Poetry Moves to Repeal Its Zoning Code After Finding a Map Nobody Approved

The Town of Poetry is getting ready to throw out its zoning code altogether.

A notice of public hearing posted by the town says the Town Council will take public comment at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, at Poetry Community Christian School, 18688 FM 986, on repealing Ordinance No. 2024-03-01, the town's comprehensive zoning ordinance and map. The repeal would wipe out the zoning rules, districts, classifications and map. The notice says the council may vote after the hearing.

A map nobody approved

The reasons are laid out in the town's approved minutes of the Sept. 17 council meeting, posted on its town meetings page. Town leaders said the zoning map attached to the ordinance has a problem. The council adopted the ordinance in March 2024 after being shown a map dated Feb. 8, 2024. But the versions now attached to the ordinance and posted online carry later dates, and the minutes say none of them was approved when the ordinance passed. In comparing those maps, the minutes say, a zoning change turned up that the council had not been told about.

The town's Aug. 20 minutes say the town was notified in April 2024 that the map was not correct, but the council was not told. The September minutes say the current map is drawn in a way that implies Poetry's zoning reaches beyond the town limits, which the minutes call "incorrect and misleading." Mayor Mike Jaffe brought an illustrative map he made with ChatGPT to show what a corrected version might look like. The minutes say it was for discussion only.

The Poetry Methodist Church historical marker, photographed in 2016. Photo: Rheba / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

"Not worth trying to rewrite"

Council member Dale Bryant reported that the town's Citizen Zoning Advisory Committee had concluded the ordinance "is not worth trying to rewrite," according to the minutes. Council member Tom Anderson raised the legal trouble with the map, confusing wording that suggests the rules apply outside town, and the difficulty of zoning at all given the town's shape and geography. Jaffe said a strong sign ordinance, and zoning focused on limiting commercial development, might work better. The council also discussed a possible subdivision ordinance.

The council voted 5-0 to start the repeal process. It also hired Hayter Engineering, for no more than $2,000, to write up how the town will seek bids for a survey to pin down its own boundaries.

A road tax on Tuesday's ballot

Election Day preview: Before the zoning hearing, Poetry voters decide on Tuesday, Nov. 3, whether to renew the town's 1.5 percent sales tax for street maintenance and repair. The Kaufman County sample ballot labels it "THIS IS A TAX INCREASE." It says the tax would expire four years after the election unless voters renew it again.

The Oct. 15 council packet lists a plan to open a second bank account to hold all the money from the 1.5 percent tax. The same agenda says Poetry won a $750,000 Texas Department of Agriculture grant, funded with federal community development money, to rebuild part of County Road 2454, with a 5 percent town match of $37,500.

For more on nearby Kaufman County towns, read our coverage of Terrell and Kaufman.

Our view

Poetry's leaders deserve credit for saying plainly that something went wrong with the map and that nobody approved it. A law people cannot trust is worse than no law at all. Repealing it is a fair call for a town whose own advisory committee says it is not worth fixing. But neighbors still need some protection from a bad commercial neighbor. Before the council votes, residents should hear what will take its place.