Thursday, May 15, 2008

Richardson City Council review — May 12, 2008

By Andrew Laska of Richardson Echo

RICHARDSON — The Richardson City Council covered the following items at its May 12, 2008 meeting.

Besides the smoking ordinance we covered in another story, the council took the following action.

Higher water rates coming

The City Council voted to raise water rates 7-0. This comes for two reasons mainly.

First, there was a budget shortfall in water revenue because heavy rains last year reduced demand. Second, Richardson (and most other North Texas cities north of Dallas) use the North Texas Municipal Water District for water which has a “take or pay” system which requires us to pay for a volume of water even though the city does not use it. The rate increase will be about 15.5%.

Retail zoning approved near Campbell and Coit

Since November 2007, the City Council was wrestling with a residential proposal near Campbell and Coit. This was an extension of the Lake Park Estate town home development.

The council had been rejecting the request and seeking adjustment due to proposal for low square footage condominiums requested by the developer. There were fears this would turn into de facto high to medium density rental properties.

After adjustments by the developer and certain changes where he said he could not make profit from the changes the council eventually rejected the entire proposal in April. We covered one of the first council meetings on this. Click Here.

Part of the development proposal included a 2.5 acre plot zoning change from office to retail in order to allow restaurant development along Campbell Road. This was to include a Braum’s location which would actually be a relocation of their store currently located near Campbell and Nantucket.

On Monday, the city council approved, by a 6-1 vote with Pris Hayes in opposition, to allow the 2.5 acre retail rezoning which would include some curb cuts which allow access from Campbell Road. Also included are some diverters in the Campbell median to assuage traffic concerns.

Sprouts zoning variance approved

Sprouts, a high end retail grocer, is in the process of taking over half of the space of the former Albertson's at the corner of Coit and Campbell. They ran into a snag when it turned out they had to build a loading dock into the building because the half of the building they were renting did not have one.

The snag occurred because the new dock would be too close the residential development located to the south of the shopping center. In fact, when I visited the site the week before the council meeting, it appeared the work on the dock was halted and only partially completed. It appears that they may have been informed of the problems and stopped work pending an outcome. Sprouts would have to get a zoning variance to complete the work.

Several people wrote letters in opposition to the city. However, Sprouts officials met directly with the homeowners and in the end there was only one letter in opposition with all other homeowners writing letters of withdrawal of opposition. Apparently the Sprouts officials put their concerns at ease.

The Council approved the request with a vote of 7-0.

Brick Row variances approved

Winston Capital asked for further variances in the Brick Row multi-use development (formerly Centennial Park). Some of these variances were allowances in the percentages of unit size for one bedroom units for the apartment phase of the development.

The request appeared to be a give and take where the lowest size of apartment allowable would not be requested but Winston was asking for a greater percentage below the average size. Dennis Stewart and Gary Slagel questioned Chris Rey from Winston Capital and pressed him to give exact numbers of units.

Shelley McCall, president of the Highland Terrace Homeowners Association, questioned the request and hoped for higher priced units.

McCall also mentioned my name in comments to the council when she mentioned the razing of all most all trees from the former site. I had not spoken to Mrs. McCall personally but mentioned to another person that I had spoken to Winston about their efforts of tree preservation on the site. They had marked trees so that demolition crews would avoid them but in the past few weeks even those trees were removed.

Other variances included reductions in sidewalks in small areas. Another included smaller distances to the street (by 6 inches) because building facades would protrude into the space.

The council approved the variances by a 7-0 vote.

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