{"id":132820,"date":"2026-01-22T02:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/132820\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T02:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:10:12","slug":"georgetown-begins-process-to-rezone-historic-downtown-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/132820\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgetown begins process to rezone historic downtown jail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/georgetowntexas.gov\/government\/city_council\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Georgetown City Council<\/a> gave preliminary approval to rezone the site of the historic jail at a meeting Jan. 13.<\/p>\n<p>What it means<\/p>\n<p>Williamson County owns the historic jail site at 102 W. Third St. and applied to rezone the property from split residential single family and mixed use downtown to fully mixed use downtown.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/austin\/georgetown\/development\/2024\/11\/19\/williamson-county-officials-work-to-repurpose-century-old-historic-jail-site-for-future-use\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 2024<\/a>, the county began deconstructing the nonhistoric additions near the jail and stripping the jail interior in order to repurpose the site and sell it.<\/p>\n<p>Its proximity to downtown Georgetown and businesses off of Austin Avenue could allow the site to become a boutique hotel or restaurant, Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey said in a November 2024 interview.<\/p>\n<p>Zooming in<\/p>\n<p>The mixed use downtown zoning can lend itself to a variety of residential and commercial uses, according to city documents, including:<\/p>\n<p>HotelsRestaurantsSingle-family residentialParking lotsPersonal servicesBanking or financial servicesDevelopments in a mixed use downtown zoning tend to be smaller in scope, according to city documents.<\/p>\n<p>While the jail is not currently occupied, it is a \u201chigh priority historic resource,\u201d Planning Director Edgar Garcia said at the Jan. 13 meeting. This designation means the property has higher regulatory oversight in order to preserve it, according to previous <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/austin\/georgetown\/city-county\/2017\/10\/16\/georgetowns-historic-resource-survey-shape-future-city-council-building-policies\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Community Impact<\/a> reporting.<\/p>\n<p>The history<\/p>\n<p>The Williamson County Jail was built in 1888 and served as the county\u2019s primary jail until 1989. It was then adapted for county and professional offices.<\/p>\n<p>County officials stopped leasing or renting the historic jail in <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/austin\/georgetown\/government\/2020\/10\/06\/williamson-county-commissioners-end-renting-of-historic-jail-consider-sale\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2020<\/a> due to safety concerns.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s next<\/p>\n<p>City Council will consider final approval of the rezoning at its Jan. 27 meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgetown City Council gave preliminary approval to rezone the site of the historic jail at a meeting Jan.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,12268,49191,56859,56860,56861,17090,23550,2538],"class_list":["post-132820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-georgetown","tag-historic-downtown","tag-historic-jail","tag-jail-site","tag-mixed-use-downtown","tag-redevelopment","tag-rezoning","tag-williamson-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}