Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 6
Senior Housing Project Aims to Avoid Taxes • Texas Power Switch Loses Rights to City Logo • Trustees OK Bond Projects’ Maximum Prices • Frustrated Taxpayer Wants to Pay Full Bill
Good morning, every bunny! Happy Easter to all who celebrate.
Senior Housing Project Aims to Avoid Taxes
A Minnesota developer wants to build an affordable senior-housing complex in Coppell that would generate no tax revenue for the city.
A firm called Roers Companies is seeking a zoning change for an undeveloped lot on the corner of North Coppell Road and Canyon Drive. If the conditions are optimal, Roers would construct a four-story building there featuring 232 apartments. Each apartment would need to have at least one tenant who is 55 or older.
On March 21, Roers representative Logan Schmidt explained to the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission that his company and its investors receive tax credits from the federal government by building apartments reserved for people who make 60 percent or less of the area’s median income. He displayed this chart that breaks down the Coppell project’s estimated rents and income limits.
Commissioner Freddie Guerra asked how many current Coppell residents would be able to lease these apartments. Schmidt said Roers is starting to lease a similar complex in Wylie, and much of the initial interest has been from residents of that community.
“It’s hard to say an exact number, you know, because it depends on who can qualify and meet these income restrictions, because that is a hard restriction,” Schmidt said. “You can’t make a dollar more than that.”
Speaking of dollars, Schmidt also said Roers plans to partner with a nonprofit called the Texas Housing Foundation so the project could qualify for a state exemption from local property taxes. Guerra asked whether that exemption is necessary, and Schmidt said yes; due to the below-market rental rates, the project wouldn’t be financially feasible without the property-tax exemption.
After pointing out that 232 is a lot of apartments, Commissioner Kent Hafemann said this: “You’ll be likely bringing in people from outside the community to fill that baby up, yeah?” Hafemann also prodded Schmidt to admit that the exemption from property taxes would be a full exemption (as opposed to partial) in perpetuity (as opposed to a limited amount of time).
None of this sounded good to Commissioner Sue Blankenship.
“What you’re proposing is something that I don’t think services the residents of Coppell,” Blankenship said. “It brings people in from the outside, and then you want a tax exemption to bring those people in.”
As he did during a hearing that I documented in last week’s edition, City Attorney Bob Hager advised the commissioners to focus on the zoning.
“How it’s financed, and whether the city supports or doesn’t support a tax abatement, or whether or not they pay ad valorem taxes, while very interesting, is not a topic for discussion about what the appropriate land use is for this tract of land,” Hager said. “So it’s either appropriate for senior housing or it’s not appropriate.”
The two residents who signed up to speak during the public hearing were not restrained by the city attorney’s advice. Manibala Jonnalagadda echoed Blankenship’s opinion.
“What kinds of tax burdens do we Coppellians have to take on for providing all of these services?” Jonnalagadda asked. “If they get a complete tax exemption, then I, as a private citizen, do I have to bear some of the services? Because they will need ambulance services. They will need road services. They will need water — all of that.”
Another nearby homeowner, Hemant Goyal, expressed concerns about the traffic the project could generate on Coppell Road and Canyon Drive, which are not major thoroughfares. He also isn’t crazy about the idea of living close to a four-story structure.
“My entire backyard and my entire home comes into the direct line of sight of this building,” Goyal said.
The commissioners were deadlocked on the zoning change. Hafemann, Ed Maurer, and Glenn Portman voted for it, while Cindy Bishop, Blankenship, and Guerra voted against it. (A tie was possible because Chair Edmund Haas was absent.) The final decision lies with the City Council, who should consider the proposal on April 9.
Texas Power Switch Loses Rights to City Logo
Have you ever received one of those Texas Power Switch letters featuring the City of Coppell’s logo? Those letters have been buried on my list of possible story ideas for months. Thanks to a vote by the City Council, I can cross that idea off the list.
