Wimberley council receives update on demolition, permitting process
The facade of the former Cypress Creek Cafe was demolished overnight on Monday, Jan. 13, and just days later, Wimberley City Council received an update on the demolition and permitting process for future development of the building at its Jan. 16 meeting.
According to agenda documents, a demolition permit was issued by Wimberley city staff for the demolition of the Cypress Creek Cafe facade, located at 320 Wimberley Square. Following a fire that engulfed the historic structure in 2017, the facade was all that was left of the cafe.
The new owner of the property, Michael Mekuly, along with his wife, applied for a demolition permit and submitted two reports from two separate structural engineers stating that the structure is unsafe and in danger of collapse.
City staff contacted ATS, the firm that the city of Wimberley uses for building plan reviews and inspections, to provide an independent report, which agreed with the structural engineers’ reports finding the structure to be in imminent danger of collapse in its current condition, agenda documents stated.
Because of the immediate threat to public safety, staff issued the demolition permit. It was found that the facade was in danger of immediate collapse, said Wimberley Director of Development Services Nathan Glaiser.
“In December, we received a demolition permit application for 320 Wimberley Square — the remains of the Cypress Creek Cafe, the facade, that burned in 2017. Accompanying that demolition permit application were two engineering studies from structural engineers that said that it was in immediate danger to public safety,” explained Glaiser.
The new owners are looking at redeveloping the property, Glaiser said, including a market, restaurant and a hotel.
“To do that, they are going to have to get some zoning changes to the zoning. Commercial does not have the hotel. So, they met with Planning and Zoning Commission; we had a meeting on Tuesday, where they did a pre-application conference, kind of showed them the general plan because ultimately,” Glaiser addressed the city council, “they are going to have to come to Planning and Zoning and then to you all with, I think they are going the route of a WPDD, so Wimberley Planned Development District.”
The Historic Preservation Overlay District allows for administrative approval of demolition in situations where safety is a concern. The new owners will be required to get all the appropriate permits needed to rebuild on the property, including a certificate of appropriateness permit from the Planning and Zoning Commission, where the design of the new structure will be reviewed for consistency with the Historic Preservation Overlay District's design guidelines.
“On top of that, it’s in the historic district and they are going to have to get their architecture reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Commission looking at the historic district guidelines and it’s going to have to meet those standards well enough for [the] Planning and Zoning Commission to approve that as well,” Glaiser said.
If the new owners are successful with that, the process will move along to the site development phase, according to Glaiser.
“I expect to have their zoning applications, at least, probably here in the next month or two, getting that in front of you,” he stated. “I talked with the new owner. I don’t know when the historic district stuff is going to come. I am guessing they are going to have months and months of architectural design, probably at least six months. And then, I’d say, I wouldn’t look at anything until next year, probably.”
Wimberley City Council meets next at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6.
