Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 1
Silver Line Service May Start This Year • Residents Don’t Want Trucks on Street • Dueling Pickleball Plans Pass Muster • City Prepares to Demolish Busted Fence
When my family moved to Coppell, the city was covered by two weekly newspapers: the Citizens’ Advocate and the Coppell Gazette. The Citizens’ Advocate stopped printing in 2020, which is one of the reasons I launched the Coppell Chronicle in 2021.
The final print edition of the Coppell Gazette was published this month. Star Local Media has opted to combine its 15 newspapers into a regional publication called Star Local News. Two of these have been thrown on my driveway so far, and neither had a front-page story about Coppell.
(There is still a Coppell Gazette page on Facebook that is distinct from Star Local Media’s page. For reasons beyond my comprehension, the Coppell Gazette page featured stories about Allen, Celina, The Colony, Frisco, McKinney, Mesquite, and Plano last week.)
Meanwhile, the Rambler — which is the City of Coppell’s official newspaper — has also broadened its purview. The paper that started in Irving before expanding to Coppell and Grand Prairie now offers news about Cedar Hill, Duncanville, DeSoto, Hutchins, and Lancaster. (Fun fact: Merriam-Webster’s primary definition of “ramble” is “to move aimlessly from place to place.”)
As we begin Volume 5 of the only weekly publication that is laser focused on Coppell, I also have a change to announce: The price of an annual subscription to the Chronicle will soon increase from $30 to $40. That higher fee will apply only to people who become paid subscribers after Feb. 28. If you are already a paid subscriber, or become one before March 1, your renewal fee will be locked at $30 in perpetuity.
Free subscribers who have been contemplating an upgrade may want to act fast to save some cash.
Silver Line Service May Start This Year
Silver Line trains could be picking up and dropping off passengers right outside Coppell by the end of this year.
That was my major takeaway from the community meeting that Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials hosted at Town Hall in Cypress Waters on Wednesday. I have previously reported that revenue service would be delayed until 2026, but DART spokesman Mario Zavala said the transit agency anticipates it starting in late 2025.
Zavala reminded the meeting’s handful of attendees that the Silver Line — which will run between DFW Airport and Plano — is DART’s first project that’s not focused on getting commuters to downtown Dallas. That’s why I thought it was funny that this slide about “Coppell Area Project Milestones” featured a Silver Line train in front of Reunion Tower, one of downtown Dallas’ most recognizable landmarks.
As you can see on that slide, Cypress Waters Station is 80 percent complete. That station is being constructed along East Belt Line Road, just south of Coppell’s Kyra Court subdivision. When finished, it will have more than 190 parking spaces.
There will be no charge to park at Cypress Waters Station, which will be a 15-minute ride from DFW’s Terminal B. Noting that her age qualifies her for a reduced fare of $1.50 for a three-hour pass, Chronicle subscriber Barb Schmidt said she could save a lot of money when going out of town by leaving her vehicle at the station instead of the airport. Wrapping planes, trains, and automobiles into a single question, Schmidt asked whether DART officials were worried about the parking lot filling up with cars belonging to people who were flying the friendly skies. Project Manager John Hoppie, who happens to be a Coppell resident, said that hasn’t been a problem at other DART stations, and they don’t anticipate it being an issue at this one either.
People who reside in Cypress Waters or the south side of Coppell have undoubtedly heard Silver Line trains blowing their horns recently during segment testing. Zavala said that testing is scheduled to resume next month, when it will be limited to daylight hours. When revenue service begins, the horns will sound during emergencies only.
Also next month, DART’s Board of Directors will conduct a public hearing on the Silver Line’s service plan before voting to approve it. Some key aspects of that service plan:
Trains will carry passengers more than 20 hours per day, from 4 a.m. until 12:30 a.m.
During peak service on weekdays — from 6 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 7 p.m. — each station should see a westbound train every 30 minutes and an eastbound train every 30 minutes.
During other service hours, each station should see a westbound train every 60 minutes and an eastbound train every 60 minutes.
That public hearing will happen at 6 p.m. on March 25 at DART’s headquarters, which is at 1401 Pacific Ave. in Dallas. If you plan on attending, I suggest commuting via DART to enhance your experience. You can catch a Green Line train at Downtown Carrollton Station and take it all the way to Akard Station, which is just steps away from DART’s front door.
