Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 24
Silver Line Testing to Begin in October • Coppell Taxpayers May NOT Pay More • City Plans to Start Regulating Donation Bins • Fox 4 Studios Moving to Irving
When I’ve covered DART’s periodic community meetings about the Silver Line, I’ve often been one of the few people in the room not employed by the transit agency or its contractors. I was not able to attend the most recent of these meetings, so I sent intern Samantha Handshy to take notes and ask questions. Here’s her report.
Silver Line Testing to Begin in October
Coppell residents should anticipate the arrival of Silver Line trains on the city’s tracks by late October. The 26-mile route has been split into three sections for “segment testing,” with Coppell being part of the largest segment.
Testing will include simulated service from DFW Airport’s Terminal B past the Knoll Trail Station in Far North Dallas, with Cypress Waters Station being one of the stops along the way. There will be no passenger pick-up or drop-off, as DART won’t begin revenue service until late 2025 at the earliest.
It is important to note that “quiet zones” will not be in effect while these segment tests are taking place. During construction, all of the Silver Line crossings in Coppell had been designated as quiet zones, which means train operators will blow their horns only when necessary.
“The train’s noise levels should have minimal impact on those near the tracks — under 60 decibels,” said Mario Zavala, one of the DART representatives who spoke during a community meeting at Town Hall in Cypress Waters on July 24. “I don’t have a measurement on the horn, but again, those will be only used when approaching the crossings as a safety measure and if something is on or near the tracks that could impede its passage.”
Zavala said there shouldn’t be any major traffic backups due to testing “unless we’re having to perform work on the gates or lights at any of the crossings. If we do, DART will communicate directly with the City of Coppell and inform drivers on the Silver Line website, our alerts system, and through our social media platforms.”
End-to-end testing is scheduled to begin next summer, assuming no major issues are raised before then.
Recent milestones for the Coppell portion of the Silver Line include:
Commencing construction of the parking lot at Cypress Waters Station
Three of five noise/betterment walls are over 50 percent installed
Completed infrastructure on six of 10 rail crossings
Completed infrastructure on 17 of 25 guideway rail bridges
Today is the third day of a four-day period in which DART contractors have completely closed a stretch of Freeport Parkway. They plan to do the same on Southwestern Boulevard for four days starting Friday.
With the school year beginning in just over a week, many may wonder whether the work on Southwestern will impact families driving to and from Pinkerton Elementary. When asked, a representative explained that the road should be clear after Aug. 12. Permanent sidewalks will be placed along Southwestern in the future, but DART plans to install temporary walkways near the school until then. The room was also reminded that Coppell ISD administrators signed off on any work that had a chance of impacting any of their schools.
Coppell Taxpayers May NOT Pay More
Last week’s edition included an article called “Coppell Taxpayers May Pay a Bit More.” The key word in that headline was “may.”
That article was based on the City Council’s budget workshop on July 22, when Director of Strategic Financial Engagement Kim Tiehen said it looked like Coppell’s average homeowner with a homestead exemption would pay an additional $96.29 per year, or an extra $8.02 per month.
During the council’s final budget workshop on July 29, Tiehen modified those estimates to an additional $75.36 per year, or an extra $6.28 per month. But Jim Walker proposed to his fellow council members that they figure out how to keep everyone’s municipal tax bill the same, “given how things are pretty tough around the kitchen table these days.”
Walker asked how much money would need to be cut from the budget to accomplish his request, and Tiehen said $1.55 million. Because Coppell has been budgeting as if Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s proposed Rule 3.334 is already in effect, the city has built up a surplus of sales tax revenues. Walker proposed shifting $1.55 million from that bucket, but Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Nevels wondered how that might affect the city’s AAA bond rating.
Council Member Mark Hill also had concerns about the bond rating: “What does that cost us in the long run if we did get knocked down a notch?” Nevels said he was thinking along the same lines, although he prefaced that comment with this: “I love paying lower taxes; don’t get me wrong.”
Walker reminded his peers that three underwriters bid to issue Coppell bonds and that City Manager Mike Land has joked with ratings agencies such as Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s about whether the city could theoretically receive a AAAA rating. Walker said he doubted a one-time transfer of $1.55 million would affect the city’s rating, and Don Carroll — the only banker on the council — agreed with him.
