Coppell Chronicle Vol. 3, No. 26
Architects Design Own Home on Denton Tap • Plan for ‘Fortress’ Wall Fails to Pass Muster • Prescription Powder Produced Only in Coppell • Kroger’s Landlord Agrees to Move Pumps
“Lord Almighty, feel my temperature rising. Higher, higher; it’s burning through to my soul. Girl, girl, girl, girl, you gonna set me on fire. My brain is flaming; I don't know which way to go.” — author unknown
Architects Design Own Home on Denton Tap
A couple’s plan to reside on one of Coppell’s major thoroughfares has cleared its first hurdle.
Architects Jose Fernando Teruya and Eliana Moromizato Teruya want to build a house and an adjacent office building on Denton Tap Road. Last year, the longtime Coppell residents bought an oddly shaped lot that is due south of Bailey Orthodontics. The 2-acre property along a creek is zoned for commercial uses.
On Thursday, a majority of the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission endorsed the Teruyas’ request to create a planned development district so they can live and work on the property. (She is the general manager of his namesake firm, FTA Design Studio.) Commissioner Cindy Bishop had to recuse herself from the debate because she lives on Wales Court, a cul-de-sac on the other side of the creek.
Bishop’s husband, Glenn Bishop, was one of three Wales Court residents who spoke against the Teruyas’ proposal on Thursday, but he said more than a dozen neighbors have concerns about how the development could affect their views, their property values, and erosion along the creek. Bishop pointed out that the Teruyas would be the only Coppell residents with a Denton Tap address.
“Seems more like Houston than Coppell,” he said of their plans.
(In case you’re not aware, the nation’s fourth-largest city has no zoning laws. Commission Chair Edmund Haas said he couldn’t recall anyone ever comparing Coppell to Houston before Thursday.)
Ana Rodriguez, a friend of the Teruyas, spoke in favor of their proposal. She lives on Olympia Lane, the other street with properties abutting the Teruyas’ lot, and Rodriguez said she doubts any commercial developments on the land would be as aesthetically pleasing as what they want to build.
City planner Mary Paron-Boswell said other developers have tried to figure out a variety of uses for the lot over the years, including a scheme to squeeze in a fast-food restaurant with a drive-thru lane.
“It’s definitely a challenging site, and this has made the most sense for us,” she said of the Teruyas’ proposal.
Haas congratulated the Teruyas for designing something that would fit on this odd property, but he was sympathetic to the neighbors’ concerns. “I’m really wrestling with this one,” said Haas, who asked whether the city would be setting a precedent for residential development on Denton Tap. Paron-Boswell pointed out that this would be just one house, as opposed to an entire subdivision.
Jose Teruya told Haas and the other commissioners that the couple’s top priorities are health, safety, and welfare. Their proposal would protect the creek by limiting access, he said, because people treat their undeveloped property as a park these days. He also said the new buildings would reduce traffic noise for Wales Court residents.
Teruya said there are 112 trees on the site, and they want to keep as many of them as possible. He said they intend to remove only the trees that are dying or are in the footprints of their planned buildings. That said, if the zoning for the southern lot is changed to residential, they would be free to cut down every tree on that lot without penalty.
The ultimate decision regarding the zoning change lies with the City Council. This case is scheduled to appear on their Sept. 12 agenda.
Plan for ‘Fortress’ Wall Fails to Pass Muster
A plan to erect a wall of stone and iron in one of Coppell’s ritzier neighborhoods has been met with opposition.
Cherie Cao purchased her home on Deforest Road last April. It’s valued at $1.3 million, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District. Cao wants to build a 7-foot wall with 8-foot columns spanning the front of her property.
Her application also includes a request to build a 750-square-foot pool cabana that would be 24 feet tall. That’s 8 feet higher than what’s allowed in the city’s newly updated rules for accessory structures. But the wall in the front yard is the more controversial part of her proposal.
Cao was represented at Thursday’s Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission meeting by architect Greg Frnka. The primary motivation for building the wall is security, he said, but it would also reduce Cao’s view of her neighbors’ garages on Cheshire and Lake Forest drives.
Frnka said the wall would not be out of place on Deforest. If you head east on that road from MacArthur Boulevard, Cao’s house is the third one you’ll pass with a Deforest address. But the first two aren’t close to the road, and the second one is so far back you can’t even see it from Deforest.
(That second house was the subject of an article I wrote way back in the second edition of this newsletter. See “Neighbors Concerned About Short-Term Rentals” in Vol. 1, No. 2.)
Before you get to the Cao home, you’ll pass three side streets: Prestwick Court, Inglenook Court, and Stratford Lane. Frnka pointed out that the houses on the south ends of those streets all have tall walls shielding their side yards from prying eyes.