Residents Don’t Want Trucks on Street
The Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on Thursday that seemed like a rerun of a hearing they conducted last summer.
Both hearings concerned a set of zoning variances requested by Graystone Construction, which owns a quarter-acre lot on the corner of Southwestern Boulevard and Howell Drive. The parcel already features a 1,500-square-foot warehouse, and Graystone wants to add an 1,800-square-foot office building.
During the July hearing, Senior Planner Mary Paron-Boswell told the commissioners, “Any building that you put on there, any type of business, would require some type of variance.” On Thursday, she echoed that statement: “With this lot in particular, with the setbacks that are required, it needs variances to build essentially anything on it.”
Both hearings featured passionate testimony from Rich Pilone, who has lived on Howell Drive since 1980. “My blood is in that neighborhood, and I am not gonna let it go down,” he said Thursday.
Pilone doesn’t like the idea of Graystone’s property, which has an official address of 192 Southwestern, being accessed from Howell. “We’re not against him putting a building up; it’s a great-looking building,” he said. “We do not want access on Howell Drive.”
As he was last summer, Pilone was backed up on Thursday by Julio Castaneda, who lives one block to the east on Bullock Drive.
“I’ve got multiple properties in that area, and I can’t just do whatever I want,” Castaneda told the commissioners. “That’s the deal with buying this property. ... You have to use it in such a way that Southwestern is your access.”
Last July, four of the seven commissioners approved a motion to recommend approval of the zoning variances on two conditions: trailer parking would be prohibited and the warehouse would be demolished. Graystone withdrew that version of its proposal before it could proceed to the City Council.
(See “Residents Oppose Office on Their Street” in Vol. 4, No. 25.)
On Thursday, Commission Chair Edmund Haas asked what had changed about Graystone’s proposal. The most important difference is that the company is no longer planning to store a pair of trailers on the property. In fact, Graystone has promised to post “No Commercial Vehicles” signage on Howell.
But Graystone partner Danny Didyk said he wants to keep the warehouse, because the firm has spent $50,000 improving it since buying the property in 2023. Paron-Boswell said there was a “miscommunication” during the July hearing about the warehouse’s positioning. She clarified that there is space for an alley between the Graystone property and the parcel to the north, so the warehouse does not directly abut that other property. That was a sticking point for Commissioner Kent Hafemann last summer.
On Thursday, Hafemann asked Didyk why his property can’t be accessed from Southwestern. Didyk’s architect, Joseph Wilkinson, explained that the Southwestern side of the tract is only 75 feet wide, and city code says the driveway has to be 26 feet wide. A driveway on Southwestern would either be too close to Howell or too close to the property to the west, Wilkinson said.
Eventually, Haas requested an executive session so the commissioners could confer privately with City Attorney Bob Hager. After 40 minutes of discussion behind closed doors, Haas made a motion to recommend approval of Graystone’s variance requests, with a few new conditions:
Move the warehouse’s overhead door from the building’s east side to its south side.
Alter the site plan so there is only one point of access from Howell instead of two.
Convert the existing access point east of the warehouse into a “lot-access parking space.”
After Didyk agreed to those conditions, Haas’ motion passed without opposition. The ultimate decision lies with the City Council, which should conduct another public hearing on March 11. Haas encouraged Pilone and his neighbors to return on that date to speak their piece.
Dueling Pickleball Plans Pass Muster
Two proposed pickleball venues close to Coppell Greens cleared their first hurdles during a pair of public hearings last week.
Vistara Sports, which has offered indoor courts for pickleball and badminton on Vista Ridge Mall Drive since 2023, wants to expand by adding 12 outdoor pickleball courts; the Lewisville Planning and Zoning Commission considered that concept on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a developer wants to build a business called Indoor Pickleball X on a vacant lot along State Highway 121; the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission pondered that proposal on Thursday.
Both hearings featured testimony from Phil Laberge, who is the vice president of the Coppell Greens Homeowners Association “and very proud of it,” he said on Thursday. Laberge had concerns about noise from the outdoor courts in Lewisville and lights outside the indoor facility in Coppell.
