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Vision is now a reality: Council approves Phase II of Realize Rowlett 2020
By Kenny Green, kgreen@starlocalnews.com
The Rowlett City Council placed their stamp of approval on Phase II of the Realize Rowlett 2020 comprehensive plan. The council followed the recommendation of the Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday, Nov. 6, with the passage of the final draft of the plan.
The city council approved the first phase of the plan September. Phase I replaced the city's antiquity comprehensive development plan and began the transition into form-based code, which allows for the city staff to
Phase II dealt with the changes in zoning and a more detail outlook of what the city's vision is for the future of development within the city.
Kilgore prepared a PowerPoint presentation to support his stance against the change in the amount of open space that would be required. Kilgore was in favor of including more open space.
"Open space is fundamental to a good community plan in my opinion," Kilgore said.
The council passed the changes to the plan with the reduced open space requirement with Kilgore as the lone dissenting vote. The developer can ask for an adjustment to the requirement through the warrant process provided as part of the plan.
The city council then voted to rezone the four target areas -- Downtown Rowlett, Healthy Living, Signature Gateway and Woodside Living.
The first area approved was the Signature Gateway area, which provides a mixture of commercial and urban living development. The area includes a transition zone to separate the commercial area from the housing portion of the zoning. The original plan for the area called for the area to be all commercial but was changed based on input gathered from residents during the Realize Rowlett process. The new design will not allow the access to the commercial portion of the area through the residential areas.
The limited access was put into the plan to alleviate concerns of increased traffic within the subdivisions. Any development that comes into the area would be required to do a traffic impact study as part of the approval process, according to Erin Jones, planning director.
"There are checks and balances in the process to ensure that there isn't a detriment to the neighborhood," said Lynda Humble, city manager. "If it exceeds the capacity they will have to mitigate or reduce the density."
The second area, Healthy Living, provides a wellness theme to the area. The development around the area will center on the existing medical buildings and the medical center. There was no buffering requirement for the housing from the hospital when the area was originally approved. The new zoning plan includes a buffer requirement for future development from the housing developments in the area.
The downtown area was rezoned using a regulating plan. The regulating plan allowed the city staff to account for all the current development in the area. The plan includes transition zones to buffer the housing areas from future commercial development. Most of the zoning for downtown is intended to regulate future private development in the area and does not impact existing buildings and structures in the downtown sector.
The final area garnering council approval was the Woodside Living area. One property owner was concerned about a reduction in property value, according to Jones. The property owner currently is in the planning process to build a strip center. The majority of the property will be single family neighborhoods abutting each other.
Rowlett mayor Todd Gottel thanked everyone involved in the process for their efforts to design the plan including the stakeholders that attended the meetings to give their input.
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