CTroyMathis
19 January 2003, 10:21 PM
City Council votes to delay urban loft project
By PAUL MEYER , Staff writer 01/15/2003
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=6698076&BRD=1426&PAG=461&dept_id=186027&rfi=6
The Plano City Council has dealt a setback to developers who hoped to bring a slice of urban living to the northwest section of the city.
The council voted unanimously Monday to send plans for a 120-unit urban townhouse and condominium project, at the intersection of Rasor Drive and Ohio Drive, back to the city's Planning and Zoning commission for further review.
In so doing, council cited the original new-urbanist vision for the area as cause for skepticism about adding new townhomes and condominiums without accompanying retail and office space.
It was in 1997 that developers won approval for an ambitious plan on the roughly 240 acres on the southeast corner of Preston Road and State Highway 121 - a vision that included a multiscreen cinema, shopping center, office space, four-story apartment buildings, and a town center dubbed Haggard Square to anchor the mixture of uses.
But as similar projects have taken flight in downtown Plano and Legacy Park, Haggard Square has been an unrealized dream to date.
"Some of the land there has been sold off. There are three or four owners now, and so the integration concept appears to be falling apart," Councilman Shep Stahel said Tuesday.
"The original project was very aggressive, the original applicant was very aggressive in his dream, and he persuaded the zoning commission to give him permission for high-density residential development, which is an essential ingredient to a town center concept. That was the concept at the time, but it has not come to fruition."
The new urbanism concept tries to re-create the traditional village where people could walk to work, shopping and entertainment.
But as office, retail, and entertainment space has yet to emerge, the City Council expressed its concern Monday about the prospect of nothing but apartments in the area - asking the zoning commission to revisit plans for the district as a whole before approving new residential development.
"This was going to be a development guided by the new urbanism concept," Councilman Ken Lambert said. "We hoped it would not just be an 1,800-unit apartment complex in a cotton field."
Backers of the town home and condominium project, who struggled for months to win approval from a skeptical Planning and Zoning Commission, had hoped to provide the housing amenities of living in Uptown, the upscale part of Dallas in the McKinney Drive area, or Deep Ellum, Dallas' art and nightclub district, while adding to architectural diversity in a city best known for more conservative single-family homes.
Concept plans originally called for the loft portion of the project to be a reinforced concrete warehouse structure with a brick exterior, cast-stone arches, a rooftop pool, and a sparse industrial interior. Those plans were softened to gain preliminary approval.
"I understand exactly what they're saying about not wanting a 20- to 30-acre apartment complex in the middle of a cotton field, but you've got to have more residential development before you can have more retail and non-residential building," Jeff Gibson of Gallery Homes said Tuesday.
"We're not going to pull the plug on this project yet, but if the planning commission decides to re-examine the district as a whole, at that point we would pull the plug."
According to Gibson, new retail development has focused around Stonebriar mall, leaving a bear market for similar development across State Highway 121.
"There simply is no market to do non-residential development there," Gibson said. "Look at all of the retail to the north of 121 with the mall. There's also plenty of opportunity to get retail developed elsewhere around this land, but I don't understand why they're so hell bent on getting retail into this subdivision."
Original zoning for the area had required 30,000 square feet of retail space to accompany any housing project - a condition that the city's Planning and Zoning Commission waived in December when they approved Gibson's project after a series of meeting and work sessions.
The City Council, however, questioned the logic of doing away with the potential for new retail development at the expense of the original town center concept.
"I don't know whether the town center urban concept has a market right now, but if it does, I'd like to see it developed that way," Stahel said. "If it's not going to develop that way, then I think we need to look at entire parcel of property and revisit what better zoning should be."
Plano's Planning Director Phyllis Jarell said the original vision may still be viable if the market turns around.
"The original plans for this area had some new urbanist touches but was never conceived as a truly integrated project like downtown," Jarell said Tuesday. "There was to be separate retail and multifamily development that all came together at town square. I think the concept is still viable, but is like all other development subject to the whims of the market."
But for Gibson, who says his company has invested over $40,000 to date in trying to win city approval for the town home project, frustration is the order of the day.
"Now the City Council will make Planning and Zoning go back and re-examine the entire planned development district, and we're not interested in waiting for that when it could take three months or three years," Gibson said. "Logic would lead us to believe that since the commission supported us once, they would support us again, but logic doesn't seem to be a variable in this equation."
