The parenthetical will be an inside joke to some of you. The details are here from the city’s latest press release. Punchline: no mixed use in Coppell, TX!

Will review the Council meeting minutes and discussion later.

Just a reminder, Coppell City Council will meet on 6/14/2016 starting with work session at 5:30pm. The Agenda is here and the relevant item is #10 on the agenda.  Please turn out and speak against the mixed use designations, even for the 3 or the current 8 on the map!

Coppell City Council will meet on June 14, 2016 (to get to the agenda) to consider this item (per the Citizens’ Advocate):

This is the Council consideration of what passed at the earlier P&Z meeting. So in general, we are in support of passing this change to the Comprehensive Land Use Map so it will look like this:

That said, there are a few other issues to be raised with City Council:

1. Where is the related zoning that will cover the Mixed Use areas?  Shouldn’t we have zoning ordinances that support this rather than having this all be done under PD ordinances?  Right now, we have no guidance beyond the Land Use Map.
2. What about the density limits of 10 units per acre?  We need to ensure this change is documented and part of the public record.
3. Do we really need a consultant to tell us what we need and want to do, per the city staff request?  Why can’t City Staff just conduct some public meetings to get the input necessary here and save us some tax dollars? (Not that I think Planning Director Gary Seib would take our input).
4. And finally, why are we back here with this?  We have been reaching out to Council and P&Z over two years to get this resolved.  Why is our city process for dealing with this so slow?

So the Coppell P&Z Commission (torturously, but it is not up yet) voted to only allow mixed use up to 10 units per acre at the following three locations: 1) Beltline and Beltline / Southwestern, 2) Beltline and MacArthur, and 3) Town Center and Denton Tap. The rest of the areas on the land use map are now off: no residential mixed with retail.  They are just retail only.  These are detailed in the maps posted earlier.  Per my emails with the Coppell Planning and Zoning director, Gary Seib, the following will be part of the map amendments and verbiage to the Coppell Comprehensive Plan:

page 42 of the written Comprehensive Plan contains the definition we are recommending be changed at the Council meeting of June 14.  We will utilize the same power point presentation format at the Council meeting and specifically recommend the following changes to the Mixed Use Community Center definition:  “To provide areas of (delete high intensity) mixed use development consisting of both neighborhood and community serving commercial, retail and office uses, and medium (delete to high) density urban residential dwellings (delete typically, add no) greater than (delete 8, add 10) dwelling units per acre.  Such areas are typically located in close proximity to major transportation corridors and transit stops.  These areas provide opportunities for regional destinations offering unique retail, restaurant and culture designations with more urban lifestyle than available in other areas of the community.

Would note that this specific amendment was not part of the Staff Report or the other documents presented at P&Z this past Thursday. So we need to ensure that this is part of what is presented to City Council.

So this will NOT be at the Coppell City Council meeting this Tuesday.  The next meeting on this will be the City Council meeting on 6/14/2016.  Hope you are willing to turnout and comment to Council about this.

Note the transparency questions on this.  Might want to raise these with Jean Murph at the Citizens’ Advocate who has been asking about this in Council agendas in recent issues.

Mixed Use Community Center = MUCC definition. Limits density to 10 units per acre

Final recommendations: the magical consulting solution

Adding two slides from tonight’s presentation as a teaser for tomorrow. Basically Coppell P&Z lowered the possible mixed use options in Coppell to 1) Beltline and Beltline / Southwestern, 2) Beltline and MacArthur, and 3) Town Center and Denton Tap.  So all of the other options have been eliminated and now Council will consider this at their meeting on 5/24/2016  6/14/2016 (yay, #Winning, and updated). Still need to turn out for that as well.  Will post more on the P&Z meeting and other issues we need to address in the next few days.  Check back here for more and the details on the Council agenda.

Coppell’s Planning and Zoning Commission will be meeting on May 19, 2016 at 6pm in City Council chambers to consider updates to the city’s Comprehensive Master Plan. Per the agenda, item number 8 is

PUBLIC HEARING: Discussion on the reanalysis of the area designated as Mixed Use-Neighborhood Center and Mixed Use-Community Center on the Future Land Use Plan of the Coppell 2030 Comprehensive Master Plan. STAFF REPS.: Gary Sieb & Marcie Diamond

Here are links to the Staff Report and the Land Use Analysis Study.  Most critical in this though is this new land use map for Coppell:

Here’s a PDF if you want it in higher resolution.

The main changes are the following:

1. Changes in the locations of the mixed use designations and neighborhood retail (see the documents).
2. Allowing densities over 8 unit per acre in some locations.

For comparison here’s the existing map:

So when you do mixed use, you do really need a big space in which to do it.  So the discussion here about Cypress Waters future development is worth reading and considering.

Remember, City Council meets this month to vote on the repeal of Coppell’s Mixed Use Zoning ordinance.

Coppell P&Z voted on Thursday, June 18, 2015 to repeal the exisitng MXD-1 and MXD-2 zoning ordinances in Coppell.  The details can be found here.  This next goes to Coppell City Council, on July 14, 2015.  Check back for more updates.

Here’s the news release from the City of Coppell:

Also gives the details of how you can send written feedback as well.  Easiest way is to email it to planning@coppelltx.gov.  See everyone at the hearing!

See more coverage here (Star Local/Coppell Gazette).