GALVESTON, Texas — The newly elected city council representative for Galveston’s West End is seeking to loosen beach-front construction regulations approved in April.
District 6 Councilwoman Dianna Puccetti is expected to ask city council members Aug. 12 to consider amending the rules to make them less restrictive.
The rules, approved April 22, push new development 75 feet from the north toe of dunes, or 350 feet from the mean high-water line, whichever line is farther landward.
The new regulations are under review by the Texas General Land Office, which has some jurisdiction over the state’s beaches.
Puccetti has proposed withdrawing the regulations submitted to the land office for final approval and tweaking them to make them more "reasonable," she said.
Puccetti said she heard throughout the campaign from homeowners concerned about the restrictions on lots that already have been platted. Homeowners with existing beach-front houses also didn’t like that improvements or maintenance to their houses would have to go before the planning commission for approval, she said.
It’s "an extra step in the process that’s sometimes cumbersome," Puccetti said.
Planning Director Wendy O’Donohoe said the new regulations wouldn’t affect routine maintenance, only new construction and expansions.
The new regulations, on which both the planning department and commission worked for years, were widely seen as a compromise when council members approved them in April.
Then-District 5 Councilman Danny Weber cast the sole dissenting vote, saying he refused to pass rules that would infringe on development.
Though the rules are the strictest the city has had, some, particularly former District 4 Councilwoman Susan Fennewald, wanted even tougher restrictions on beach-front building.
Only two members of the Galveston City Council that approved the regulations remain in their seats. District 2 and District 3 Councilwomen Elizabeth Beeton and Linda Colbert both voted in favor of the regulations in April and have since defended the regulations against Puccetti’s push to amend them.
The new rules expand the city’s purview over beach-front construction. Homeowners who want to build 75 feet from the north toe of the dune or 350 feet from mean high water have to get permission from the planning commission.
That setback area includes all first-row beach houses and, in some cases where the beach is especially narrow, incorporates houses as far back as the fifth row.
The rules also require all large-scale developments — any new construction larger than 5,000 square feet or taller than three stories — to get permission from the planning commission to build within 1,000 feet of the water.
That area incorporates most of the land south of FM 3005 on the West End. Existing developments are grandfathered in under the new rules.
The new rules also prohibit homeowners and developers from measuring setbacks from man-made dunes that do not resemble the size, volume or vegetative cover of a natural dune.
State law doesn’t differentiate between man-made and artificial dunes.
Homeowners, particularly those on the West End, recently have flooded council members’ in boxes with e-mails asking them to exempt platted properties from the rules, remove all references to the 350-foot setback line and exempt the East End from the regulations because beaches there appear to be accreting.
"When the ordinance was passed, just before the May election, I believe (and hope) that many council members were unaware of the tremendous economic impact it would have on our community," Claire Reiswig, of Sand ’N Sea Properties, wrote in an e-mail to all council members and new Mayor Joe Jaworski. "A negative impact on West End property values translates into lower property tax revenues for the city, which translates into smaller city budgets and fewer services for the entire island."
Council members are expected to discuss the matter at the next regular city council meeting Aug. 12.
