Coppell Chronicle Vol. 3, No. 4

Old Town Proposal Wins Unanimous Support • Commissioners Wary of Batteries Facility • Trail Project Delayed by Antiquities Survey • Irving Targets Hookah Hooligans

Because schools were on spring break last week, we’re going to take a break from our weekly articles on Coppell ISD’s bond election. New readers can review the bond articles from the four previous editions by clicking here.

Despite the fact that the Coppell City Council also took last week off, there is still SO MUCH NEWS to report. Let’s get to it.

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Old Town Proposal Wins Unanimous Support

Greg Frnka created these preliminary images at Chris Collins’ request.

Chris Collins’ second attempt to redevelop a major intersection in Old Town Coppell is already going better than his first try.

Last November, all but one member of the Planning and Zoning Commission got behind Collins’ vision for the southwest corner of Main Street and Bethel Road. (That vision would be narrowly rejected by the City Council on a 3-4 vote in December.) On Thursday, the commissioners unanimously supported Collins’ revised proposal.

(See “Old Church Remains Standing for Now” in Vol. 2, No. 43.)

The main revisions concern the specific uses for each of the six buildings that Collins wants to construct. Under the proposal rejected by the City Council, the building on the corner would have been zoned for retail, two others would have been zoned for residential above retail, and the remaining three would have been zoned for residential above offices. The revised proposal has the corner building zoned for either retail or restaurant uses, and restaurants would also be possible in each of the three buildings fronting Main. However, the two buildings along Bethel would be zoned for residential above offices.

“All of this is with the hopes that we’re gonna be able to turn what Old Town looks like today into a more vibrant, bustling area,” Collins told the commissioners on Thursday.

During that public hearing, Rory and Sarah Carrick of Jacaranda Gift Shop, Joe Shirley of Bethel Road Barber Shop, and Karen Ward of Cottage Salon all registered their opposition, as they did last year. Speaking in support of Collins’ proposal on Thursday were Jeff Varnell, who chaired the Coppell Chamber of Commerce when it occupied the church annex on the corner in question, and former Planning and Zoning Commissioner Ann Dragon, who owns property in Old Town — specifically, the building at 779 W. Main.

Dragon described Collins’ proposal as “exactly what we were asking for 20 years ago. He’s showing you guys what we had talked about.”

The current commissioners expressed sympathy for the business owners who are worried about the fate of their older buildings, but Vice Chair Glenn Portman said nobody else has presented a better proposal for the long-dormant church on the southwest corner or the land underneath it.

“This may not be the perfect development for the front of Old Town, but it’s a whole lot better than not having anything,” Portman said.

After voting on the proposed rezoning, the commissioners considered a demolition permit for the church and annex. Sue Blankenship said she couldn’t recall voting on such a permit during her years as a commissioner. Senior Planner Mary Paron-Boswell said that’s because previous demolitions weren’t in Coppell’s Historic District.

Commission Chair Edmund Haas noted that the city staff had no opinion on the demolition permit, even though they recommended approval of the zoning change; Haas wanted to know how that could be. Paron-Boswell, who has a knack for carefully choosing her words, said only this with a smile: “We have no recommendation.”

Commissioner Jim Walker summed things up by saying, “We can’t build the new development on top of the old buildings,” before the demolition permit was approved on a 5-2 vote, with Blankenship and Haas in the minority.

The zoning change and demolition permit still must be approved by the City Council. Before those votes happen on April 11, the council will host a community conversation on Old Town’s future. That event is set for 6 p.m. on March 30 at the Coppell Senior and Community Center. See you there?

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Commissioners Wary of Batteries Facility

Most of Coppell’s Planning and Zoning Commission had a dim view of a plan to build an electricity storage facility on the west side of town.

As proposed, the battery energy storage system (BESS) would accumulate up to 9.9 megawatts of power during periods of low demand. This energy would be stored in lithium-ion batteries until needed, when it would flow back into the grid.

A firm called Prologis wants to place the BESS on the northwest corner of its property at 360 Freeport Parkway, due north of a Subaru training facility. The storage system would be built by a Georgia company called RavenVolt.

