Coppell Chronicle Vol. 3, No. 17

Kroger Gets Permission to Add Fuel Station • Council Pulls Plug on Batteries Facility • Fees for Lawsuit Increase by $400,000 • Canadian Coffee Chain Coming to Coppell

Happy Father’s Day to all of the other dad dudes out there. In my not-so-humble opinion, you’re setting a fine example for your children by staying informed about your community.

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Kroger Gets Permission to Add Fuel Station

The City Council OK’d a gas station on the east side of Kroger.

Tempers flared late Tuesday evening after the Coppell City Council approved the plans for a fuel station on Kroger’s parking lot.

Nerves were likely frayed due to the length of the proceedings. Because the public hearing was preceded by three proclamations and a separate hearing regarding a batteries facility, and because the council asked a LOT of questions during both hearings, the 5-2 vote on the Kroger proposal didn’t happen until 11:30. Nine residents weighed in on the fuel station, and the first one didn’t get to speak until 10:25.

After the Kroger vote, an upset man in the audience noted that the batteries facility was rejected, even though its proposed site was much farther from any homes than the gas station will be. “Great job, guys,” he told the council. “Great job tonight!” A woman on his side of the issue added, “Thank you. We won’t forget it!”

That wasn’t the first audience outburst of the hearing. Kroger’s plans call for the five double-sided pumps and a kiosk to be built directly east of the grocery store, not far from the homes on Pintail Court to the north. When Mayor Pro Tem John Jun said he would prefer that the fuel station be placed on the southeast corner of Kroger’s parking lot, a man interrupted him by saying, “Then don’t approve it!”

The plans call for the pumps to be located between the grocery store and MacArthur Boulevard.

Council Member Mark Hill said he would also have preferred the southeast corner, but the property owner said no, so Kroger is going with the next-best option.

“This is the location that the landlord approved,” Jackie Wolpert, a vice president at United Commercial Development who helped broker the deal, told the council. “If the location were to move, Kroger doesn’t actually have the right to put it anywhere else right now from the landlord.”

As of last June, Kroger’s landlord is a company called Coppell Wood Kroger LLC. Its mailing address is 1404 W. Pioneer Drive in Irving. There’s a business called Steve’s Storage at that site, which is owned by Stephen Neil Wood, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District. If Wood was at the hearing on Tuesday, he didn’t speak.

“I have a lot of mixed emotions around this,” Council Member Brianna Hinojosa-Smith said, “because I actually do feel that there is a need for a gas station in that area. I do feel like Kroger’s will be a good neighbor for what we need, and they’re hearing the concerns.”

Right before the final vote, Hinojosa-Smith looked at the Kroger representatives in the audience and said this about moving the pumps to the southeast corner: “I don’t know that y’all have a true ‘no’ to that. And that’s what I want to understand.”

Mayor Wes Mays responded by saying, “Depending on the result of the vote tonight, they could always come back with an amended plan to move the location.” But that debate ended when City Attorney Bob Hager — as he is wont to do — stepped up on the dais to whisper something that could not be picked up by any microphones, which is always helpful and not at all frustrating.

Council Member Don Carroll made the motion to approve the proposal, despite “sort of a history at this location of some difficulties between the tenant and the neighbors” regarding noise, landscaping, and lighting. “We’re going to have to end up trusting each other that we’re going to take care of this stuff and be good neighbors,” he said.

Hill amended Carroll’s motion by adding two conditions: Kroger must resolve the lighting/glare issues and add more trees. With nearby schools Lakeside Elementary and Universal Academy in mind, Council Member Kevin Nevels further amended the motion by adding a condition that says fuel cannot be delivered between 3 and 4 p.m. on weekdays.

Nevels pointed out that there used to be a gas station on the other side of MacArthur Boulevard, where CVS now stands. He supports bringing fuel pumps back to that intersection, but he also wants them on the southeast corner of Kroger’s parking lot.

“Kroger has shown in the past to sometimes be responsive, to sometimes not be responsive, to their neighbors, and I think that’s my big struggle,” Nevels said.

