The Galveston County Daily News

KEMAH — Bryan Sawyer never worried that his tiny city lacked zoning restrictions preventing businesses from buying land next to his waterfront house — until the bed-and-breakfast one block away applied for a liquor license.

Suddenly Sawyer realized: Without zoning laws, there was nothing stopping the encroachment of businesses, particularly bars, into the upscale Kemah neighborhood where retirees live and children play.

Thus began Sawyer’s grass-roots campaign to enact the city’s first zoning laws.

“The residents are mad about what is going on in our community, and we are putting up an organized resistance,” he said.

Sawyer mailed 1,000 glossy brochures explaining the need for a simple zoning ordinance to protect Kemah’s neighborhoods from commercial development. Sawyer said it was especially important for the city to seal off residential areas from commercial developers since Hurricane Ike, which flooded Kemah last year, left behind scores of vacant houses and lots available for developers to transform into businesses, Sawyer said.

“We built back, and now I, and a lot of my neighbors, want to have a say in how our community is rebuilt,” he said.

Sawyer has found supporters. Eighty-seven residents mailed to the city pre-stamped postcards provided by Sawyer urging city council members to develop and pass a zoning ordinance protecting the city’s residential areas.

Residents’ frustrations about Kemah’s lack of zoning laws have mounted over time, especially as bars opened up near houses, Councilman Wayne Rast said.

“The city council has always said, ‘There’s nothing we can do because there’s no zoning,’ and that phrase has gotten old to people,” Rast said.

Though Rast supports zoning, he said he didn’t think the city council should unilaterally develop and approve a zoning ordinance. Instead, Rast said he thinks voters should be allowed to decide on zoning Kemah’s 1.8 square miles.

At the earliest, Kemah could put the issue on the May ballot, but the city would first need to hire professionals to develop an ordinance to put on the ballot. Sawyer supports a simple zoning ordinance with three options — residential, commercial and mixed use. Alcohol licenses would be forbidden in residential zones, although existing businesses would be grandfathered, Sawyer said.

Kemah incorporated in 1965 and was widely known as a shrimping village until 1997 when entrepreneur Tilman Fertitta built the 14-acre Kemah Boardwalk. The town is divided into two distinct areas — the entertainment district, which incorporates the boardwalk with its restaurants, hotels, amusement rides and a marina; and the rest of the town, where most full-time residents live.

In recent months, Mayor Matt Wiggins, who owns several pieces of commercial property in Kemah, has been pushing council to expand the entertainment district. Wiggins did not return repeated calls seeking comment, but in city memos, Wiggins urged council members to expand the district into some of the city’s largely residential areas to attract more small businesses to Kemah.

Businesses inside the entertainment district do not have to provide as many parking spaces as businesses outside the district.

Outside the district, Kemah regulates that business owners provide four spaces per 1,000 square feet of building space. Kemah’s 50-foot lots can accommodate nothing more than a 1,000-square-foot building and “there is no business that can pay for the land, build a 1,000-square-foot building and pay the note,” Wiggins wrote in a Sept. 1 memo to council.

Wiggins also recommended loosening parking requirements for businesses outside the entertainment district by allowing developers to contribute to a city fund $1,000 per parking space the developer is unable to provide. Council members approved the first reading of the ordinance but did not approve the second reading after Kemah Boardwalk Manager Tim Anderson said he opposed the plan, Rast said.

Sawyer has opposed Wiggins’ attempts to expand the entertainment district and relax parking restrictions. Sawyer said Wiggins proposed changes to benefit himself, and Sawyer complained to District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk that Wiggins’ actions were a conflict of interest.

Sawyer said Wiggins’ attempts to loosen restrictions on commercial developers will open the city’s doors to under-capitalized, low-scale businesses, including fly-by-night bars.

A well-written zoning ordinance would not only raise residential property values, it will increase commercial property values by limiting the amount of property available for commercial ventures, Sawyer said.