By PAUL MEYER , Staff writer 01/15/2003
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=6698076&BRD=1426&PAG=461&dept_id=186027&rfi=6
The Plano City Council has dealt a setback to developers who hoped to bring a slice of urban living to the northwest section of the city.
The council voted unanimously Monday to send plans for a 120-unit urban townhouse and condominium project, at the intersection of Rasor Drive and Ohio Drive, back to the city's Planning and Zoning commission for further review.
In so doing, council cited the original new-urbanist vision for the area as cause for skepticism about adding new townhomes and condominiums without accompanying retail and office space.
It was in 1997 that developers won approval for an ambitious plan on the roughly 240 acres on the southeast corner of Preston Road and State Highway 121 - a vision that included a multiscreen cinema, shopping center, office space, four-story apartment buildings, and a town center dubbed Haggard Square to anchor the mixture of uses.
But as similar projects have taken flight in downtown Plano and Legacy Park, Haggard Square has been an unrealized dream to date.
"Some of the land there has been sold off. There are three or four owners now, and so the integration concept appears to be falling apart," Councilman Shep Stahel said Tuesday.
"The original project was very aggressive, the original applicant was very aggressive in his dream, and he persuaded the zoning commission to give him permission for high-density residential development, which is an essential ingredient to a town center concept. That was the concept at the time, but it has not come to fruition."
The new urbanism concept tries to re-create the traditional village where people could walk to work, shopping and entertainment.
But as office, retail, and entertainment space has yet to emerge, the City Council expressed its concern Monday about the prospect of nothing but apartments in the area - asking the zoning commission to revisit plans for the district as a whole before approving new residential development.
"This was going to be a development guided by the new urbanism concept," Councilman Ken Lambert said. "We hoped it would not just be an 1,800-unit apartment complex in a cotton field."
Backers of the town home and condominium project, who struggled for months to win approval from a skeptical Planning and Zoning Commission, had hoped to provide the housing amenities of living in Uptown, the upscale part of Dallas in the McKinney Drive area, or Deep Ellum, Dallas' art and nightclub district, while adding to architectural diversity in a city best known for more conservative single-family homes.
Concept plans originally called for the loft portion of the project to be a reinforced concrete warehouse structure with a brick exterior, cast-stone arches, a rooftop pool, and a sparse industrial interior. Those plans were softened to gain preliminary approval.
"I understand exactly what they're saying about not wanting a 20- to 30-acre apartment complex in the middle of a cotton field, but you've got to have more residential development before you can have more retail and non-residential building," Jeff Gibson of Gallery Homes said Tuesday.
"We're not going to pull the plug on this project yet, but if the planning commission decides to re-examine the district as a whole, at that point we would pull the plug."
According to Gibson, new retail development has focused around Stonebriar mall, leaving a bear market for similar development across State Highway 121.
"There simply is no market to do non-residential development there," Gibson said. "Look at all of the retail to the north of 121 with the mall. There's also plenty of opportunity to get retail developed elsewhere around this land, but I don't understand why they're so hell bent on getting retail into this subdivision."
Original zoning for the area had required 30,000 square feet of retail space to accompany any housing project - a condition that the city's Planning and Zoning Commission waived in December when they approved Gibson's project after a series of meeting and work sessions.
The City Council, however, questioned the logic of doing away with the potential for new retail development at the expense of the original town center concept.
"I don't know whether the town center urban concept has a market right now, but if it does, I'd like to see it developed that way," Stahel said. "If it's not going to develop that way, then I think we need to look at entire parcel of property and revisit what better zoning should be."
Plano's Planning Director Phyllis Jarell said the original vision may still be viable if the market turns around.
"The original plans for this area had some new urbanist touches but was never conceived as a truly integrated project like downtown," Jarell said Tuesday. "There was to be separate retail and multifamily development that all came together at town square. I think the concept is still viable, but is like all other development subject to the whims of the market."
But for Gibson, who says his company has invested over $40,000 to date in trying to win city approval for the town home project, frustration is the order of the day.
"Now the City Council will make Planning and Zoning go back and re-examine the entire planned development district, and we're not interested in waiting for that when it could take three months or three years," Gibson said. "Logic would lead us to believe that since the commission supported us once, they would support us again, but logic doesn't seem to be a variable in this equation."