Commissioner Freddie Guerra said he views the Cao property as being part of the more-open area to the east, so he was against the proposal. So was Julia Albright, who owns the next house you’d pass if you continued driving east on Deforest. She’s lived there for eight years without a wall separating her property from the road.
“The neighborhood is a lovely neighborhood,” Albright said. “There’s no reason to build a fortress to hide things.”
Albright was one of four residents who spoke against the proposal. Others echoed her sentiments about security not being a problem in their neighborhood, but they did have concerns about safety. They alleged that the proposed wall would make the nearby intersection of Deforest and Lake Forest more dangerous.
In response to a question from Commissioner Kent Hafemann, city planner Matt Steer said the staff has no line-of-sight concerns. And Commission Chair Edmund Haas said he “kind of” doesn’t see how the wall would cause traffic issues.
Only one person besides Frnka spoke in favor of the proposal. Bobby Finken was at the meeting to discuss Kroger’s revised plans for a fuel station (keep reading), but he was moved to express sympathy for Cao regarding what she can see from her front yard.
“I’ve seen a lot of trash,” Finken said. “I’ve seen a lot of people leave their garage doors open.”
Ultimately, Hafemann made a motion to approve the proposal, and Vice Chair Glenn Portman seconded it, but they were the only commissioners who voted for it. The City Council will have the final say on Sept. 12.
Prescription Powder Produced Only in Coppell
Did you know a potentially life-saving drug is produced only in Coppell? I didn’t become aware of that fact until this month, and I might never have known it if pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca hadn’t sought an exception to the city’s parking requirements.
AstraZeneca owns a facility on Wrangler Drive, across the street from the Coppell High School Ninth Grade Campus. There are six manufacturing lines in that facility that run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They produce Lokelma, a prescription powder used to treat adults with hyperkalemia, a condition that occurs when the potassium levels in a patient’s blood are too high. Lokelma — which received FDA approval in 2018 — is the only drug produced at the Wrangler facility, and it is not produced anywhere else.
According to a letter that AstraZeneca sent to the city, the demand for Lokelma is forecasted to more than double by 2026. So the company plans to add two more production lines to its Coppell operation. That means expanding the facility, which means reducing the number of parking spaces, which triggered Thursday’s public hearing by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
In last week’s edition, I mentioned that AstraZeneca plans to build a 20,000-square-foot “tank farm” on Wrangler. The aforementioned letter says the tanks would contain the following raw materials:
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH)
Zirconium acetate (ZrAc)
Colloidal silica
Hydrochloric acid (HCl)
The letter also says this: “It is important to note that the existing Tank Farm already in operation within the site holds the same chemicals. Thus, no new chemicals are being introduced to the site with the addition of the new and separate Tank Farm building.”
After receiving assurances that a new tank farm would pose no risk to the nearby school or the general public — and after receiving assurances that AstraZeneca’s employees will be just fine with fewer parking spaces — the commissioners recommended approval of the planned development district. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the City Council will get to weigh in on all this during their Sept. 12 meeting.
Kroger’s Landlord Agrees to Move Pumps
A couple of months ago, a majority of the Coppell City Council controversially approved a fuel station due east of Kroger. At the time, multiple council members said they wished the pumps could be moved closer to Sandy Lake Road and farther away from nearby homes.
Ask, and you shall receive. On Thursday, the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission considered a revised set of plans that would shift the pumps to the southeast corner of the grocery store’s parking lot.
(See “Kroger Gets Permission to Add Fuel Station” in Vol. 3, No. 17.)
Clay Christy of Claymoore Engineering told the commissioners that Kroger wanted to put the pumps at the revised location all along, but the store’s landlord said no. Kroger convinced the landlord to say yes after the council’s June 13 hearing, Christy said, and Jackie Wolpert of United Commercial Development backed him up on that.
You might think Kroger’s property was owned by Voldemort, because nobody ever mentions the landlord’s name during these hearings. According to the Dallas Central Appraisal District, a company called Coppell Wood Kroger LLC bought the property last year. 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.
There are two schools near Kroger — Lakeside Elementary and Universal Academy. Consequently, Kevin Nevels added a condition back in June that says fuel cannot be delivered between 3 and 4 p.m. on weekdays. (Nevels and Jim Walker were the only council members to vote against the fuel station.) The revised proposal includes a request for that condition to be rescinded.
“It’s a little bit operationally tough to make that promise,” Christy said regarding the prohibition on deliveries between 3 and 4.
Commissioner Ed Maurer said Nevels’ condition could cause “unintended effects that may be potentially worse,” such as having a fuel truck idling nearby until 4:01 p.m. However, Commission Chair Edmund Haas had a concern about rescinding it.
