Balous Miller rezones 16 acres for commercial use in Boerne

Is the Hill Country hamlet of Boerne about to amplify its ongoing boom with the world’s biggest barbecue joint?

No, but it does look likely to get a new commercial strip thanks to the couple behind one the best-known barbecue brands in Texas.

Julie Miller and her husband, Balous, who is chairman of the Bill Miller Bar-B-Q chain, are looking to have a 16-acre swatch of land near Interstate 10 rezoned for commercial use and annexed by the the City of Boerne. The Millers don’t plan to develop the property themselves, and do not yet have an end-user in mind, the San Antonio Business Journal reported. 

The request could nevertheless help Boerne bring commercial development to match the town’s recent population growth, which has seen the city nearly double to approximately 21,000 residents in the past decade.

The Boerne Planning Commission’s recent vote to approve the Millers’ application to rezone its 16-acre parcel would, upon annexation, increase the amount of land available in the city by 15 percent in one fell swoop.

The requested commercial zoning designation matches many of the parcels in the area along Interstate 10, said Ashley Farrimond of San Antonio-based land use law firm Killen, Griffin and Farrimond, which represented the Millers to the planning commission.

Among other agenda items for the meeting was a notation of the city of Boerne’s comprehensive master plan’s call to  “provide adequate area for non-residential development.”

Multifamily demand is high in the suburb, where the median household income is $79,000.

Apartment occupancy in the Boerne area soared by 15.4 percent year-over-year in May, according to MRI ApartmentData. Although it is a relatively new multifamily market, rents are increasing because of the population boom.

In contrast, San Antonio’s apartment market is grappling with record-high deliveries, leading to a lower occupancy rate of 86.5 percent, below the 90 percent threshold that typically defines a seller’s market. 

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