Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 44
Drones Will Soon Fly Into Sky Over Coppell • Region’s Packages Get Processed in Our City • Leaves in Plastic Bags Destined for Landfill • Commission Endorses New Drive-Thru Eatery
Drones Will Soon Fly Into Sky Over Coppell
With hysteria about drones growing nationwide, now seems like the perfect time to inform you of a company’s plans to deploy the airborne devices over Coppell.
Walmart is preparing to offer drone deliveries from its store on Round Grove Road in Lewisville. The initial delivery area will be a 2-mile radius, but it will expand to a 10-mile radius that will encompass Coppell.
These drones are on my radar, so to speak, only because Lewisville officials were asked to waive the city’s screening standards for the devices’ charging stations and launch towers. Because Lewisville is developing an ordinance for drone equipment that would eliminate those standards, the City Council unanimously approved the waiver last Monday.
Another Walmart in Lewisville — the one at Main Street and Interstate 35E — has been offering drone deliveries for about a year. That store’s drones are supplied by a company called Wing, and customers pay a delivery fee of $12.99 or $19.99, depending on their membership level.
Walmart will work with another drone company, Zipline, at its store on Round Grove. Zipline representatives showed Lewisville officials a short video to demonstrate how their equipment works. Zipline’s reps also displayed a graphic that says their drones — which can fly as fast as 70 miles per hour and deliver items as heavy as 8 pounds — are “quieter than common neighborhood sounds.”
I don’t believe elected officials in Lewisville and Coppell can enact any ordinances to prohibit drone deliveries in their cities. Our skies are governed by the Federal Aviation Administration, which has temporarily banned drone flights in parts of New Jersey and New York due to the aforementioned hysteria.
I asked spokespeople for Walmart and Zipline when drone deliveries from the store on Round Grove would begin. That question couldn’t be answered, as those details are still being ironed out. But because you just read this article, at least you won’t be shocked the first time you see a drone hovering over your neighbor’s porch.
Region’s Packages Get Processed in Our City
Let’s shift from packages delivered by flying droids to packages delivered by driving humans.
The U.S. Postal Service offered reporters a tour of its regional facility in Coppell last week, and I jumped at the opportunity to ask a question that has long vexed me: Where is 75099?
The North Texas Processing & Distribution Center is at 951 W. Bethel Road. That address is displayed on a massive sign outside the building, and the address includes 75099, as I documented in a March article called “Coppell Has a Second, Ill-Defined ZIP Code.”
Plant Manager Sergio Reynoso oversees the facility where he began his Postal Service career 26 years ago, at the age of 19. It didn’t take long for me to pull him aside during Tuesday’s tour and ask him about the boundaries of 75099. According to Reynoso, that ZIP code is unique to the North Texas Processing & Distribution Center. It does not include any of the neighboring Amazon facilities, despite what Google Maps says.
Now that I’ve cleared that up, let me tell you a little bit about what goes on in the Coppell distribution center, one of four in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Reynoso said those four collectively handle 1.2 million packages per day leading up to Christmas, but his employees sort more than a third of them: 450,000 on a daily basis.
The Coppell center has about 1,500 people on staff, and they work in shifts around the clock. Reynoso estimated about 350 of them were on duty when I was there on Tuesday. They serve communities stretching from Abilene to Tyler. Signs posted above loading docks indicated trucks were bound for towns such as Bonham, Clarksville, Gunter, and Pottsboro.
At one point during the tour, I noticed two long rows of cardboard boxes on either side of a conveyor belt. Packages gliding down the belt would drop into these boxes, almost all of which were marked by one or more ZIP codes. I found the box bearing Coppell’s 75019 so I could record a short video that I posted on Instagram, along with the deadlines for delivery by Christmas.
I saw only one box in this area that wasn’t assigned to a ZIP code, and it happened to be right next to the 75019 box. I laughed when I noticed its special designation: “TEMU RETURNS.”
A Brief Promotional Interruption
My family moved to Coppell a dozen years ago this month, specifically to get my mentally disabled son into Coppell ISD. He was 7 then; he’s 19 now. Because of his cognitive limitations, our best-case scenario is that he might get a part-time job that pays minimum wage. My hope is that the money I make from the Coppell Chronicle will fund his adult life.
If that attempt to tug on your heartstrings doesn’t convince you to upgrade your subscription, maybe this Pearls Before Swine strip will do the trick. A paid subscriber brought it to my attention after she saw it in a calendar.
Leaves in Plastic Bags Destined for Landfill
We’ve all heard the question thousands of times at grocery stores: paper or plastic? When it comes to your leaves and yard trimmings, those options determine their final destination.
If your leaves are placed in plastic bags, they will be thrown in the landfill with garbage. If you put them in lawn and leaf bags made of paper, or an open trash can, they will go to Living Earth, a green recycling company that endeavors to “keep organic matter out of the landfill.” That’s where all of the debris from last spring’s intense storm ended up.