Nevels and Jim Walker cast the two votes against Kroger’s proposal.

“Some people are going to be looking out of their backyard at a gas station that wasn’t there when they bought the house,” Walker said, “and the people that show up to buy the house from them are going to take that into account.”

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Council Pulls Plug on Batteries Facility

As I told you earlier without issuing a spoiler alert, the City Council rejected a proposal to build a battery energy storage system on the west side of Coppell. That vote was unanimous.

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.

Mayor Wes Mays, who is an electrical engineer, told the council that the facility would be able to store enough electricity to power 445 houses for one hour.

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.

Matt Steer, the city’s Development Services Administrator, said RavenVolt is confident that a fire would not spread from one battery cabinet to another, but they have not proven that via a full-scale test. Such tests are in the works, though, and RavenVolt proposed this condition for the issuance of their building permit: No test results? No permit. Mays pointed out that the condition didn’t say the permit would be contingent on a positive result.

“Without actual physical testing of those units to make sure they won’t spread to one another, I don’t know that I can support this,” Council Member Mark Hill said.

The Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission did support it by a vote of 5-1 in May (see “Prospects Brighten for Batteries Facility” in Vol. 3, No. 15), but newly elected Council Member Jim Walker had resigned by then. He was still a commissioner back in March, when the first pass from Prologis and RavenVolt was rejected on a 4-3 vote after Walker peppered the companies’ representatives with questions. He had even more questions on Tuesday, so much so that Mays briefly paused the proceedings for an executive session.

In the end, Walker said a rural location on or near a wind farm would be a more appropriate location for a BESS than a suburban parking lot.

“I just don’t think this is a suitable land use, to put this that close to a neighborhood and businesses where people will be working,” he said.

Despite the unanimous rejection, this may not be the last word on energy storage in Coppell. After Tuesday’s vote, the mayor said this: “You could tell that we were intrigued with the proposal and look forward to future endeavors.”

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Fees for Lawsuit Increase by $400,000

Tuesday’s City Council meeting began with a closed-door discussion about Coppell’s lawsuit against Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar. Although I can’t tell you what the attorneys said during that 28-minute executive session, I can tell you what they’re charging the city for their counsel.

The consent agenda for that meeting included an ordinance amending the budget in several ways. I would have cruised right past that had Mayor Pro Tem John Jun not asked for a clarification about the amended legal fees.

The following is from Director of Strategic Financial Engagement Kim Tiehen’s memo to the council: “Legal fees are also being increased $529,539 for the litigation related to Rule 3.334. The amount includes $400,000, which is the estimated cost for the summary judgement and trial, plus $129,539, which is the amount remaining from the $300,000 approved on April 12, 2022. A purchase order was not created for the full $300,000, so any unspent budget did not carry over into the new fiscal year.”

At Jun’s request, Tiehen clarified that the total bill is up to $700,000 — $300,000 approved in April 2022 plus $400,000 approved on Tuesday.

For anyone who’s not aware, Rule 3.334 is Hegar’s proposal to shift sales taxes for online transactions from the seller’s city to the buyer’s city. This would be a huge financial hit for warehouse-heavy cities such as Coppell, which would lose about $27 million per year, or 18 percent of its annual revenue, if the rule is allowed to take effect.

Coppell is one of six cities involved in the lawsuit that was filed in 2021. The others are Carrollton, DeSoto, Farmers Branch, Humble, and Round Rock. (I’ll have to do more research to find out what the attorneys are charging those towns.) After multiple delays, the trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 16, 2024.

By the way, Jun was not Mayor Pro Tem when he asked for that clarification. That title was bestowed upon him later on Tuesday evening, in keeping with the tradition of giving it to the senior council member who has not yet held it. Biju Mathew has been Mayor Pro Tem for the past 12 months. I expect the title will go to Kevin Nevels next year.

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Canadian Coffee Chain Coming to Coppell

For reasons I can’t explain, my son with special needs has been watching a CBS Sunday Morning story about Tim Hortons on YouTube for years. Due to his obsession with it, I was excited to learn that the Canadian chain of coffee and donut shops plans to open a store in Coppell.

