BELTON - With slightly more than half its members present the Belton City Council on Tuesday voted 4-0 to adopt sweeping changes to the zoning ordinance within the University Campus District that includes the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

Present for the vote were Mayor Jim Covington, Mayor pro tem Marion Grayson, and council members Clifton Peters and John Agan. Missing from the dais were council members David K. Leigh, Joe B. Baisden and Craig Pearson.

At the urging of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, the council adopted a number of changes said to improve the district that included the following:

Adding a student living unit as a permitted use.

Defining a student living unit as each individual residing in an apartment.

Requiring off-street parking in a ratio of 1.25 spaces for each student living unit.

Reducing the allowable living density from 48 residents per acre to 36 residents per acre.

Allowing the university to build residential units three stories high but limiting non-university owned residential structures to 2½ stories.

A controversy began in October 2007 when the Marcel Group of Houston tried unsuccessfully to develop 8.64 acres owned by the Lynch family heirs on University Drive from Agricultural to PD-UC (Planned Development-University Campus). Marcel’s plans called for a planned housing apartment complex for 300 students that included 281 parking spaces.

When UMHB officials objected to the housing package, Marcel revised its plans to include 300 spaces – or one space per student.

Belton Planning and Zoning and the city council voted in November 2007 to turn down Marcel’s proposal. The council later tasked staff with revising the requirements within the district. The changes as presented Tuesday reflected those sent to the Belton City Council in February by UMHB President Jerry Bawcom.

Marcel has not refiled its request.

During the public hearing, former Belton city attorney, mayor and council member Mickey Wade spoke against the proposed changes on behalf of his client the Marcel Group.

“Remember, when Marcel first proposed their project their plan of 281 spaces was 40 percent more than the current city policy for parking,” Wade said. “When it became an issue with UMHB, Marcel upped it to 300 spaces. “It’s obvious that restrictions are being imposed that would make it unacceptable to a developer so that UMHB can be the only purchaser.”

Wade also said it was self serving to limit a developer to 2½ stories of building height when UMHB would be allowed to build higher.

Covington asked Wade to wrap up his comments and directed Wade and other speakers to refrain from analyzing the other side’s motives.

Wade said that what was appropriate for a private investor and UMHB should be the same.

“I have documents that can prove my allegations in a court of law,” said Wade and left the rostrum.

Attorney Jamey Secrest of Temple, representing the landowners, said UMHB was attempting to strong-arm the family into selling to them.

“This has been put forward because the university wants it and they are apparently going to get what they want,” Secrest said. “There is no rationale for 1¼ parking spaces per student.”

Kathleen Hornaday with HDR WHM Transportation, traffic engineers of Austin, told the council she was hired to conduct a study of the project. She said she looked at what would be appropriate for both dormitories and apartments and found that one space per bed was more than adequate. She said the project was more like a dormitory and calculating it on the basis of a space per bed made sense.

Attorney John Cunningham representing UMHB said the University District had been the university’s home for more than 100 years.

“We are not here talking about a specific development but about any development in the area,” Cunningham said. “The university is not attempting to set the bar so high no developer can meet it.”

He said the 1¼ parking space policy is what has worked at the UMHB campus. “It is better to err on the side of ample rather than not enough,” said Cunningham.

“If we require it in the surrounding neighborhood, we will be protected.”

Dr. Randy O’Rear, vice president of UMHB, spoke on behalf of the proposed changes in the absence of Dr. Jerry Bawcom, president.

“I came to extend appreciation to city staff in this very impressive process,” O’Rear said. “We fully support the recommendations before you and would not ask that anyone do something we would not.”

O’Rear said the parking ratio on campus was 1.35 in the student apartments and 1.89 in the dorms.

After Covington closed the public hearing, the council made its comments before a vote.

“One and a quarter spaces just makes sense to me,” Covington said.

“It’s been an involved project but ended up pretty much the way I thought it would initially,” said Agan.

“I know it’s been heartbreaking tonight for three parties for that particular project,” said Ms. Grayson. “But what we are looking at tonight is not the project. I know it affects the project. It’s about the university campus.”

During the hearing, landowner Ginger Richardson asked the council if it would grandfather her land under the old regulations even if it passed the proposed changes to apply to future development.

Richardson told the Telegram on July 15 that UMHB had offered her $40,000 per acre two years ago but she turned it down because Marcel offered more than twice that amount at current market rates.

UMHB is a Christian co-educational liberal arts institution founded by the Republic of Texas in 1845 with an undergraduate population of 2,400 to 2,700.