Coppell Chronicle Vol. 1, No. 26

Can We Live-Work in Harmony? • Coppell is Getting a Chess Club • As the Pandemic Turns ... • Familiar Name Joins Dems’ Field

Last I checked, there are 52 weeks in a year, so the 26 in the subject line means I’ve been publishing this newsletter for half of one trip around the sun. Thank you so much for being one of my 309 paid subscribers so far. I hope you’re enjoying reading it as much as I’m enjoying writing it.

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Can We Live-Work in Harmony?

Plans are being made to double the number of live-work units along a stretch of South Coppell Road. Like the five that are already there, the five new units will be two-story, zero-lot-line homes with at least half of each one’s ground floor dedicated to a business.

Two of the existing live-work units are on the northeast corner of Coppell Road and McNear Drive. The one marked with a blue pin is The House of Chiropractic, which will come up later in this article.

The other three units are on the southeast corner of Coppell Road and Heath Lane. The one marked with a red pin is Christopher Realty Group. Its owner, Chris Collins, wants to build five more live-work units – with a shared rear parking lot – on the vacant land to the north of his property. He plans to then move his home/office directly across Heath to one of the new units, each of which will be 6 feet wider than his current home (below left).

“I don’t know if you’ve ever built a house and you move in and you go, ‘Gosh, I wish I would have done that different.’ So this is my opportunity to do it different,” Collins said during Thursday’s meeting of the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission.

Realtor Jim Mayo has a couple of signs on the vacant land, but his website says a sale is pending, to Collins I assume. As for the seller, Dallas Central Appraisal District records indicate the land has been owned since 1996 by Jalal Khorrami, aka Jay Khorrami, aka The Deliman.

All 10 of these live-work units are (or will be) neighbors of the Old Coppell Townhomes Homeowners Association, which is comprised of residents of McNear Drive, Heath Lane, and Mobley Way. One homeowner on Heath and four on Mobley spoke in opposition to Collins’ proposal.

Asher Ahmed, whose Heath Lane home is due east of the vacant lot, had two major issues. The zoning ordinance requires a 6-foot masonry wall along the property line. Collins wants to instead build an 8-foot board-on-board wood fence, and Ahmed doesn’t like the idea of a fence being the only barrier between his backyard and a parking lot.

“Any car could end up in my backyard,” he told the commission. “Kids play all the time there.”

Ahmed’s other complaint was that Collins plans to build second-story porches on the rear sides of the new units. “I think that offers no view except my backyard and my windows,” Ahmed said.

I don’t think the commission addressed Ahmed’s concerns about the fence, but they did get Collins to agree that the porches would be screened in such a way that views of Ahmed’s property would be obstructed.

Residents of Mobley Way complained about traffic and parking. When they turn onto Coppell Road from McNear Drive, they can’t see vehicles coming from the right if there is a truck or SUV parked in front of The House of Chiropractic’s next-door neighbor on the corner. (That unoccupied unit will soon become a photography studio.)

“You have to slowly inch out until you’re practically in the middle of the road before you can see around,” Debbie Elliott told the commission.

Kay Smith expressed concern about the same visibility problem happening on Heath Lane after the new live-work units are constructed.

“You start having all these units at both entrances; it’s a small turnaround,” Smith said. “It’s not like we can just choose to come and go from the opposite end of the block or something. Both of them are going to have congestion.”

The site plan for the new live-work units called for 12 parking spaces along Coppell Road. To allay the visibility concerns, the commission told Collins and his architect, Greg Frnka, to eliminate the parking space closest to Heath Lane. Losing a space shouldn’t be an issue, because the commission also said only one of the five new units could be occupied by a business that would generate the most “intensive” use, such as a doctor’s office.

That brings us back to The House of Chiropractic (above left). Dr. Chris Reed and his wife, Angie, hung their shingle in February of this year, and their neighbors in the Old Coppell Townhomes have since had some issues.

Mobley Way homeowner Teddie Hamilton told the commission that the Reeds have hosted training sessions for aspiring chiropractors on six weekends. She said the training happens in the Reeds’ garage and their rear parking spaces, so the students park their cars – most of which feature out-of-state license plates, she added – in the neighborhood.

“During the weekend, that’s when we have families come in, and there’s no place for our families to park,” Hamilton said.

I stopped by The House of Chiropractic on Saturday so I could relay all of this to the Reeds. But before I could, their Goldendoodle, Fetty, slowly raised his head from behind their reception desk, as if to say, “Can I help you, sir?” I was doubled over in laughter for several seconds.