Land reminded the council that the city told the ratings agencies that the surplus would not be used to pay for maintenance and operations. Mayor Wes Mays didn’t like the idea of flip-flopping on that issue.
“I’m a big, big believer in saying what you’re gonna do, and then doing what you said you were gonna do,” Mays said.
Land and Tiehen promised to comb through the proposed budget before the council’s next meeting on Aug. 13, when they will present options for not increasing homeowners’ tax bills. The council members are expected to formally consider the budget and tax rate during their Aug. 27 meeting.
City Plans to Start Regulating Donation Bins
When the members of Coppell’s City Council were asked whether they were interested in regulating donation bins, Jim Walker had the most enthusiastic response.
“I want to ban it,” he said. “And if I can’t do that, I want to effectively ban it.”
City Attorney Bob Hager advised his fellow lawyer to couch those remarks with “a wink and a nod.” Such bans have been challenged in courts nationwide, he said, and some of those challenges have been based on the First Amendment right to free speech.
“There is a litany of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinions that have adopted [the argument] that the donation boxes talk,” Hager said. “So they’re treated much as people that would solicit for a charitable purpose in a public place.”
The donation bins were discussed during the council’s work session on July 9, when Senior Planner Mary Paron-Boswell presented several options for an ordinance. For example, the city could require a permit with a fee, could mandate that the donation bins be screened from view a la trash bins, or could limit the number of bins per property. Hager also said they could be zoned to specific areas of the city.
With no regulations on the books, Coppell is basically the Wild West, which has led to a proliferation of donation bins. When I published an article called “What’s With All Those Clothing Bins?” in 2022, there were five bins in the Sprouts parking lot on Sandy Lake Road. There are nine bins there today, and there are often overflow bags of clothes on the pavement. The other day, I noticed a coffee pot had been left next to one of them.
Walker referred to the bins as “mini-Dumpsters” and said he wished people would give their unwanted items to charities with brick-and-mortar locations not far from Coppell, such as Christian Community Action, Goodwill, or Metrocrest Services.
“We have all these wonderful established organizations that would love to receive genuine donations of clothing, shoes, that sort of thing,” Walker said. “I presume these [bins] are more likely, at least, to be the recipient of something that would be a fire hazard or a hazardous substance.”
The council asked Hager to craft an ordinance they could consider at a future meeting. Hager, who is the city attorney for multiple municipalities, has already written two such ordinances for other clients. He said nobody has challenged those rules, and everyone in those cities has complied.
Fox 4 Studios Moving to Irving
Fox 4 plans to move from downtown Dallas to north Irving. The TV station also known as KDFW announced its future location on Friday morning.
About 12 hours earlier, the Irving City Council approved a tax-abatement agreement related to the vacant parcel along State Highway 114. That agreement calls for the city to offer a 50 percent discount on a portion of the property’s taxes for 10 years.
One of the terms of the deal is that Fox had to acquire the property at 2203 W. Royal Lane by the end of September. That task can be checked off the list, because Fox Television Stations LLC bought the property in May, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District. The company also has to build a 53,000-square-foot office building by the end of 2026. Here’s what that should look like:
The agreement obligates Fox 4 to occupy the building for at least 10 years, increase the parcel’s taxable value by at least $30 million, and increase the taxable value of its business personal property on that land by at least $20 million. The agreement also calls for Fox 4 to use “Irving, Texas” or “Irving, TX” when listing its address, and to do business with Irving vendors and hotels as much as possible.
Documents attached to the agenda for Thursday’s council meeting said Fox 4 will create or relocate 164 “new to Irving” jobs over a five-year period, including 150 in the first year. Those positions have an average annual salary of $117,000.
The deal was hardly discussed during Thursday’s meeting, but the aforementioned documents said the council talked about it during an executive session on April 11. The agenda for that executive session said they were going to tackle two topics behind closed doors: “Project Tiger” and “Project Armadillo.”
(Code names? How exciting! I wonder whether this Fox deal was Project Tiger or Project Armadillo. And I also wonder what the other animalistic project is about.)
