Coppell Chronicle Vol. 2, No. 23

Compliant Corners Cause Complaints • We Really Need to Use Less Water • City Staff Proposes Much Lower Tax Rate • Let’s Peruse Commercial Property Listings

Aug 01, 2022

It’s time for my monthly greeting to the [double checks] 880 people who have signed up for free editions only. Because you’re not among my 547 paid subscribers, you missed these articles in July:

More Shops Coming to Old Town
Plans Laid Out for Parks Projects
Farmstead OK’d at Blackberry Farm
Some Parents Not Comfortable with Surveys
CISD and YMCA May Pool Their Resources

If anything you’re about to read convinces you that receiving this newsletter on a weekly basis is worth $30 per year, click this button:

Compliant Corners Cause Complaints

The “Citizens’ Appearance” portion of this month’s regular meetings of the Coppell City Council have each featured only one speaker, and it was the same speaker at both meetings.

Barbara Bailey lives on Plantation Drive, which recently reopened to two-way traffic after an extensive reconstruction project. One component of that project was installing corners that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Bailey believes those corners are dangerous.

“I am so upset about this, I cannot tell you, because somebody is really going to get hurt,” she said during Tuesday’s meeting. “I don’t care if you put sparkles on these things. People are going to walk into them.”

This photo is of one of the corners near Bailey’s home. As you can see, a shadow that was being cast at the moment I took the photo is the only reason that the curb in the middle of the corner is a different color than the pavement around it.

A street corner with a directional curb in the middle

That “directional” curb is there to prevent people who are blind or have limited vision from walking into traffic. I know this only because Tuesday’s council meeting also included a presentation from Kori Allen, who is the city’s ADA coordinator.

“If you do not have these directional curbs in place, and you have access to the entire intersection, you could potentially have a pedestrian that would traverse in the middle of the intersection,” Allen said. “Nothing would be there to stop them.”

I’m not sure whether Allen’s presentation was scheduled in reaction to Bailey’s comments at the previous council meeting or because Tuesday happened to be the 32nd anniversary of President George H.W. Bush signing the Americans with Disabilities Act into law. Or maybe both of those were coincidences. In any case, Allen displayed this graphic that breaks down the components of an ADA-compliant corner.

“If you take away any of these items, you are not guaranteeing safety, and you’re not guaranteeing full accessibility of that intersection,” Allen said.

The difference between the directional curb in her graphic and the one in my photo is the grass, which makes the curb much easier to notice. Allen told the council that directional curbs like the ones near Bailey’s home will be distinguished by staining. When that staining will happen was unclear.

Council Member John Jun asked whether residents are briefed on ADA-compliant corners and ramps before they are installed. Allen said they will be a point of focus at pre-construction neighborhood meetings going forward. Jun then asked if they were discussed with Plantation residents before their street was torn up. Allen’s response: “I don’t believe ramps were a full section of the meeting.”

A major part of Bailey’s complaint about the directional curbs on Plantation was that children on bicycles could be injured if they don’t notice them. She said multiple city employees told her that was a moot point because cyclists are not supposed to be on sidewalks. Later in the meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Biju Mathew asked City Attorney Bob Hager whether it is legal to ride a bicycle on a sidewalk in Coppell. Hager said yes, if the cyclist is a child; adults on bicycles are supposed to share the road with motor vehicles.

Allen said Coppell’s goal is to complete its ADA Transition Plan, which was adopted in 2016 and weighed more than 10 pounds when printed, by 2036. She said 10 percent of the city’s ADA violations concerning rights-of-way — such as sidewalks and intersections — have been eliminated. She added that Coppell has eliminated 9 percent of the violations in its parks and 27 percent of the violations at city facilities.

“We prioritize accessibility here,” she said, “and because of this, cities all over Texas are asking us what we’re doing and how we did it.”

We Really Need to Use Less Water

Coppell residents and businesses used 18 million gallons of water on Thursday, which is 97 percent of the city’s maximum daily allotment. That’s bad news, for two reasons.