On Tuesday, a majority of the council voted to terminate the city’s affiliation with iChoosr, the company behind the Texas Power Switch program, which helps people get lower electricity rates through group negotiations. In a memo to the council, Deputy City Manager Traci Leach expressed concerns about the program’s long-term viability, as the level of participation has declined over time. She also cited concerns about iChoosr’s service levels, because the company is moving the bulk of its operations to Amsterdam.
During the council’s work session, Leach mentioned the predominant factor: “Our recommendation is really rooted in a foundation around, at this point, we did not feel it was appropriate to lend the city’s brand, logo, and marketing arm to assist a private entity to sell things to our community.”
Leach stressed that any Coppell residents participating in the Texas Power Switch program can continue to do so, and iChoosr can continue to market its services to Coppell residents. Tuesday’s vote was simply about iChoosr using the city’s logo in its promotions.
Leach said no other private, for-profit business has permission to use the city’s logo. Council Member Kevin Nevels said that gave iChoosr a competitive advantage over other electricity aggregators.
“If I had the opportunity to have the City of Coppell’s logo on my business, it would probably give me a competitive advantage,” Nevels said.
The council granted iChoosr permission to use the city’s logo in 2020. The only current council members who were in office back then are Mark Hill and Brianna Hinojosa-Smith. She was absent on Tuesday, when he cast the lone vote for maintaining the affiliation.
“I didn’t have an issue with it; I thought it was a good idea,” Hill said. “And I know people have benefited, still benefit, and I imagine, as this cycles through, we’ll continue to see the numbers. I don’t think they’re always going to decline, because people are not necessarily going to reup with their energy providers.”
Mayor Wes Mays was also a council member in 2020. Although he didn’t participate in Tuesday’s vote, because he votes only when a tie needs to be broken, Mays expressed continued support for the affiliation.
“I’m a current happy user of iChoosr,” Mays said. “I haven’t heard of a case where iChoosr has misused the city logo, so that doesn’t concern me as much as the eventuality.”
Mayor Pro Tem John Jun said the logo gave a false impression that the city was endorsing iChoosr and Texas Power Switch. I can confirm that at least one Coppell resident (yours truly) interpreted the logo’s presence in the aforementioned letters as an endorsement.
The council took a few other notable votes on Tuesday:
• They approved a $1.5 million contract with J.B. & Co., the contractor that just revitalized Duck Pond Park, to construct the Magnolia Park Trail. This project, which was long delayed due to a historical antiquities survey, will be paid for with federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
• They rejected a $75,000 contract with Next Gen Construction to repair and recoat the flat section of the Coppell Senior and Community Center’s roof. Hill pulled this item from the consent agenda because he said recoating a 14-year-old roof would be a waste of money. He said it ought to be replaced instead.
• They approved a zoning change that will allow the city’s Service Center on South Coppell Road to be renovated and expanded. (See “City’s Dirtiest Workers to Get New Digs” in Vol. 4, No. 4)
A Brief Promotional Interruption
If this is the first edition of the Chronicle that you’ve received in March, then you might be one of my 1,372 free subscribers. If you join the ranks of my 872 paid subscribers, then your inbox will be loaded with local news every Sunday.
A paid subscription costs just $30 per year. I spend more than that every time the teenage hooligans who live in my house grab me by the collar and say, “Listen up, old man. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get us some [cheeseburgers, chicken fingers, chicken wings, pizza, and/or tacos].”
Trustees OK Bond Projects’ Maximum Prices
If you watch Coppell ISD Board of Trustees meetings regularly, then you know Superintendent Brad Hunt and Board President David Caviness are often in the spotlight — literally. Because they occupy the center seats on the dais, the tops of their heads get caught in the beam of light projecting images onto the screen behind their seats.
That problem will be solved by a renovation of the board room at the district’s Vonita White Administration Building that is scheduled to take place this summer. The board room will be closed throughout June and July, so all board meetings and workshops during those months will happen at Coppell Middle School West.