Chris Reed disputed some details of Hamilton’s story; he told me he did host seminars for out-of-state students on two weekends in March, but he said the rest of his events have been on Mondays and geared toward local students.

Based on the complaints the commission heard Thursday, one might envision the chiropractic students’ vehicles parallel parked along both sides of McNear, Mobley, and Heath. Nobody mentioned the fact that there are three strips of nose-in parking spaces on Mobley with enough room for at least 20 vehicles, not counting any vehicles parked in the homeowners’ garages and driveways. If those nose-in spaces are reserved for HOA members and their guests, there are no signs saying so.

Meanwhile, the Reeds told me they have parking issues of their own. There are four spaces in front of their building and the adjacent unit that will soon be a photography studio, and the two directly in front of The House of Chiropractic are reserved for handicapped visitors. The Reeds are waiting for the city to sandblast away one of the wheelchair icons because one of the three spaces behind their building has been designated as a handicapped space – not that they want their clients to use it, or any of the other rear spaces.

“I would never let them, because they would never get out,” Chris Reed said. “It would take them all day.”

Angie Reed added: “It would be a 20-point turn, even if there were no other cars in the lot.”

On the flip side, Collins said people visiting the Old Coppell Townhomes park in his more-spacious rear lot all the time – and he seemed fine with that. He told the commission that it’s all part of his philosophy of being a good neighbor, just like the cooler full of free water bottles next to his front door. (He estimates he gives away 10 cases of water per week.)

“We want to get along with our neighbors, because I live there,” Collins said. “I’m not an out-of-town developer trying to come in and make a quick buck.”

His proposed zoning changes are still subject to the City Council’s approval. That public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14.

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Coppell is Getting a Chess Club

The retrievers, beagles, and poodles are moving out. The rooks, bishops, and pawns are moving in.

Doggie’s Wonderland, a canine-centric center on Bethel School Road, will close permanently on Friday. The property owners have applied for a zoning change so they can convert the building into the Coppell Chess Club.

The chess club is the brainchild of Suresh Suruliraj and Nithya Marimuthu, who know a thing or two about brainy children. Their three sons all play chess competitively. In fact, the U.S. Chess Federation ranks their 9-year-old as one of the top 100 players in his age group nationwide.

The couple, who reside in the Irving portion of Coppell ISD, plan to offer chess lessons – as well as academic tutoring – between 3 and 9 p.m. on weekdays. They will also host tournaments for players of all ages on weekends.

“I thought ‘Coppell Chess Club’ would be very good, because people living here give more importance to education,” Suruliraj told the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission.

Marimuthu told the commission that chess is a major activity for Coppell and Irving youths, but many of their parents drive them all the way to Plano for tournaments. “Then we decided, you know, why can’t we start one club for our community kids?”

The zoning change will necessitate the addition of nine new parking spaces north of the building. The couple also own the vacant land between Doggie’s Wonderland and Van Bebber Drive, so they could expand to the north and add even more parking if necessary.

The members of the Planning and Zoning Commission seem to think that will be necessary. They asked a lot of questions about the Coppell Chess Club’s parking lot being congested when parents are using a single access point to drop off and pick up their aspiring grandmasters. (Commissioner Cindy Bishop envisioned a “giant mess.”) They also asked about potential conflicts with rush-hour traffic on weekdays and whether tournament attendees might be tempted to park at the post office across Bethel School if the club’s lot was full on weekends.

The city staff’s answers to all these questions boiled down to “We think it will be OK.” Marimuthu said they will stagger their tournament schedules in a way that ensures they don’t exceed capacity, and they may limit registration if need be.

Nobody asked how a chess club makes money, so I put that question to Suruliraj during a phone call on Saturday. He told me there will be monthly membership fees for lessons and entry fees for tournaments.

Despite all of the commissioners’ concerns, they approved the zoning change as presented, with no additional restrictions. But Chair Edmund Haas did ask the city staff and the chess club’s owners to stay in touch.

“I’d like the applicant to share information with staff, just to let them know, ‘Hey, we’re going to have a tournament,’ just so we can see how things go,” Haas said. “I mean, hopefully, this thing takes off and it’s ‘Queen’s Gambit Part II’ and it’s really successful.”

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As the Pandemic Turns …

Hey, you didn’t think I’d forgotten about the pandemic, had you?

The article I sent you about mask mandates last Sunday was out of date within a few hours of publication, and there have been several developments in the week since. Before attempting to sum it all up, I’ll just point you to the latest statements from our local school districts:

Coppell ISD: Masks are optional, Superintendent Brad Hunt wrote in a memo dated Aug. 16.

Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD: Masks will be mandatory as soon as the district can resume local control, the district said in a confusing statement dated Aug. 20.

CFBISD released that statement after its school board held a special meeting on Thursday; all of the trustees and administrators were masked.

CISD will have a regular board meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday. Some parents cried “hypocrisy” after noticing a statement on the CISD website that said masks would be required for anyone attending that meeting. I couldn’t find any such language on the website this morning.

The agenda for Monday’s meeting includes a closed-session discussion on this topic: “Discussion and deliberation regarding provisions of Executive Order GA-38 related to mask mandates in Texas public schools.” On Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court said Gov. Gregg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton must take their battle with several counties, cities, and school districts over Executive Order GA-38 to the Texas Court of Appeals before seeking relief from the state’s highest court.

Thursday was a newsy day for schools on the COVID front. That’s when the Texas Education Agency announced that Abbott’s ban on mask mandates was not being enforced, and it’s also when the TEA reversed course and said public schools are required to notify families of students who are in contact with someone who has a test-confirmed case of COVID.

Meanwhile, Coppell ISD has established a COVID-19 Dashboard that is being updated on Tuesdays and Fridays only. Last school year, the district’s dashboard was updated every weekday.

Is your head spinning yet?

Here’s some good news on the COVID-19 front: If you rank Dallas County’s ZIP codes by the number of residents ages 12 to 17 who have received at least one vaccine dose, 75019 is in first place (3,446 vaccinated kids) and 75063 is in fourth place (2,995 vaccinated kids). That’s according to the latest statistics published by Dallas County Health and Human Services.

The county also says that 64.6 percent of all 75063 residents and 58.1 percent of all 75019 residents are fully vaccinated. Those are the second and eighth highest vaccination rates in the county.

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Familiar Name Joins Dems’ Field

A third Carrollton Democrat wants to represent us in Congress, and this name should be familiar to most of my subscribers: Jan McDowell is making a run at it for a fourth time.

McDowell initially faced off against Rep. Kenny Marchant in 2016, when she was the only Democrat to throw her hat in the ring. She got 39 percent of the votes that year to Marchant’s 56 percent.

(During a meet-and-greet at a Carrollton library that year, I informed the certified public accountant that her name was very similar to that of Dan McDowell, a host on The Ticket, and suggested she might want to advertise on the sports-talk radio station. If you’ve enjoyed her interviews on their airwaves over the years, you’re welcome; if you’re a Ticket P1 who hasn’t enjoyed them, now you know who to blame.)

In 2018, McDowell fended off three other Democrats in the primary without going to a runoff. Marchant bested her in the general election again, but she narrowed the gap from 17 points to 3 points.

Last year, McDowell was one of seven Democrats vying for the seat that Marchant was giving up after eight terms. She finished third in the primary with 10 percent of the votes.

In the 2022 primary, she’ll be facing at least two of her fellow Carrollton residents: Derrik Gay and Michelle Beckley. If any Republicans are planning to primary incumbent Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Irving, I haven’t heard about it.

But I have heard that Coppell resident Jan Bellah, who is a Democrat, wants to represent us on the Dallas County Commissioners Court. Our current commissioner, J.J. Koch, is the only Republican on that five-person panel.

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Chronicle Crumbs

▪ Before its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees will conduct a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. regarding the district’s proposed budget for 2021-2022 and a tax rate of $1.292 per $100 of valuation. That would represent a 1.37 percent decrease from CISD’s current tax rate. About 24 cents of each $1.292 would go toward debt service; the rest would go toward maintenance and operations.

On Thursday, Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD trustees approved a “no new revenue” tax rate of $1.20125 per $100 of valuation. All but 20 cents of that rate will go toward maintenance and operations.

▪ I’m sorry to report that Kelly’s Texican restaurant closed its doors for the final time last Sunday.

▪ As I drove down Sandy Lake yesterday, I noticed that construction of a second house has begun on Aidan’s Court. I’m still bothered by this unnecessarily capitalized s:

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Community Calendar

Coppell Bicycle Rodeo: This free safety event for elementary schoolers is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday in the Coppell High School parking lot.

Big Easy Brass Band: The New Orleans-style ensemble will perform a free concert at 7 p.m. on Saturday outside the Coppell Arts Center.

Cornhole League: The Coppell Parks and Recreation Department has begun registering players in a cornhole league for adults. Games will be played on Wednesday evenings at MacArthur Park.