Reason No. 1: If we exceed our maximum daily allotment of 18.5 million gallons just once, the city’s contract with Dallas Water Utilities calls for an automatic increase of one million gallons that will cost Coppell an additional $320,000 annually for at least five years.

(Two weeks ago, I quoted Mayor Wes Mays as saying that the automatic increase would be triggered by exceeding the daily max on five consecutive days. He corrected himself during Thursday’s budget workshop.)

Reason No. 2: If we use more than 16.65 million gallons — or 90 percent of our daily maximum — on five consecutive days, the city will enter Stage 2 of its Water Conservation Plan, which means watering would be limited to certain days of the week.

At the moment, we are in Stage 1, which means watering is not allowed between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Council Member John Jun asked what the penalty is for someone who refuses to comply with the Stage 1 restrictions. Director of Public Works Kent Collins said the maximum fine is $500 per day, but it would have to be an “egregious issue” to merit such levies.

“We’re really looking for compliance,” Collins said. “We’re really not looking to fine people.”

Collins spoke to the council on Tuesday about various water issues, and one of them involved the Stage 2 restrictions, which he said have never been triggered during his nearly six years with the city. However, he did say that we have twice reached 90 percent of our daily max on four consecutive days this summer.

Until Tuesday, the days you would be allowed to water under the Stage 2 restrictions would depend on whether your property was north or south of Sandy Lake Road. At Collins’ request, the council approved altering the policy so that it would depend on whether your address ends with an even or odd number.

Collins said the previous policy that divided the city along Sandy Lake was designed to make it easier to enforce compliance.

“Our concern is it’s not necessarily the easiest to understand,” Collins said. “Some people may not know — ‘Am I north or south of Sandy Lake Road?’”

Hold on. Wait a minute! STOP THE NEWSLETTER!

Are there people who live in Coppell, Texas, who honestly don’t know whether their home is north or south of Sandy Lake? Really? I find that hard to believe. I also couldn’t believe that no City Council member questioned that lowball assessment of our community’s geospatial awareness.

If you’ve ever seen the Koller family’s excuse for a yard — which I am certain is south of Sandy Lake, not to mention west of Denton Tap — then you know we’re doing our part to conserve water. That means we pay a lower rate on our utility bills than the city’s water hogs.

Regardless of where you live in Coppell, it’s time to ask yourself whether you really need a lush, green lawn when our region is enduring a heatwave and a drought simultaneously. (Spoiler alert: You don’t.)

City Staff Proposes Much Lower Tax Rate

Coppell residents may soon pay municipal property taxes at the lowest rate in decades.

The City Council held its final budget workshop of the summer on Thursday, when Director of Finance Kim Tiehen proposed a tax rate of 51.8731 cents per $100 of valuation. If approved by the council on Aug. 23, that would be quite a drop from the current tax rate of 58 cents.

In fact, Tiehen said, it would be Coppell’s lowest tax rate since at least 1990. She said the data available online doesn’t go back any farther, but Mayor Wes Mays said he looked through five years’ worth of council minutes, so he asserted it would be Coppell’s lowest tax rate since at least 1985.

This reduction is possible because the council opted last October to pay down more than $8.5 million worth of debt with the city’s proceeds from selling 475 acres near North Lake. Consequently, only 7.6895 of the 51.8731 cents in the proposed tax rate would go toward debt service.

Homeowners don’t need to be reminded that city taxes are only one piece of our total property tax bill. The Coppell ISD Board of Trustees will be briefed on their proposed tax rate tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here’s one more tax-related item: On Tuesday, the City Council authorized a special election on Nov. 8. Voters will be asked to approve the continued use of one half of 1 percent of local sales taxes on two specific uses. One quarter of 1 percent would continue to fund the maintenance and repairs of streets and sidewalks for four years. The other quarter of 1 percent would continue to fund crime-reduction programs for 10 years.

Let’s Peruse Commercial Property Listings

Although I’ve never met Coppell resident Chris Carpenter, I owe him a sandwich, because he alerted me to the existence of LoopNet.com.