Dwight Goodwin, the district’s Executive Director of Technology Services, briefed the trustees on the project last Tuesday. Goodwin estimated that board meetings take up a combined 120 hours per year, but he said the board room sees an additional 1,880 hours of action annually due to training sessions and meetings of other groups, such as the PTO presidents and the Coppell ISD Education Foundation.
Goodwin said the room’s new equipment will include a large flat-panel presentation screen plus a few ancillary panels, a video conferencing system, microphones, an amplifier, and a pair of touch-screen control panels. The current equipment was installed in 2014, and Goodwin said his department has been troubleshooting and coming up with “innovative solutions” for the past five years to keep it functional.
“When you have a 10-year anniversary, that’s usually a good thing, and you want to celebrate it,” Goodwin said. “But when you have a 10-year technology anniversary, it’s not such a good thing. Like, I love Windows XP, but I don’t want to go back to Windows XP.”
The board room’s renovation will cost between $250,000 and $300,000, and those dollars will come from the $321.5 million bond package approved by voters last May. During Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved guaranteed maximum prices for four other bond-funded projects that will be handled by Core Construction:
$30,495,582 for the renovation and expansion of Valley Ranch Elementary School.
$18,575,264 for the construction of a fine arts rehearsal building at Coppell High School.
$5,451,114 for the renovation and expansion of the Coppell High School Tennis Center.
$460,338 for the construction of a venue for field events (long jump, high jump, triple jump, and pole vault) on the old baseball field behind Coppell High School.
Those four projects should be completed by August of 2025.
One more thing: Hunt pointed out that the notes on the front of the fine arts rehearsal building, as designed by Corgan, will display the tune of the Coppell High School fight song.
Frustrated Taxpayer Wants to Pay Full Bill
When the Northwest Dallas County Flood Control District’s directors get together, they do so in the clubhouse of the Oaks Riverchase apartment complex. I attended one of their meetings for the first time last September, when I wrote an article that included references to all of the pop songs I heard on the clubhouse’s stereo system.
(See “District’s Board Flooded with Questions” in Vol. 3, No. 31)
Last Tuesday, I attended another one of their meetings. This time, the clubhouse’s radio was tuned to a station playing country music, a genre with which I am not as familiar. Rather than futz with the Shazam app on my phone to identify the songs, I concentrated on taking notes.
Most of those notes were inspired by Mike Killeen, who has been paying taxes to the flood control district for more than 20 years. Killeen showed up on Tuesday to repeat a question that he’d asked during at least one other meeting without receiving an answer. He wanted to know whether he could save money in the long run by paying off his property’s portion of the district’s remaining debt in one fell swoop.
The district’s three directors — Bennett Ratliff, Wayne Reynolds, and Tex Schmidt — said that would not be possible. Reynolds said a resident of a public improvement district might be able to arrange such a transaction, because those districts have defined termination dates. The flood control district does not, however, and there may be unanticipated maintenance costs that would make it impossible to calculate Killeen’s complete future tax bill.
“You can’t go to the City of Coppell and say, ‘Can I pay all of my taxes up-front from now on?’” Schmidt said.
In May of 2015, nearly 74 percent of the district’s voters approved a plan to restructure its debt. Reynolds said that election earned the district a “Small Issuer Financing” accolade from The Bond Buyer in the publication’s annual Deal of the Year awards. “I’m kind of proud of what we’ve done,” Reynolds said.
The bond sale approved by voters in 2015 gave the district until 2045 to pay off its debt, but Ratliff said that could be accomplished by less than 10 years from now. He said the district is saving millions on interest by making larger payments than what’s required. The district’s general counsel, Pete Eckert, said a representative from Hilltop Securities should be at the directors’ August meeting to provide an update on the refinancing.
This was Killeen’s reaction to all of that information: “What I hear is that you’re taxing me too much.”