On Thursday, the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission considered a pair of zoning requests regarding a Tim Hortons and a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen that would be built along State Highway 121 near Freeport Parkway. The plans for each restaurant — both of which could use an apostrophe in their names — feature double drive-thru lanes. Here’s how the entire development may eventually shake out.

In 2020, the City Council approved plans for a Four Points by Sheraton hotel that has not yet been built.

Back in February, the commission endorsed a similar set of requests for a Popeyes and a Starbucks, but those plans fizzled because the coffee giant backed out. That was no big loss, in this reporter’s opinion. We already have three places to buy Frappuccinos in Coppell, if you count the Starbucks inside Market Street and the Starbucks inside Tom Thumb, which is not to be confused with the Starbucks just a few doors down from Tom Thumb.

By contrast, a Tim Hortons in Coppell would be the first such restaurant in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and only the third outlet for Timbits (donut holes) in all of Texas. The chain opened a store in the Houston suburb of Katy last August, followed by a second location in Houston proper. This image from the Tim Hortons franchising website labels Texas as a “priority new market.”

That drawing of Texas must have been done by a Canadian, eh?

The commission unanimously endorsed all of the zoning changes requested by developer Archway 121 Coppell, but they are still subject to the City Council’s approval. Those changes should be on the council’s July 11 agenda.

In other restaurant news …

• Just as former Canadians will be excited about Tim Hortons expanding to Texas, former Carolinians will be excited about Bojangles expanding to Texas. I know of no plans for a Coppell location, but I’ve seen the chicken-and-biscuits chain’s signage go up in Euless, at State Highway 183 and Main Street. That store is not yet open, though.

• Tupelo Honey officially opened for business last week in Las Colinas, on the south side of the intersection of State Highways 114 and 360.

• If you were hoping to see another restaurant take over the location that Anamia’s vacated in 2021, when the Tex-Mex restaurant moved across Denton Tap Road, I have bad news: That space will soon be occupied by a veterinary clinic called CityVet, according to a form filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

• It’s been more than six months since a Shipley Do-Nuts logo was added to the leasing brochure for Coppell Market Center (the shopping center anchored by Market Street), but there’s still no evidence at the property of the donut chain’s impending arrival. It’s supposed to take over the drive-thru space formerly occupied by Subway.

• The leasing brochure for Point West (the shopping center on the northwest corner of South Belt Line Road and Interstate 635) says an additional 3,330-square-foot restaurant space has been leased near Panera Bread and Yummy Thai. When I asked a Venture Commercial Real Estate official for more details, all she could say was that they’re working on a lease with a “chicken concept.” But she promised to reveal the name once all the paperwork is signed, and she added, “I am sure residents will love it as much as we do!” Any guesses? Perhaps Bojangles? It can’t be a Chick-fil-A, because the building is not equipped for a drive-thru.

• The leasing brochure for Valley Ranch Plaza (the shopping center on the southwest corner of East Belt Line Road and MacArthur Boulevard) indicates the space next to Subway will soon be occupied by Bombay Pizza. That name brought to mind one of the greatest conversations in cinema history.

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Chronicle Crumbs

• I mistakenly published this information in last week’s edition, even though the holiday is not called Junetwelfth: Most City of Coppell facilities will be closed tomorrow in observance of Juneteenth. The exceptions are The CORE, which will be open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the Wagon Wheel Tennis and Pickleball Center, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The holiday won’t affect trash collection.

• State Rep. Julie Johnson is widely expected to announce a run for Congress soon. She’d be trying to replace U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who aims to take on U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2024. That means Johnson’s seat in the Legislature would come open. She represents District 115, which encompasses all of Addison, most of Coppell, and portions of Carrollton, Farmers Branch, and Irving.

• Johnson’s predecessor as our state representative, Matt Rinaldi, was once at Hat Creek Burger Company with his family at the same time that I dined there with my family. As we drove past Hat Creek the other day, my younger son struggled to come up with the right name from the right: “Remember when we saw Ron DeSantis there?”