Let’s start with the Coppell proposal. Laberge’s concerns about lighting were allayed by the developer’s photometric plan, so he said the homeowners association was happy to welcome the new business to town. In fact, Laberge said the building may help block highway noise for residents of Turnberry Lane.
Jason Chin is the developer of Indoor Pickleball X, and he’s also planning locations in Carrollton and Lewisville. He has owned a similar facility called Indoor Pickleball Now in north Fort Worth for about a year. Nobody discussed his business’s pricing structure during Thursday’s hearing, so I created an account on the Indoor Pickleball Now website for research purposes. It appears that court reservations start at $18 per hour per player.
Indoor Pickleball X’s hours of operations were also unmentioned during Thursday’s hearing, but its website bills the business as “your 24/7 pickleball haven.” Perhaps those around-the-clock hours will come up during the Coppell City Council’s hearing on the zoning change, which is scheduled for March 11.
Six days later, the Lewisville City Council will consider Vistara Sports’ request for an outdoor amusement permit. During Tuesday’s hearing, Laberge said he was less worried about noise after learning that Vistara’s plans call for a 3-foot stone wall on the south side of the courts that will be topped by an 8-foot wooden fence. Laberge said he’d prefer that the fence be a board-on-board number, which would block more noise than a board-by-board fence. Matthew Thomas, Vistara’s civil engineer, said that shouldn’t be a problem.
Commissioner Jack Tidwell had some concerns about the outdoor courts’ lighting, considering the proposed operating hours span from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thomas said the light fixtures would be shielded to prevent any light spillage.
That Lewisville Planning and Zoning Commission meeting featured an unrelated item that I found interesting: An Arlington firm called RunTime Centers plans to build a facility that will feature drive-thru lanes for three fast-food restaurants. Customers will not be able to enter the facility on the east side of Interstate 35E (just north of Fox Avenue), and they will not be able to peruse a menu there either. Food will be ordered online, and a gate will prevent a customer from entering a lane until their grub is ready. On Tuesday, a few zoning change requests were endorsed by all commissioners except Francisca Al-Waely. “I don’t like it, and I’m not sure why,” she said.
City Prepares to Demolish Busted Fence
A dilapidated fence’s days are officially numbered.
Dallas County property records indicate that Joann Allison has owned the house at 433 Willow Springs Drive since 2012. During a hearing before the Coppell Building and Standards Commission this month, Adrienne Hester was identified as the home’s longtime resident.
Senior Code Compliance Officer Dezirae Veuleman told the commissioners that the home’s rear fence has been in a state of disrepair since at least June of 2023. Her department has documented loose, broken, damaged, and missing parts, and they have mailed, emailed, and hand-delivered notices of the problems to Allison and Hester.
Neither the landlord nor the tenant has done anything to repair or replace the fence, so the case was filed with the Coppell Municipal Court. Veuleman said Allison did not show up for a pretrial hearing last August, and Hester did not appear at a pretrial hearing in October. Therefore, the case was referred to the Building and Standards Commission for a public hearing on Feb. 6. Allison and Hester didn’t attend that hearing either.
The commission issued an order stating that the fence must be repaired or demolished by March 14. If not, the city will hire a contractor to knock it down, and Allison will be billed for that work. If that bill is not paid within 30 days, the city will put a lien on the property.
Also on Feb. 6, the commissioners gave Keenan McCarty until Feb. 17 to “seal or repair all exterior openings and defects” at his home on Greenway Court and secure the gate to his backyard pool, as documented in “Burnt House’s Owner Gets New Deadline.” Veuleman confirmed for me that McCarty had met that deadline. A hearing to assess his progress on other repairs has been scheduled for April 3.
Got a Few Seconds to Vote for Me?
I’m told today is the final day the public can vote for the inaugural Texas Creator Awards, which Rogue Media Network devised to “highlight and reward those who create digital content in the state of Texas.” I’m honored to be one of the four nominees in the Email Newsletters category.
The winners will be announced one week from today at a ceremony in Waco.