When asking about the safety record for such projects during Thursday’s meeting, Commission Chair Edmund Haas referenced the lithium-ion batteries that have exploded in Tesla cars. RavenVolt’s Brandon Lackey pointed out that the batteries in this proposal aren’t exactly like the ones in Teslas. “Even though they’re often both called ‘lithium ion,’ they do have a different chemistry design,” Lackey said.

Lackey said these lithium-ion batteries and their outdoor cabinets have been tested by an independent third party, UL Solutions. Each cabinet contains multiple modules, and Lackey said heat did not discharge from one module to the next during testing. Nonetheless, each cabinet has its own fire-suppression system.

Commissioner Jim Walker asked how many BESS facilities RavenVolt has built in Texas; Lackey said this would be the first. Walker then asked how many of these facilities exist within ERCOT’s coverage area. Lackey didn’t know, but Prologis’ Jacob Morgan chimed in via Zoom to say there are more than 100 such facilities providing a few gigawatts’ worth of energy. While the system proposed in Coppell would store less than 10 megawatts’ worth of energy, Morgan said there are others in Texas that stockpile 300 to 400 megawatts.

(In case you’re not aware, 1 gigawatt equals 1,000 megawatts. As I’m sure you’re aware, 1.21 gigawatts can be generated by a bolt of lightning, which is the amount of power you’d need to jumpstart a flux capacitor, which is what makes time travel possible.)

Walker — who is competing with Smart City Board Chair Ramesh Premkumar in Coppell’s only City Council campaign — had lots of other questions, which Haas later called a “cross examination” that he was not expecting. Walker wanted to know what kind of metal is used to house the batteries, how thick that metal is, what the components of the fire-suppression systems are, and whether the applicants had studied how wind could potentially carry fumes to the neighborhoods on the east side of North Coppell Road.

Lackey did not have answers for several of these questions, which led Commissioner Cindy Bishop to say, “I don’t think now is the right time to vote on this, because I don’t have enough information.”

Commission Vice Chair Glenn Portman countered with this: “Given the fact that Prologis is the backer of this facility and has done the due diligence for it, I think we’re probably OK. If there’s a disaster, Prologis is the first party getting sued.”

(The previous sentence would be a horrible slogan for Prologis.)

While acknowledging that Lackey couldn’t answer many questions about fire suppression, City Attorney Bob Hager said the commissioners probably weren’t experts in that field either. So he advised them to attach a condition regarding an inspection by firefighters.

“I don’t want you to make that judgment,” Hager told the commissioners. “I want the fire marshal to make the judgment.”

A few minutes later, Portman followed Hager’s advice and made a motion for approval that included a condition regarding a permit from the Coppell Fire Department. Ed Maurer seconded Portman’s motion, which failed on a 3-4 vote. Sue Blankenship was the only other commissioner to support it.

Per usual, the final decision lies with the City Council. Like the votes on the Old Town proposal, that hearing is scheduled for April 11.

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Trail Project Delayed by Antiquities Survey

The extension of the Magnolia Park trail has been a long time coming, but the project has been delayed by an effort with a much longer timeline: a search for historical relics.

The Coppell Parks and Recreation Board was recently informed that the trail cannot be considered fully designed until an antiquities survey is completed. Director of Community Experiences Jessica Carpenter said “some sort of artifact” was found on the property before the park was developed.

“It could have even been as simple as an arrowhead,” Carpenter told the board on March 6. “But because there is a documented artifact find on that site, since we’re disturbing the site, we’re required to perform an antiquities survey.”

(See “Magnolia Park Trail’s Path Finally Set” in Vol. 1, No. 49.)

Such research is required by the Antiquities Code of Texas, which begins with this mouthful of a declaration: “It is the public policy and in the public interest of the State of Texas to locate, protect, and preserve all sites, objects, buildings, pre-twentieth century shipwrecks, and locations of historical, archeological, educational, or scientific interest, including but not limited to prehistoric and historical American Indian or aboriginal campsites, dwellings, and habitation sites, archeological sites of every character, treasure imbedded in the earth, sunken or abandoned ships and wrecks of the sea or any part of their contents, maps, records, documents, books, artifacts, and implements of culture in any way related to the inhabitants, pre-history, history, natural history, government, or culture in, on, or under any of the land in the State of Texas, including the tidelands, submerged land, and the bed of the sea within the jurisdiction of the State of Texas.”