(See “Council Assigns $400K to Storm Cleanup” in Vol. 4, No. 18.)
I learned about these distinct collection methods by trading a few emails with Luay Rahil, assistant director of Coppell’s Community Development Department. I contacted him after a subscriber told me that Republic Services failed to collect three plastic bags full of leaves from his curb a couple of Wednesdays ago. A Republic employee told my subscriber that Coppell has prohibited collecting leaves in plastic bags, but Rahil said that employee was misinformed.
Coppell’s trash and recycling policies do include a limit of 10 bags per service day, but three plastic bags full of leaves should be fine — as long as you don’t mind that they’ll end up in the landfill. In fact, my subscriber’s three plastic bags were collected the following Monday, along with the rest of his garbage.
One more thing about garbage and recycling in Coppell: Due to Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on Wednesday, the collection of recycling and yard trimmings will happen on Thursday this week and next week. The trash collection that normally happens on Thursday will be pushed back to Friday both weeks.
Commission Endorses New Drive-Thru Eatery
Have you ever seen a Jason’s Deli with a drive-thru? You may soon see one on Denton Tap Road.
On Thursday, the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission considered a proposal to convert the former home of Tangerine Salon into a Jason’s Deli. That’s the north end of the building known as Village at Town Center, which also includes Sport Clips and Orange Theory.
Although the commissioners unanimously recommended approval of the necessary zoning changes, several of them had questions or concerns:
Commission Chair Edmund Haas said he’d never seen a Jason’s Deli with a drive-thru. He wondered whether this was a new concept, and he asked whether drive-thru customers would have access to the full menu. Tavis Browne, who represented the deli chain at Thursday’s hearing, answered those questions with a “no” and a “yes,” respectively.
Commissioner Freddie Guerra pointed out that the site plan makes it look like drive-thru customers would be encouraged to turn left and head south — in front of Sport Clips and Orange Theory — after getting their food. He suggested that traffic would flow easier if they turned right and headed north toward the Truist bank next door.
Commissioner Sue Blankenship recommended a “Slow – Pedestrian Crossing” sign, because people who park on the north side of the restaurant would have to walk across the drive-thru lane to get inside.
Commissioner Cindy Bishop appreciated that the site plan includes a rear entrance on the east side of the building. “Parking in that parking lot on the west side gets kind of crazy,” she said.
The zoning changes are still subject to the City Council’s approval. The case should be on their Jan. 14 agenda.
In other restaurant news …
• The Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission also recommended approval of zoning changes that will allow Singas Famous Pizza to occupy a space on the southwest corner of East Belt Line Road and South MacArthur Boulevard. The website for the New York-based chain says it is also “coming soon” to Frisco, Plano, and Prosper.
• Coppell residents Ralph and Lynn Pence have opened their first Donatos Pizza franchise on Long Prairie Road in Flower Mound. The Ohio-based chain is known for placing its toppings all the way to the edge of its pizzas.
• Miriam Cocina Latina, a restaurant next to Klyde Warren Park in Dallas, is targeting Jan. 6 as the opening date for its second location. It’s taking over Ascension Coffee’s former home in The Sound at Cypress Waters.
• Kafi BBQ, which bills itself as Texas’ only purveyor of halal wagyu barbecue, debuted this month on MacArthur Boulevard in Valley Ranch. It’s open on Saturdays and Sundays only.
• The Chick-fil-A on Round Grove Road in Lewisville will be demolished and rebuilt, according to a form filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation last week. That form says the work will begin in May and should last until at least October. Try to remain calm, folks.
Congratulations are in Order
• Congratulations to Clay Phillips, who has been named the winner of the Cliff Long Leadership Award, which he will receive at the Coppell Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Awards & Community Gala on Feb. 15. Phillips’ resume includes stints as Coppell’s fire chief, Coppell’s city manager, and Coppell High School’s valedictorian. The award’s three previous recipients were Coppell ISD Superintendent Brad Hunt, Metrocrest Services CEO Tracy Eubanks, and Coppell High School Principal Laura Springer.
• Congratulations to the North Crowley Panthers, the team that knocked Coppell High School out of the playoffs a few weeks ago. North Crowley won the Class 6A Division I state championship last night by dismantling Austin Westlake, 50-21, at AT&T Stadium.
• Congratulations to Keiston Alexander, who was named the head football coach at Little Elm High School on Wednesday. Alexander had been Coppell’s special teams coordinator and safeties coach for two years. He’s moving from a team that went 20-0 in the past two regular seasons to one that finished 2-18 in the same span. Good luck with all that, Coach!
