What happened: The Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously Monday, Aug. 3, to recommend a zone change that would let a developer build a 468-unit apartment complex on 20 acres at the southwest corner of Arlington Road and Deauville Boulevard. The commission also approved other items for new houses, two rebuilt drive-through restaurants, and a dry-cleaning drop-off across town.

Key points:

  • 468-unit apartments: A developer asked to rezone a 20-acre tract to a Planned Development (PD) district to allow 468 units instead of the 300 the current zoning would allow. The developer said they owned this property for eight years while looking for a way to make it financially viable.

The project would use only about two-thirds of the site, leaving the rest as open green space. The developer said under the current zoning, they could not financially justify building out the extension of Deauville. However, they said under PD, that they could commit to building and paying for its portion of Deauville plus a traffic circle at Deauville and Arlington.

  • L Street home combine lots: Miles Walker asked to combine two lots into one lot to build a house. Gary Gearhard, a next-door neighbor, read the commission a seven-item list of concerns including demolition noise and dust, privacy during construction, construction traffic, the construction schedule, protection of his fencing and utilities, and where the porta-potties would go.

The chairman said that most of Gearhard’s questions are related to the construction phase and that the applicant isn’t able to answer yet. He encouraged the two to keep talking. The replat passed 6-1.

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  • Solomon Lane rezone lot split: The commission unanimously approved Josh Jones’ request to rezone 309 Solomon Lane from Agricultural Estate, which requires a two-acre minimum, to SF-1 so that he can divide the property into two smaller lots. Neighbor Joseph Chan Price opposed it, calling the split detrimental to property values.

However, staff countered that several nearby lots are already smaller, and only three or four properties in the near vicinity meet the two-acre AE minimum. The chairman said he lives in the Solomon Lane area and that lot-split attempts in the neighborhood have gone both ways over the years. “Some have been approved, and some have not,” he said. “It kind of just depends on who’s making that decision at the time.”

  • Grassland Estates West lot combining: The commission unanimously approved a preliminary plat combining two lots at the northwest corner of Lakewood and Pearwood drives into a single 0.4-acre lot for one future home.
  • Dry-cleaning spot at Scharbauer and Main: The commission unanimously approved a preliminary plat of a one-acre tract at the northeast corner of West Scharbauer Drive and North Main Street for a new laundry and dry-cleaning drop-off and pickup business requested by Judy K. Moreland.
  • Drive-through restaurants at Caldera and Midkiff: The commission unanimously approved a preliminary plat splitting 4727 N. Midkiff Road into two lots. The site is currently a fast-food restaurant, with buildings that sit across the existing lot lines. The plan is to demolish and rebuild as two separate restaurants on two lots, each with a drive-through. The property will require a zone change before final plat approval.