Chronicle Crumbs
• The hacking and slashing that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing to the federal budget has already affected some Coppell residents. Span Inc., which provides transportation for Coppell seniors and residents with disabilities, announced it will no longer be able to fulfill all trip requests.
• Speaking of residents with disabilities, my Special Olympian and his teammates wrapped up their basketball season on Saturday, when they played in a tournament at Lewisville High School’s Killough Campus. Shout-out to coaches Jim Wallace and Jill Hoenig for their dedication and patience.
• Jill’s husband, Joe Hoeing, asked me to publish a plug for a new Facebook group dedicated to Coppell poker enthusiasts. “This is meant to be a friendly group,” says the official description. “If you’re a jerk at a game, you won’t be invited back.”
• Early voting for the May 3 election doesn’t begin until April 22, but a group called Women for Democracy will host a Coppell ISD candidates forum at 1 p.m. on Friday at the Coppell Senior and Community Center. Leigh Walker’s bid for a fourth term in the Place 1 seat has been challenged by Sheri Hill. Meanwhile, Jonathan Powers and Julie Waters are competing for the Place 2 seat that Manish Sethi will vacate.
• Last year, the owners of a house in Coppell’s Westhaven subdivision asked the Lewisville ISD Board of Trustees to change the district’s boundaries so their property would be fully within Coppell ISD. (See “Lewisville ISD Refuses to Alter Border” in Vol. 4, No. 36.) The same property will be the subject of a hearing before Coppell ISD’s trustees at 5 p.m. on Monday.
• Are you as curious as I am about the huge house that’s being built along Sandy Lake Road, about a block west of Andy’s Frozen Custard? The plans call for a 5,000-square-foot home featuring five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a media room, a game room, a covered patio, and a pair of garages augmented by a porte-cochere. Here’s a sneak peek at what the final product will look like when viewed from Shadydale Lane.
Community Calendar
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown: Theatre Coppell will stage one more performance of the musical based on Charles M. Schulz’s beloved “Peanuts” characters at 2:30 p.m. today at the Coppell Arts Center.
Never One Thing: The Coppell Community Chorale will perform songs for women, about women, and by women at 3 p.m. today at the Coppell Arts Center.
Vision for Coppell — Annual Mayor’s Luncheon: With assistance from City Manager Mike Land, Mayor Wes Mays will provide his insights at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday at the Coppell Arts Center.
Caregiving Heroes: This support group for people who are assisting loved ones with aging or other concerns will meet at 10 a.m. on Saturday at First United Methodist Church of Coppell.
Rhapsody in the Deep Blue Sea: The Coppell Arts Center Foundation’s fundraising gala is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Arts Center.
Nostalgia: The Coppell Community Orchestra will perform timeless melodies that evoke cherished memories and emotions at 3 p.m. on March 2 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Coppell Relays: The Coppell High School track and field program’s only home meet will happen on March 6 at Buddy Echols Field. Field events will begin at 2 p.m., followed by track events at 5 p.m. The Kona Ice and DonutNV food trucks will be on site, and the concession stands will be open.
Robotics Camp: The Coppell ISD Education Foundation will offer this camp at Richard J. Lee Elementary School on seven consecutive Wednesday evenings starting on March 26.
Assistance League of Coppell: Martha Thomas of The Defensive Line will speak at the meeting scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. on March 27 at Valley Ranch Baptist Church. Members are invited to gather at 11 for social time and also to go out for lunch after the meeting.
Perennial Pass Along Plant Sale: The volunteers who maintain the Helping Hands Garden next to Coppell Town Center will sell perennials between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on March 29. Prices will range from $5 to $20, and buyers must bring cash. Expert gardeners will also be prepared to answer questions.
Dan. Congratulations on Volume 5! Man did you show up at the right time, right after COVID concurrent with the ‘Citizen’s Advocate’ demise. I loved the ‘Advocate’, you’ve filled that void perfectly and again we thank you.
BTW, has your son thought about the NBA, he’s a big boy! Very proud of him and I don’t even know him. Not to mention his parents.
Good work all around.
Dan, Thank you for investing your time and effort in keeping our community informed. I enjoy your writing even when I may not like what is happening in our town. I hope more people subscribe, so that you are able to sustain The Coppell Chronicle on Substack!