Chronicle Crumbs
• Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, which includes portions of Coppell and Irving, will likely close some campuses soon. The district announced on Wednesday that trustees will hear “consolidation and rezoning recommendations” at their February meeting, and a vote on those recommendations is expected at their March meeting. The announcement included these statistics: “Research showed that 23 out of 34 CFBISD schools were being utilized at 75% capacity or less. That excess capacity translates to 9,800 empty seats.” Chief Communications Officer Caren Rodriguez clarified that Riverchase Elementary, CFBISD’s only school in Coppell, was not among the 23 underutilized campuses, but five of the district’s Irving schools were.
• The January issue of Texas Monthly — the one with a caricature of Jerry Jones on the cover — includes a depressing article called “A Painful Ending.” The online version is called “It Should’ve Been a Routine Procedure. Instead, a Young Mother Became a Victim of Texas’s Broken Medical System.” The article was inspired by the 2021 death of Kimberly Ray, which happened two days after she received general anesthesia at the Integrity Wellness Center in Coppell. That facility on the corner of South Belt Line Road and East Belt Line Road is now known as the Cedarwood Surgical Center.
• If you’d rather be amused than depressed, check out D Magazine Editor Tim Rogers’ annual review of the Dallas City Council’s Christmas sweaters. Council Member Omar Narvaez — whose district includes Cypress Waters — was an enthusiastic participant, as always.
• Brandon Gill, who will soon represent Coppell Greens and the rest of District 26 in Congress, made news last week for saying “we need a lot more Daniel Pennys in this country, because we have far too many Jordan Neelys.” Penny was recently acquitted on charges related to the death of Neely, a homeless man whom Penny placed in a headlock after he acted erratically on a New York subway train. The day before Gill’s comments, Penny attended the Army-Navy football game with President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Elon Musk.
• A lot of commuters are frustrated about the Texas Department of Transportation’s changes to the eastbound lanes of State Highways 114 and 121 in Grapevine. Until recently, drivers in the third lane from the left could choose between northbound 121 and eastbound Interstate 635, but drivers in that third lane are now forced onto 635. I was going to write an entire article about this, but Tahera Rahman of NBC 5 beat me to it. Watch her report.
•On Dec. 12, a 5-4 majority of the Irving City Council denied zoning variances requested by Southlake-based Magnolia Hospitality Group, which wants to build a four-story, extended-stay hotel along State Highway 114. The LivSmart Studios by Hilton hotel would replace a Comfort Inn that was demolished after a fire in 2022. The property is within Coppell ISD and also within the council district of Al Zapanta, who made the motion to deny.
• In last week’s edition, I broke the news that a Planet Fitness franchisee called Excel Fitness received a certificate of occupancy for the space that Texas Family Fitness has occupied for several years on the southeast corner of Denton Tap and Sandy Lake roads. On Monday, Excel Fitness announced that it had acquired Texas Family Fitness, which had 11 locations throughout the region. Four of those gyms have already been shuttered; WFAA and The Dallas Morning News talked to some unhappy employees and clients. Meanwhile, a Planet Fitness banner is already hanging at the Coppell site.
• If you’re a financial whiz who wants to work closer to home, take note: Coppell-based Dave & Buster’s announced this month that CEO Chris Morris has resigned “to pursue other interests.” His resignation was included in the company’s report on its third quarter, when revenue decreased by 3 percent from a year prior and comparable store sales decreased by 7.7 percent.
• Right outside Dave & Buster’s headquarters — which is on South Belt Line, between Wrangler and Lakeshore drives — something I wrote about in a May article called “City to Explore Digital Signage Along Roads” is being finalized.
As I stood in front of that monolith, I felt like one of the monkeys in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Community Calendar
Christmas Bird Count: The staff of the Biodiversity Education Center is seeking about 20 volunteers to help count birds in the Coppell Nature Park between 8 and 11 a.m. on Friday.
Noon Year’s Eve: If you can’t stay up until midnight, you can ring in the new year at the Cozby Library and Community Commons between 11 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. on Dec. 31.
Coppell Youth Soccer Association: Registration for the spring season, which begins on March 1, is open through Jan. 6. The association urges parents to remember to register their players before the holidays daze sets in.
Singing Cadets: The choir comprised of Texas A&M students will perform at 7 p.m. on Jan. 9 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Assistance League of Coppell: The next meeting is set for 11 a.m. on Jan. 16 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons. The featured speaker will be Laci McKinney, who serves as the Organizational Effectiveness and Innovation Specialist for the City of Coppell’s Employee Experience Department.
I would have loved to see your article on the 121/I-635 reconfiguration. Its reversion to the “original” design without matching signage/striping was half-cocked. Unfortunately, the new, matching signage does not seem to have made a significant improvement to flow—like anyone even reads.
My husband will be so happy for a Jason’s in Coppell instead of driving to the one on 3040 just east of 35 across from Target which does btw have a drive-thru.