• CBS 11 recently aired a report on the Coppell ISD Education Foundation’s Robotics Camp, which was sponsored by McLaren, the luxury car company that moved its North American headquarters to Coppell last year.

• On June 2, the Plano Police Department announced that eight people were arrested while trying to burglarize an ATM at a 7-Eleven in Denton. The Plano cops’ press release said these arrests were “the result of a multijurisdictional operation whose goal was to bring these suspects to justice.” Because that release said Coppell detectives were involved, I asked Officer Kelly Luther whether these suspects were the cretins who recently tried to steal an ATM from a 7-Eleven in Coppell. (See “Knuckleheads Fail to Steal Cash Machine” in Vol. 3, No. 12.) She said the Coppell detectives’ investigation is ongoing, so they are not yet ready to release anything.

• Coppell resident Angi Abercrombie is vying to appear on the cover of Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine, and she needs your votes to beat the competition. Click here to support her, if you’re so inclined. The voting deadline is 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Angi Abercrombie is fit at 50.

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Community Calendar

Allies in Community: This City of Coppell program “builds relationships through common ground, fosters a deep sense of belonging, and enhances residents’ active engagement.” TODAY is the application deadline for Cohort IV.

Storytime at Coppell Heritage Park: The Coppell Historical Society is hosting free storytimes on select Wednesdays this summer. A historical book will be read at each storytime followed by an activity. The next one is scheduled for 10 a.m. this Wednesday.

Situational Awareness: Coppell Police Department officers will be at the Cozby Library and Community Commons at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday to discuss situational awareness with high school students. A similar program for middle school students is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Coppell Nature Park Restoration Project: Learn about prairie ecology and the importance of its preservation, while helping with maintenance and restoration tasks, between 9 a.m. and noon on Thursday. Volunteers are asked to wear protective clothing and bring plenty of drinking water.

Parade Down Parkway: If you want to participate in the City of Coppell’s Independence Day parade, which is scheduled for the morning of July 4, you must submit a completed application by 5 p.m. on Friday.

Coffee With a Cop: Coppell Police Department officers will be hanging out at Coppell ER between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.

The Hit Men: Relive rock’s greatest hits with a band comprised of five musicians who have shared stages with Billy Joel, Elton John, and Sting, as well as members of Cheap Trick, Foreigner, and Journey. The amps will get cranked up at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Coppell Arts Center.

How to Make Great Coffee Every Time: Coppell resident Justin Runyon, who sells his Runyon Coffee Roasting Coffee beans at the Coppell Farmers Market, will discuss how coffee is grown, sourced, and roasted at 2 p.m. on June 25 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons. This free event, which is for adults 18 and older, will include tastings of different preparation methods.

Wings of Fire Fest: Fans of the dragon-centric series of “Wings of Fire” novels are invited to stop by the Cozby Library and Community Commons for crafts, activities, and games between 2 and 3 p.m. on June 28.

Friends of Coppell Nature Park Guided Hike: The wonders of insects found in the local ecosystem will be the focus of the guided hike scheduled for 6 p.m. on June 28. Hikers are asked to wear protective clothing and bring water. Registration is required, and children must be accompanied by an adult.

Party in the Park: Coppell’s big Independence Day celebration will start at 6 p.m. on July 1 in Andrew Brown Park East. There will be food trucks, lawn games, and live music by Micky and the Motorcars and The Spazmatics. An 18-minute fireworks show will start at about 9:45 p.m.

Sparks & Stripes: The City of Irving’s Independence Day parade is scheduled for 9 a.m. on July 4 in the Heritage District. A fireworks show preceded by live music is scheduled for the evening of July 4 at the Levy Event Plaza in Las Colinas.

Electronic Recycling Event: The Coppell Community Chorale will take any unwanted items off your hands between 9 a.m. and noon on July 8 at the Coppell Arts Center.

Young Frankenstein: Theatre Coppell will stage nine performances of the musical based on Mel Brooks’ classic comedy. The first one is scheduled for 8 p.m. on July 14 at the Coppell Arts Center.