After clarifying that his request to pay in full could not be accommodated, Killeen asked whether there was any way to appeal the directors’ decision. Reynolds said Killeen could retain an attorney and ask that lawyer to contact Eckert.
“It’s your call,” Reynolds said. “We don’t look forward to it, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Tuesday’s meeting lasted only half an hour, and if Killeen hadn’t posed his question, it might have taken half that long. The few items on the agenda included signing off on four refunds recommended by the tax collector, receiving a report from a Kimley-Horn engineer on sump repairs and replacements, and approving the minutes of the board’s February meeting.
Killeen and I were among five observers at Tuesday’s meeting. One of the others, Lydia Goulas, asked whether it was possible for the minutes to be posted online, so they could be easily accessible to the district’s residents. Schmidt said they could be added to the district’s bare-bones website, but he asked Goulas to be patient, as the district does not have an IT department.
“Oh, come on,” Goulas said. “You probably have a grandchild who can create a webpage.”
Is it just me, or does that sound like a good lyric for a country song?
Chronicle Crumbs
• You have multiple opportunities coming up to competitively run through Andrew Brown Park East. The Coppell ISD Education Foundation’s Run to Fund is scheduled for May 4, and the early registration pricing ends at midnight tonight. The St. Ann Parish 5K is scheduled for April 13, and its early registration prices are available through Thursday. Finally, the Coppell 5K benefiting Special Olympics is scheduled for June 1, with early registration fees offered through April 26.
• The indoor pool at The CORE will be closed for the next two weeks for maintenance and so new LED lights can be installed in the ceiling.
• A portion of the Denton Creek North Levee Trail will be closed for at least a week while a bridge’s decking is replaced. Kids who use the trail to commute to Denton Creek Elementary or Coppell Middle School North will need to find an alternate route.
• The City of Dallas has produced an interactive map breaking down all of the projects that could be funded by the $1.25 billion bond package that will be on the May 4 ballot. It appears that Cypress Waters will get nothing in this deal.
• Freddie Guerra is competing with Ramesh Premkumar for a seat on the Coppell City Council. Their large campaign signs feature photos of the candidates, and I chuckled when I saw the one depicting Guerra on a scooter. (“A chicken in every pot and a scooter in every garage?”) But a campaign sign I spotted in Bedford made me laugh so hard I had to pull over and document it.
Civic Calendar
Our local governments have so much going on this week, I decided to break down their events in a special section before the Community Calendar.
• The agenda for Monday’s monthly meeting of the Coppell Parks and Recreation Board includes an update from the Wagon Wheel Tennis and Pickleball Center manager as well as a “presentation by the members of the Pickleball Community.” The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Town Center.
• A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the conclusion of the Duck Pond Park renovations has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday. The park has a limited number of parking spaces, so shuttles will start running from First United Methodist Church at 9:30 a.m.
• Coppell ISD’s PTO presidents will host a candidates forum at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Coppell High School lecture hall. There’s only one contested campaign in Coppell ISD this year. Trustee Nichole Bentley is seeking a third term, and she has a challenger named Eneida Padró.
• If you’re someone who cares about how our local governments craft their budgets, then Thursday will be a busy evening. Coppell ISD will host a Budget Community Dialogue at 6 p.m. in the Coppell High School cafeteria. One hour later, the City of Coppell’s Budget Town Hall will begin at Town Center.
• The Dallas County Parks and Open Space Program is updating its Open Space Plan for the first time since 1991. That initiative includes a series of public meetings to gather input. One of those meetings is scheduled from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Thursday at the Coppell Senior and Community Center.
Community Calendar
Silver Line Breakfast & Coffee Community Update: Representatives from DART and Silver Line contractor Archer Western Herzog will be at George Coffee + Provisions between 9 and 11 a.m. on Tuesday.
