ronnie Tynes were all opposed to the rezoning while Larry Roberson was in favor.
During the P&Z public hearing on the Golf Course rezoning proposal, a dozen people spoke with the majority of speakers opposed to the rezoning.
Following the hearings, aldermen will vote on each of the rezoning proposals brought forth by Village Staff.
Village staff will work to bring the CUP request on the Mill Creek golf course to the P&Z Commission and Board of Aldermen.
The Zoning Map currently designates the golf course property as Single Family Residential, within which golf course is a land use that is permitted by Conditional Use Permit.
Operations of Mill Creek Country Club precede incorporation by more than two decades and its continued operation as a golf course would be considered a pre-existing non-conforming use according to the Zoning Ordinance definitions.
While the BoA will not conduct a hearing on rezoning the golf course, it will conduct public hearings to rezone Pace Park and Sirena Park as Public Facility. The properties are currently zoned as Historic District, which allows Parks as a land use by right.
On Jan. 22, P&Z voting against the rezoning proposal for both park properties.
A handful of speakers, all opposed, addressed the parks rezoning during the P&Z public hearing.
However, how much weight the recommendation of the P&Z Commission will carry with Aldermen remains to be seen. Aldermen voted unanimously to add the Private Recreation zoning district designation to the Zoning Ordinance, even though the P&Z voted 3-2 against adding the new designation.
Discussion of the zoning designations came up last year when the Village of Salado was meeting with ownership group of Mill Creek Country Club to consider the possible purchase of the golf course by the Village of Salado.
Following that meeting, Mill Creek ownership withdrew from any further discussions with the Village about the purchase of the golf course.