Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 25
Residents Oppose Office on Their Street • Rendering Revealed for Redesigned Dog Park • City to Help Fund Special Olympics • Library Board Wants Updates on Challenges
This newsletter’s inaugural intern, Samantha Handshy, learned a valuable lesson about journalism last week: Sometimes, a story can keep developing while you’re working on it. She handled the heavy lifting on the article about Howell Drive. The rest are by your usual correspondent.
Residents Oppose Office on Their Street
Howell Drive has seen a lot of change over the years, and residents weren’t happy to hear the prospect of any more.
At the July 18 meeting of the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission, residents voiced their complaints about a commercial building potentially being added to the northwest corner of Southwestern Boulevard and Howell as offices for Graystone Construction. Concerns were raised about the area’s mix of commercial and residential zoning, drainage issues in the vicinity, and Graystone’s trailers being parked on Howell.
Rich Pilone, who has lived on Howell for over four decades, said the neighborhood has been plagued by problems for 45 years, including multiple arson incidents.
“My objection is it is so crowded with the school [Pinkerton Elementary] coming in and out, and the new warehouses that just came there, and we don’t need additional stuff there,” Pilone said.
Graystone purchased the quarter-acre property at 192 Southwestern in April of 2023 and was seeking a zoning change that would allow the construction of an 1,800-square-foot office building.
“There was a lot of constricting things regarding that site,” said architect Joseph Wilkins, who represented Graystone at the hearing. “It was just fortunate enough that we have a client that it worked for them to put that 1,800-square-foot building on there.”
The proposed site plan, however, shows the new building being accessed off of Howell, which is where residents’ opposition stemmed.
“It’s a Southwestern Boulevard address,” Pilone said. “Stay off my street!”
The small 1960s neighborhood on the edge of town probably goes unnoticed by most of Coppell. With the narrow cul-de-sac’s entrance featuring a few commercial buildings, it is fair to say that Howell has seen better days.
Julio Castaneda owns multiple properties on Bullock Drive, an adjacent street with similar drainage issues. He expressed his major worry about Graystone’s large trailers being parked and driven down Howell, and he said the company’s property should be accessed from Southwestern.
“I get that a person is entitled to do something with their land,” Castaneda said. “But not at the cost of ... causing such a hardship on the residents of that area.”
Senior Planner Mary Paron-Boswell told the commissioners that the size of the Graystone property made a driveway on Southwestern impractical. Given the corner lot’s location and dimensions, “any building that you put on there, any type of business, would require some type of variance,” she said. The requested zoning change largely concerns variances to the setback rules, and those variances would apply to a garage that was built directly on the north property line in the 1980s. That garage was a stumbling block for many of the commissioners.
“Why should we want to allow this non-conforming use on this site?” Commissioner Kent Hafemann asked. “I’m all for people using the land the way they need to use the land to use their operation, but when it’s encroaching on the neighbors the way it appears to be, that concerns me.”
Glenn Portman pointed out that the garage has been in place for decades, and he reminded his fellow commissioners that parking commercial vehicles on a public street with commercial zoning is legal.
“It is unfortunate for residents behind this area to deal with the problem,” Portman said, “but there are lots of areas in the city where you’ve got residential areas near commercial. And it’s unfortunate, but commercial areas are required.”
Portman made a motion to approve the case as presented, and Sue Blankenship seconded it. Only Cindy Bishop voted with them, so the motion failed, 3-4.
Commissioner Ed Maurer then made a motion to approve the case with two new conditions (remove the garage and prohibit trailer parking), and Hafemann seconded it. Edmund Haas and Freddie Guerra voted with them, so the motion passed, 4-3.
The ultimate decision would have been made by the City Council this Tuesday; however, Graystone withdrew its application on July 23.
Rendering Revealed for Redesigned Dog Park
A year and a half after a redesign of Coppell’s dog park was approved, we have a glimpse of what it will look like.
“It’s been kind of put on hold for a while, while we worked through some design things with our consultant, but we’re really close,” Director of Community Experiences Jessica Carpenter told the Parks and Recreation Board on Monday.
Although he did not bring a drum to Monday’s meeting, Assistant Director of Community Experiences Adam Richter did say “drumroll” before revealing this rendering.