Family Reading Night: The Assistance League of Coppell presents this weekly series between 6 and 7 p.m. on Thursdays at the Coppell YMCA. Each Thursday through April 18, local authors will read from their books that are appropriate for young children. This week features Melissa Piquette reading from Seas the Day. The program is free, but books are available for purchase and autographing if families choose.
Four Way Test Speech Contest: The Rotary Club of Coppell is offering cash prizes to high school students. The contest is scheduled for Thursday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons, and the registration deadline is today. The field will be limited to 20 contestants.
Metrocrest Services Donation Drive: If you have furniture, clothing, books, and any other household items that you’d like to donate to Metrocrest Services, bring them to Valentine Premier Construction (598 S. Denton Tap Road) between noon and 2 p.m. on Friday.
Party at the Parks: Youth ballplayers wearing jerseys will get into the Coppell ISD Baseball and Softball Complex for free on Friday evening, when the Cowgirls will play Marcus at 7:15 and the Cowboys will host Plano West at 7:30. The festivities will include face painting, a performance by the Coppell High School drumline, and $1 hot dogs.
Sunset Socials: Music in Old Town: A tribute band called The Elton Johns will perform in Old Town Coppell between 7 and 9 p.m. on Friday, when several food trucks will be parked nearby.
Charlotte’s Web: Theatre Coppell will stage nine performances of a play based on E.B. White’s beloved book. The first show is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday at the Coppell Arts Center.
Coffee With a Cop: Coppell police officers will hang out at Gas Coffee (833 S. Denton Tap Road) between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Caregiving Heroes: The support group for people who are assisting loved ones with aging or other concerns will meet at 10 a.m. on Saturday in the library of First United Methodist Church. This week’s meeting will include a demonstration of what it may be like to live with dementia.
Solar Eclipse Experience: Frontiers of Flight Museum staff will bring their portable planetarium to the Cozby Library and Community Commons between 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Bohemian Queen: A friend of mine who is really into tribute bands tells me that $46 is too steep a price for such acts. If you disagree, you can catch these Queen cosplayers at 2 or 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Coppell Arts Center.
Solar Eclipse Mocktail Party: Although the space-themed drinks at this Cozby Library and Community Commons event will be non-alcoholic, this party scheduled from 2 to 3 p.m. on April 7 is for adults only.
Vibrant Tones: The Coppell Children’s Chorus will present their spring show at 3 p.m. on April 7 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Total Eclipse of the Park: Perhaps you’ve heard there will be a total eclipse on April 8? You may want to soak up the lack of rays at Andrew Brown Park East, where there will be lawn games, complimentary popcorn, giveaways, eclipse-themed music, and other fun activities between noon and 3 p.m.
Fun, Food & Grooves in Old Town: A band called Elevation will perform outside the Coppell Arts Center from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on April 12, and a few food trucks are scheduled to arrive at 5.
Sorority 101: The Coppell Alumnae Panhellenic Association will present information on sorority recruitment between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. on April 13 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons. All girls who are about to graduate from high school are invited to attend with a parent or guardian. RSVPs are requested via the link.
The Commodores: This Motown act with a legendary name is scheduled to perform at the Coppell Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on April 13, but if you want to hear original member Lionel Richie, you’ll need to drive to Thackerville, Okla., on April 14.
Local Journalism with Dan Koller: The staff of the Cozby Libray and Community Commons invited your correspondent to discuss how and why this newsletter began in 2021. The bloviating will begin at 2 p.m. on April 20.
When I wrote and published this edition, I somehow misidentified Tex Schmidt, one of the Northwest Dallas County Flood Control District directors, as Tex Ritter, a country singer who died before I was born: https://texashighways.com/travel-news/tex-ritters-legacy-lives-museum-in-carthage/
Personally, I think Coppell needs to find a new city attorney. On the zoning change request for Senior Housing. The heck it is just about a zoning request. Use matters as well. And if the city council members vote to allow this to happen, they should all be recall petitioned or be crushed at the next election. This is nothing short of insane for locals.