A press release issued on Friday said Fox will broadcast from its new building via fiber, using no towers or antennas and minimal satellite dishes. The building will include studios, a newsroom, offices, technical suites, podcasting studios, and other content creation facilities.
“I commend Fox Corporation and Fox Television Stations for their investment in our city,” Mayor Rick Stopfer said in the press release. “KDFW is a valuable institution in our region, and we are thrilled to have the station here.”
You know who else should be thrilled? The administrators of Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, which also collects property taxes for the parcel on Royal Lane. Just because the city is offering a discount doesn’t mean the school district has to.
Business Briefs
• It appears that a chain of “craft superfood” restaurants called Everbowl is expanding to Coppell. The leasing flyer for the Woodside Village shopping center on the northwest corner of Denton Tap and Sandy Lake roads indicates that Everbowl is taking over a vacant space next to Stretch Zone. Meanwhile, the city issued a restaurant permit to Everbowl on July 25.
• Nearly three years after the Coppell City Council signed off on the reconstruction of the Maple Mart gas station on the southeast corner of Belt Line Road and MacArthur Boulevard, the city issued a certificate of occupancy last week. A restaurant permit for the Maple Taqueria was also issued for that location last week. One of the businesses’ owners, M.D. Jahangir, told me the cash registers should start ringing this month.
• I’d never heard of Tree Hut, which bills itself as “America’s No. 1 body scrub brand,” until I read a press release issued by its Coppell-based manufacturer, Naterra. The brand has a booth at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago this weekend to debut its two new scents, Cherry Rave and Pumpkin Pop.
• Speaking of pumpkins, 7-Eleven has introduced a Pumpkin Spice Slurpee that is available at only five stores nationwide. One of those stores is in the Coppell ISD portion of Irving, specifically at 3200 Hackberry Road. It’s right behind 7-Eleven’s corporate headquarters along Interstate 635.
• Things I learned by perusing the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation’s website: Walmart plans to spend $3 million installing charging stations for electric vehicles in its parking lot on Market Place Boulevard in Irving. … A vacant space in Coppell’s Braewood Shopping Center, which is anchored by Victor’s Wood Grill, will soon be occupied by a canine day-care business called Dogtopia. ... The price tag of the Welbilt Experience Center on Sandy Lake Road — which was discussed in two articles in the May 26 edition — will be $29 million.
Updates From the Sports Desk
Volleyball: The U.S. women’s national team, which includes Coppell High School graduate Chiaka Ogbogu, advanced to the Olympic quarterfinals this morning by defeating France in three sets. We don’t yet know who the Americans will face in the quarterfinals, which will happen on Tuesday. Those matches are scheduled for 2 a.m., 6 a.m., 10 a.m., and 2 p.m. Central.
Pickleball: Coppell residents Jesus Martinez and Todd Storch teamed up with Lisa Burleson and Amy Wallace of Arlington to win a gold medal at Minor League Pickleball’s Midsouth Regional Showdown, which happened last weekend at Pickleball Kingdom in Plano. That earned the foursome a berth in the National Championship in suburban St. Louis this December.
Storch is a member of the advisory committee for the Wagon Wheel Tennis and Pickleball Center. He encouraged me to share his email address with anyone who has suggestions for improving the experience there.
Kickball: The motley crew pictured below is the final iteration of the 75019ers, the team I managed to a winless record in Coppell’s co-ed kickball league for adults. Only about half of us are wearing our uniform shirt because we had to recruit new players each week to replace people who were injured, were out of town, or just decided that playing kickball in triple-digit heat didn’t sound like a great way to spend a Friday evening.
Despite our lack of victories — and our lack of runs in three consecutive games — our core group showed up each week with smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts. And only one 75019er sustained a major injury. Given our average age, that’s a victory in and of itself.
If you want to learn more about Coppell’s adult kickball league, stop by Andrew Brown Park Central this Friday for the playoffs. The semifinals are scheduled for 7 and 8 p.m., with the championship game to follow at 9.