That website is a compendium of commercial real estate listings. A few months ago, Carpenter told the members of the “Coppell, Texas” group on Facebook about an opportunity to buy a $10.58 million property at 950 E. Sandy Lake Road. That’s the address of our Kroger.

I’ve tried, without success, to get in touch with the agent associated with this listing, because I wanted to know what a sale of the grocery store’s property would mean to people who shop there. I eventually reached out to Kroger’s corporate office; Director of Corporate Affairs John Votava told me the pending sale will not impact customers in any way.

When Carpenter shared the news on Facebook, he highlighted the portion of the LoopNet listing — which has since expired — that said a fuel station had been “tentatively approved and is scheduled to be completed in 2024.” However, city planner Matt Steer told me Coppell officials have not approved adding a fuel station to Kroger’s lot.

That Kroger listing may have expired from LoopNet, but three others within Coppell were still active as of yesterday. The First Place office building on Denton Tap Road, due north of Grace Point Church, is on the market for $7.85 million. If that’s too high a price, the G3 Dallas Evangelical Church on Sandy Lake Road can be yours for $1.89 million.

But the listing I found most interesting was the property at 509 W. Bethel Road. You may know it better as the Createria. It also includes the attached church that hasn’t hosted worship services for decades but was once the home of the Coppell Chamber of Commerce. The LoopNet listing says the asking price is $1.1 million; it also says the property is under contract.

The owner and listing agent is Steven Chadick. When I contacted him to ask what was up, he said I should get in touch with Chris Collins, whom he identified as “the (probable) future owner and developer of the property.” Collins’ name also came up when I asked one of the Createria’s tenants, Get You In Shape’s Brad Linder, if he knew anything about the building being on the market.

Chronicle subscribers may recognize Collins’ name. He’s the real estate agent and developer who’s planning to build five live-work units on South Coppell Road, just a stone’s throw from the Createria. Collins and I traded a few emails last week, but we were not able to connect.

Assuming Collins buys the property, I’m betting that 509 W. Bethel Road will show up on a Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission agenda before long.

Chronicle Crumbs

• The restaurant gods giveth, and the restaurant gods taketh away. Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken started serving fried yardbird on Denton Tap Road last week, but Mua Sushi has apparently stopped serving raw fish on MacArthur Boulevard. A handwritten sign taped to the door says “Sorry Close.”

• Several months ago, I emailed Market Street’s corporate office to suggest that they install corrals in their Coppell store’s parking lot, which was often littered with shopping carts. Who knows if anybody ever read my email, but I noticed on Friday evening that three corrals have been installed.

• After publishing last Sunday’s edition, I was informed that the prize for Buy on Belt Line Bingo is $200 worth of gift cards, not $200 cash. I was also informed that the Revenue Recovery Grant Program has been delayed by a month. Businesses in the Belt Line Road construction zone can start applying for $5,000 grants on Aug. 25; businesses on Denton Tap Road south of Sandy Lake Road can start applying on Sept. 8.

• I’ve seen friends complaining about being scammed when trying to complete online transactions with strangers. Don’t forget that the Coppell Police Department offers a safe Exchange Zone in their parking lot that is always under surveillance.

• The City of Coppell is preparing to survey its residents for the first time in a few years. Here’s how the survey should begin. Question 1: What is your address? Question 2: Do you live north or south of Sandy Lake Road? If you answer the second question incorrectly, all subsequent answers should be tossed out.

Community Calendar

Coppell Baseball Association: Tomorrow is the final day to register for the fall leagues. The same deadline applies to the Coppell Girls Softball Association’s fall leagues.

Coppell Lions Club: Two Coppell police officers will discuss all things safety during the meeting scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. tomorrow at First United Methodist Church.

Caregiving Heroes: This support group for people who assist loved ones with aging or other concerns meets once a month at First United Methodist Church of Coppell. The next meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday.

First days of school: Coppell ISD students don’t return to school until Aug. 17, but two other districts serving our city have earlier starts. Lewisville ISD will begin instruction on Aug. 10, and Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD students are due back on Aug. 11. Meanwhile, Universal Academy will begin its fall semester on Aug. 15.