Assistant Director of Community Experiences Adam Richter told me via email that the survey is being conducted by the “cultural resources management team” at Halff Associates, a frequent city contractor. The Texas Historical Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will then review the results and determine whether the trail project would impact any properties eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places or designation as state antiquities landmarks. If they do make such a determination, I hope somebody says this:

Richter estimated the entire process will take 120 days. The goal is to achieve final approval by June 30.

“As soon as we get the 100-percent design documents, we will be getting that out to bid ASAP,” Carpenter told the Parks and Recreation Board, “because we are very, very ready for this project to get underway.”

In other parks news …

Wagon Wheel Park: At the request of the Coppell Sports Council — an advisory group comprised of the presidents of sports organizations such as the Coppell Youth Soccer Association and the Coppell Baseball Association — the Community Experiences Department is going to budget for fencing around the soccer practice fields. This map shows where the fences would go.

While the exact type of fencing remains to be determined, the goal (no pun intended) will be to prevent adults from tearing up the turf by having pickup games on the practice fields during inclement weather. This has long been a problem for the Coppell Youth Soccer Association, as I wrote about way back in Vol. 1, No. 9.

“This is our first foray into fencing any of our fields, and we don’t want it to look like a prison yard,” Carpenter said, evoking memories of when Coppell ISD installed barbed wire at Coppell Middle School North’s stadium in 2016. “We need to be really intentional about the material that we select there.”

Meanwhile, a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new cricket pitch behind the Wagon Wheel batting cages has been set for 11 a.m. on April 4. Despite that schedule, I’ve already seen a group of batsmen enjoying themselves there.

Duck Pond Park: The project that I most recently detailed in Vol. 1, No. 39 just went out to bid for construction. Via a legal notice published in the Rambler, I learned that the bidding deadline is 2 p.m. this Thursday.

Waggin’ Tails Dog Park: Carpenter said the design phase of the dog park’s makeover — which I just wrote about in Vol. 2, No. 52 — should take about 60 days, and then it will go out to bid for construction. Once dirt starts turning, Carpenter said, the park will be closed for six to 12 months. That’ll give local dog owners something to bark about.

Town Center Plaza: A focus group of local veterans got together on Feb. 23 to discuss a veterans memorial in the city. Carpenter said they favored Town Center Plaza as the location and they would prefer that the memorial not feature the names of individual veterans. Via a legal notice published in the Coppell Gazette, I learned the Coppell Recreation Development Corporation has scheduled a public hearing on this project for 6:30 p.m. on May 15.

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Irving Targets Hookah Hooligans

Irving’s government is cracking down on criminal activity at the city’s hookah lounges.

During the City Council’s Feb. 2 work session, Police Chief Derick Miller said such establishments “have definitely become a source of criminality.” There are at least nine hookah lounges in Irving, per this map that Assistant City Manager Philip Sanders displayed that day.

Police responded to 376 incidents at Irving’s hookah lounges in 2021 and 2022, Miller said. These crimes included shootings, fights, and public consumption of alcohol outside the lounges. Thanks to the work of undercover officers, Miller said this confidently: “There’s more than tobacco being smoked in the devices.”

Hookah lounges often host ticketed parties that are promoted as BYOB (bring your own beer) events. The real challenge, Miller said, is that these parties happen early in the morning.

“We start seeing an uptick in activity anywhere from 1:30 to 2 a.m., and then the activity strengthens and intensifies all the way until 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. in the morning, and then it’s not until those times that you have a mass exodus all at once,” Miller said. “This has become extremely difficult for us, because this is the time of day when we’re seeing most, if not all, of our criminality.”

