SAN MARCOS, Texas -- Almost six months after the deadliest fire in San Marcos history, the Zoning Board of Adjustments voted to approve a rebuild of the Iconic Village apartments.

• Fire Killed 5 people
• Happened in July of 2018
• Demolition approved Thursday evening

The Iconic Village apartment fire on July 20, 2018 killed five people and displaced hundreds more.

Demolition began on the destroyed site last week. The property's developer submitted plans to the City of San Marcos to rebuild the 60 units that burned in the blaze. Those plans were approved Thursday evening with a vote of 4-1. Former Iconic Village resident Elise Rosen pleaded to the San Marcos Zoning Board to deny the request to rebuild, citing poor management.

"It was awful; we were treated very poorly especially that we were paying them. It was not an apartment that was at all worth what we were paying them," Rosen said.

Rosen said she was there to speak on behalf of the five people who died in the fire. 

"We don't need more buildings on top of those people who lost their lives," Rosen said.

A handful of others spoke in opposition to the rebuild. No one spoke in favor of the project except for the representative there on behalf of Iconic Village.

"We will continue to work with the staff throughout the process to ensure that this is a project that San Marcos can be proud of," representative Matt Goebel said.

The new apartments will need to be up to current fire code. The representative stated existing buildings will be refitted with smoke alarms and fire extinguishers and building alterations to slow down the spread of fire.

"We want the same thing that everyone else does, we want to make sure that this kind of thing can never happen again so we're going to take the best steps that we know how to take to get there and we're open to pursuing all different avenues," Goebel said.

Board member and Texas State professor Rick Henderson said one of his students died in the fire. He was the only board member to vote no.

According to the site plans approved by the board, the developer is proposing two, new three-story buildings. Before the fire, the property consisted of 226 bedrooms. With the new proposed buildings, there will be a total of 266 bedrooms. The developer's plans indicate the property will be brought into conformance with the current development code including adding more parking and pedestrian access.

In November, the Iconic Village fire was ruled as incendiary, meaning it was intentionally set. There's an ongoing criminal investigation and a $10,000 reward leading to the arrest of those responsible. The five deaths have since been ruled as homicides.

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