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P&Z recommends Kroger improvements, fuel station
By Chris Roark, croark@starlocalnews.com
Ten feet and established delivery hours were enough to change the minds of some members of the Flower Mound Planning and Zoning Commission when it came to a fueling station at Kroger.
Monday, the commission voted, 5-1, to recommend approval of a specific use permit for a fueling station and a site plan for $14.3 million in store improvements to the 63,840-square-foot facility located at the intersection of FM 1171 and FM 2499. The plan calls for a 21,000-square-foot expansion.
The commission had voted to deny the request last October because of concerns over traffic flow some of the members said the fueling station would create on FM 1171.
Monday, the commission, which featured all but two of the members as the one that denied the plan last year, was more open to the plan that was mostly the same but with one change. The fueling station was pushed back 10 feet from the entrance onto FM 1171 from where the original plan called for.
Also Monday, Kroger executives agreed there would not be fuel delivery between the hours of 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. as a way to calm concerns about the delivery truck causing a traffic backup.
That was enough to change the mind of Commissioner Dennis McKaige, one of four commissioners who voted against the plan last year.
“The geometry of the plan changed,” McKaige said. “I asked last time if we could move it back one parking row. If you measure the length of some cars, that’s 15 feet, and they moved it back 10 feet. So it was a compromise. That will help in the queuing. And then there was the fuel deliveries for off-peak times. As much as we can do to make things safer, that’s what we want to do.”
The fuel station is expected to contain five pumps.
Kroger’s Gary Huddleston outlined the plans for the store improvement. Among the many features, should the plan get approved, are: a new natural foods department, a new bakery department, an expanded deli, a new cheese/olive island, an expanded fresh sushi department, a new upscale wine area, a new pharmacy with a drive through, a new express checkout area, wider aisles and more.
Huddleston said the improvements are expected to bring in 75-80 new jobs.
He also said the sales tax revenue the town will get should jump from $164,000 a year without the improvements to $332,000 a year with the improvements.
Huddleston also said the project would provide $542,000 in street improvements, as well as two electric car charging stations.
The council is expected to see the item July 16. The council only needs a majority vote for it to pass, which appears likely since the council members who voted for the project last time are still on the council, and the new members have voiced support for it as well.
In other action, the commission recommended a rezoning request -- from agricultural to Single-Family District-15 -- and a development plan for Ridge Bluff Estates, a 9.6-acre single-family residential project set to be located south of Holly Lane and west of Simmons Road near Grapevine Lake.
The project is set to be located just south of the North Lake Highlands 2 subdivision.
However, residents of North Lake Highlands 2 have opposed the project for months for a variety of reasons. Among those is the added traffic into their neighborhood, especially construction trucks and how the narrow roads will handle them.
“We don’t get down our roads at the same time if there is a construction vehicle on it,” said Craig Christian, a resident of North Lake Highlands 2. “The construction will create a nightmare.”
North Lake Highlands 2 residents are also concerned with the project having lot sizes of less than half an acre, saying it won’t blend in with their neighborhood. They are also concerned with the sewer line that they said would damage the trees.
Jeff Crannell of the Crannell, Crannell and Martin engineering firm presented a plan he said was a compromise between the developer and the North Lake Highlands 2 residents.
One of the changes from the original plan was reducing the original number of lots from 29 to 18. North Lake Highlands 2 has 32 homes on 40 acres.
The larger average lot size went from 11,202 square feet to 17,599 square feet.
“We’re getting to the point where we are able to blend this to the area to the north,” Crannell said.
Christian, however, said 18 lots is still too many.
McKaige said he felt like reducing the lots from 29 to 18 was significant and that he believes the traffic impact will be minimal.
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