Chronicle Crumbs
• The June 30 edition of this newsletter included an article called “New Demolition Permit Issued for Old Church,” so I shouldn’t have been surprised last week when I noticed that the permitted demolition process had begun. I texted and emailed property owner Steven Chadick on Friday, hoping to glean some details about his plans for 509 W. Bethel Road. He has not responded to my inquiries, which is not at all surprising.
I took a walk past the site last night, when the debris field looked a lot like the picture below. One of my fellow nighttime pedestrians demonstrated his acute powers of observation when he asked this question: “Did they knock something down here?”
• Coppell Animal Services is waiving adoption fees on all available pets (cats, dogs, and guinea pigs) between 1 and 5 p.m. today. The shelter is at 821 S. Coppell Road.
• Patrons of the Waggin’ Tails Dog Park may want to attend Monday’s meeting of the Coppell Parks and Recreation Board. The agenda includes an update on the park’s redesign. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. on the second floor of Town Center.
• Coppell ISD’s first day of classes will be Aug. 14, and some of the district’s elementary schools have scheduled get-togethers for kindergarten families this Saturday, including Austin (9:30 a.m. at the school’s playground), Cottonwood Creek (6:30 p.m. at the interactive fountain in Old Town), Mockingbird (9 a.m. at the school’s playground), Pinkerton (9 a.m. at Life Safety Park), and Town Center (9 a.m. at the Kid Country playground).
• Other first days of school in the area: Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD and Universal Academy will get going on Aug. 12, Lewisville ISD starts on Aug. 13, and Coppell Classical Academy will begin classes on Aug. 14.
• New Tech High @ Coppell graduate Logan Swicegood was one of the primary animators on one of this summer’s blockbuster movies, Twisters. He and his parents, Patricia and Lawrence Swicegood, recently enjoyed his work on one of the big screens at the AMC in Grapevine.
• Metrocrest Services is trying to collect 75,000 rolls of toilet paper by Aug. 26, which is apparently known as National Toilet Paper Day. (Who knew?)
• Whenever I mention Coppell City Attorney Bob Hager or Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar in this newsletter, I have to be extra careful about not confusing the spellings of their similar surnames. If former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar ever moves to Coppell, I’ll be even more flummoxed.
• At least three homes in my subdivision are flying flags touting the presidential campaign of a convicted felon. Showing no regard for the dozens of kids in the neighborhood who know how to read, one of those flags features profanity in bold capital letters. Stay classy, patriot.
Community Calendar
Mastering Your Voice: The Coppell Community Chorale will offer a two-part workshop on Monday and Aug. 12. Both sessions will begin at 7 p.m. at the Coppell Arts Center.
Coppell Women’s Club: The club will host a “welcome back” coffee at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday at the Church of the Apostles.
Viviz: The Korean band’s world tour includes a stop at the Coppell Arts Center at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The marketing materials say Viviz “are prepared to do a full musical takeover of your city,” so stand apprised of that.
Greater Tuna: Theatre Coppell will stage three more performances of the beloved play about the wacky inhabitants of Texas’ third smallest town. The next show is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday at the Coppell Arts Center.
Assistance League of Coppell: The club’s first general membership meeting of the season is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Aug. 15 at Life Safety Park. (This item was updated after publication.)
Spotlight on Broadway: The Coppell Community Chorale will perform songs from Heathers, Avenue Q, Kinky Boots, Six, Hamilton, and other musicals at 7 p.m. on Aug. 17 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Coppell Lariettes Spaghetti Dinner: This annual fundraiser will begin at 5 p.m. on Aug. 30 in the Coppell High School Commons.
Town Hall with Sen. Tan Parker: Parker represents not only Coppell in the Texas Senate but also a portion of Tarrant County, about half of Denton County, and the entirety of Wise County. He’ll be at Dallas College’s Coppell Center for a town hall meeting at 9 a.m. on Sept. 10. Admission is free, but RSVPs are requested.
“Patriot”. Well-stated, Dan. How typical of this new brand of “Patriot” to offend everyone possible while (forgive me here) “trumpeting” their blind allegiance.
Speaking of flags, one of my eccentric neighbors is flying a flag of the United Federation of Planets. Now that’s a real patriot. (Wink, wink)