“When the kids are getting out of school, it’s a monkey house over there,” Haas said.
A majority of the commissioners recommended approval. By now, you can probably guess when this matter will be considered by the City Council. If we’ve accomplished nothing else in this edition, we may have helped increase the size of the council’s audience on Sept. 12.
Chronicle Crumbs
• Sign of the times: Coppell has added two elements to its automated external defibrillator (AED) boxes in city buildings — Narcan nasal spray to address opioid overdoses and bleeding-control kits to (presumably) address gunshots. Channel 5 has more details.
• Coppell residents Scarlett Cornwallis and Kate Rumsey are both seeking the Democratic nomination to represent District 115 in the Texas House. (State Rep. Julie Johnson is giving up the seat she’s held for three terms because she’s running for Congress.) Those two Democrats have at least one other rival for the nomination, Cassandra Hernandez of Farmers Branch. I’m not aware of any Republican candidates in District 115, but the filing deadline for the March 5 primaries isn’t until Dec. 11.
• On Wednesday, the Lewisville ISD Board of Trustees called a bond election for Nov. 7. Voters in the school district — which includes portions of Coppell — will consider six bond propositions with a combined value of $1.23 billion plus a seventh proposition ratifying the tax rate. If they’re all approved, the district says, its total tax rate will decrease by 10.6 cents, or 11.7 percent.
• The City of Coppell and the City of Irving both shared this graphic regarding a closed runway on social media and said we should hear more consistent aircraft noise until next summer. Hey, you can’t live this close to DFW Airport and expect to not hear a lot of planes.
• Coppell-based Vari hit a charitable milestone this month. The company has donated $8 million worth of furniture to nonprofit organizations, including the American Heart Association, Make-A-Wish, and the United Way. PR Newswire has more details.
• During this month’s meeting of the Coppell Library Advisory Board, Chair Martha Garber asked for an update on the hiring process for a new library manager. Community Experiences Assistant Director Adam Richter said in-person interviews will happen this week, and someone may be hired by the time the board meets again on Sept. 14.
• The logo for Shipley Do-Nuts was featured on the Coppell Market Center leasing agent’s site plan for several months, but it’s no longer there. The Houston-based doughnut chain was supposed to take over the drive-thru space formerly occupied by Subway. Meanwhile, Shipley’s website still lists Coppell Market Center among its “coming soon” locations. Intriguing …
Community Calendar
Coppell Volleyball’s Home Opener: The varsity Cowgirls will take on Royse City at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the Coppell High School Arena. They won’t play at home again until next month, when they’ll host Plano West on Sept. 8, Lewisville on Sept. 12, and Flower Mound Marcus on Sept. 15.
Woven Health Clinic: Coppell residents ages 18 to 64 have been receiving free health care via a series of pop-up events at Life Safety Park this month. Two more are scheduled for Wednesday and Aug. 30.
Guided Hike: The Friends of Coppell Nature Park will host a free guided hike focused on nature photography at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Participants should wear protective clothing and bring a bottle of water. Children must be supervised by an adult caregiver.
Pinslayers Bowling Classic: The Coppell Chamber of Commerce’s annual bowling tournament will get rolling at 1 p.m. on Friday at Main Event in Lewisville.
Lariettes Spaghetti Dinner: The annual fundraiser for the Coppell High School drill team is set for 5 p.m. on Friday, before the varsity football team kicks off their season against Sachse.
Rounding Third: Theatre Coppell will stage three more performances of Richard Dresser’s comedy about youth baseball. The next show is set for 8 p.m. on Friday in the Wheelice Wilson Jr. Theatre at the Coppell Arts Center.
Keeping Children & Teens Safe Online: Parents of children who love technology (in other words, all children) are invited to the Cozby Library and Community Commons at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 31, when Officer Kelly Luther with the Coppell Police Department will cover a range of topics.
iLead: Sept. 1 is the deadline to apply for iLead, Coppell ISD’s training program for adults who are interested in becoming informed leaders and advocates for students. Each participant must commit to attending two-hour evening sessions on Sept. 20, Oct. 4, Oct. 18, Nov. 1, and Nov. 8.
Active Adult Housing Survey: Sept. 1 is also the deadline to participate in a survey devised by the City of Coppell’s Future Oriented Approach to Residential Development Task Force.
Thursday’s Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission meeting was the first one I ever covered in person, and that rare decision was fortuitous. For an unknown reason, a recording of that meeting is not yet available. Everything in this week’s Coppell Chronicle is based on my live notes and subsequent research.
Keeping my fingers crossed for Shipley Do-nuts.