Code Enforcement Director Shane Diller told the council that a task force of police officers, firefighters, and code enforcement officers will visit the hookah lounges during promoted events and look out for violations regarding building occupancy limits, parking limits, and food/beverage sales. Those findings would be referred to the city attorney for possible legal action.

Meanwhile, the agenda for tomorrow’s Irving Planning and Zoning Commission work session includes a discussion of proposed changes to the city’s ordinances. Those changes include creating a separate land-use category for hookah lounges, which would be formally defined as “an establishment where patrons share tobacco products from a communal hookah or from one placed at each table or a bar. May include retail sales of tobacco and hookah accessory products. At no time shall a hookah lounge be used as a nightclub or concert hall or for similar entertainment purposes.”

The Planning and Zoning Commission will host a public hearing on these proposed changes on April 3. The City Council will do the same on April 20. (If the police chief is right about hookah users smoking substances other than tobacco, then it’s ironic that the final hammer may be dropped on 4/20.)

Irving’s City Council has been spending a lot of time on smoking and drinking in 2023. They recently loosened the rules for alcohol sales in restaurants, and they also instituted an indoor smoking ban that takes effect this Saturday. Additionally, the council has their staff working on an ordinance that would require BYOB establishments to obtain city permits.

(See “Irving Eateries Can Get a Bit Boozier” in Vol. 2, No. 52.)

During the Feb. 2 work session, Council Member Kyle Taylor thanked the city staff for their hard work on addressing what he said has been a “humongous issue” in his district, where most of the hookah lounges are located. To be clear, Taylor said not all of the lounges are problematic.

“We’ve got some people that are good people that have run good businesses in their neighborhood and are not problems,” Taylor said. “Then you’ve got some yahoos that come in here and want to stir it up and ruin it for everybody.”

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Congratulations Are in Order

• Congratulations to Coppell Middle School North seventh-grader Sriya Gomatam, who earned a berth in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will begin on May 30 in suburban Washington, D.C.

• Congratulations to the Coppell High School Chess Club, which won a team competition at the Texas State Scholastic Chess Championships and qualified for nationals. Fourteen players scored points for the Cowboys, and two of them won individual championships: Sharvesh Deviprasath and Matthew Xie.

• Congratulations to Coppell High School senior Jules LaMendola, who has been named the Gatorade Texas High School Basketball Player of the Year. The future Indiana Hoosier received a similar title from MaxPreps.

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Chronicle Crumbs

• If your commute involves State Highway 114, you should know the Texas Department of Transportation plans to widen the stretch between DFW Airport and Riverside Drive in Irving. Click here for more details.

• The Five Guys burger chain plans to expand to the southwest corner of Interstate 635 and Belt Line Road, according to a form filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

• A banner affixed to the shuttered Hooters along Interstate 635 says the breastaurant’s abandoned location will soon become an all-you-can-eat joint called Japan House. I wonder if they’ll try to rehire all of the former servers.

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Community Calendar

Sunset Socials — Music in Old Town: I assume we’ll hear plenty of hits by George Michael and Steve Winwood when The Elton Johns perform at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Carter BloodCare Blood Drive: The City of Coppell invites you to roll up your sleeve and donate a pint of blood between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday at Fire Station 3, which is at 133 Parkway Blvd.

Ladies’ Choice: The Coppell Community Chorale will perform “our most ambitious concert yet” at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Coppell Arts Center.

Silver Line Community Update: Representatives from DART and contractor Archer Western Herzog will be at George Coffee + Provisions to answer questions about the Silver Line from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. on March 27. If you know people who insist on driving south on Mockingbird Lane, despite the recent closure of the southbound lanes, invite them to this meeting.

Sorority 101: The Coppell Alumnae Panhellenic Association will host an online forum from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on March 29. High school seniors and their parents are encouraged to learn more about National Panhellenic Conference sorority benefits and membership. Click the link to register.

Dog Days — Fashion Show and Adoption Event: Advance registration is required if you want your four-legged friend to strut his or her stuff at 10 a.m. on April 1 at the Coppell Arts Center. The categories include Best Matching Costume (owner/dog), Most Creative Costume, and Best Accessorized Pooch.