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A Lot of Pots

Among the first things you see on entering Kerrville, Texas, are dozens of yellow portable toilets. It's not the kind of pleasant welcome that city officials had planned on when they changed zoning restrictions in 1997. That's when planners decided to zone for a "gateway" into town that would foster tourism with hotels, restaurants and other visitor services.

Among the first things you see on entering Kerrville, Texas, are dozens of yellow portable toilets. It's not the kind of pleasant welcome that city officials had planned on when they changed zoning restrictions in 1997. That's when planners decided to zone for a "gateway" into town that would foster tourism with hotels, restaurants and other visitor services. What they didn't count on was the wrath of Don Holmes.

Holmes and his wife, who had owned a vacant lot on the edge of town for more than a decade, finally decided last year to open a high-end used-car dealership. Such a use requires a "conditional" permit under the three-year-old zoning regulations. But since the use Holmes was requesting conflicted with the city's land-use plan, the planning and zoning commission recommended denial of the permit.

Holmes then did some research and discovered that no permit was needed for septic services-related businesses. So he went out and bought 40 "porta-cans," as he calls them, to sell as deer blinds. (Apparently, hunters can shoot from the inside after cutting a hole in a wall.) "You could say they're dual purpose," Holmes says. So far, he's been selling two or three of the $150 toilets each week to people doing construction at their ranches.

City officials, and many residents, are not amused. "It caused an uproar," agrees Holmes, who is trying to make a public statement about zoning rules. The fact is, new-car lots are allowed to sell used cars in that zone, but used-car-only lots are not allowed.

Tom Dolan, a planner and the director of development services, says the city is in the process of trying to change the zoning in a way that would eliminate the eyesore. "I don't know when it will be settled," he says. "The commission will have a hearing to look at the whole gateway area."

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