Flower Mound Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend that the Town Council approve a amendment to the city’s master plan allowing a new residential/retail development on 152 acres in an area known as Bunn Gourley East.
The Town Council has scheduled a public hearing on the proposed development for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3 at Flower Mound Town Hall.
Doug Powell, executive director of development services, presented the so-called “MPA14-0005 application” to the commission at a packed public hearing on Monday. The area in question is bounded by FM 1171, Flower Mound Road and Quail Run Road and Bruton Orand Boulevard.
The amendment would change the current land-use designation from Cross Timbers Conservation Development District to Medium Density Residential and Retail uses.
Some of the land includes privately owned homes on Quail Run Road.
Mary King has lived on Quail Run since 1973 when she moved out here to seek “true country.” However, she said she has nothing against new development over the years and supports the current proposal now before the Town Council. She hopes it will make it easier to sell her home.
“Never did we envision the growth of this town,” she said. “That being said, we have never opposed the growth that has come our way. Our goal was to be good neighbors and good citizens.”
She said her home is now surrounded by houses.
“From my backyard all I see is rooftops, and that’s not conservation,” she said, adding that she believes it’s okay to take the 152 acres out of the Cross Timbers conservation area.
The master-plan change would also expand the boundary of the Long Prairie Wastewater Service District Map to include the 152 acres. However, Powell and presenters made it clear that the commission was dealing with a master plan change and not a zoning change. Master plan amendments must be approved a super-majority of the six-member Town Council.
Even if Town Council approves the master plan change, the Planning and Zoning Commission would have to zone the land and approve all development applications. This would allow the town to control the appearance and limit the cutting of protected trees.
Powell does not think that the land contains any “environmentally sensitive areas.” But he acknowledged that residents might not want development on the property. To compensate, he thinks they will do a cluster development to be environmentally friendly instead of something like a strip-center format.
"I think it's a beautiful property and it has some trees on it, too," he said.
Rob Paul, an executive with Toll Brothers, a nationally known developer, is the formal applicant for the master plan change. Toll Brothers submitted an identical application to the city last year, but Flower Mound officials tabled it indefinitely.
"Tonight's application shouldn't be a surprise for anybody," Paul said.
Paul said Toll Brothers wants to remove the eastern peninsula from the Cross Timbers forest itself. In order to do that, the first thing was to determine if it has sewer capacity. If it did not have sewer capacity, they would have backed down, he said.
“It's already like a jigsaw puzzle or checkerboard,” he said.
Paul mentioned existing commercial and residential development including Brandywine residential development and the Tom Thumb shopping center. He said that the town has been drawing the line in the sand, and that the change would offer a firm line for the Cross Timbers Conservation Development District.
“There is a much higher density of stuff in Bridlewood,” he said.
To consider a change to the master plan, property owners and developers had to reveal what type of development would be possible if the change passes.
William Deacon of Grapevine, whose family has owned part of the property, has operated a business on the property for decades. At Monday’s hearing, he showed satellite footage of the land from the time of purchase and the present. He said tree preservation should not get in the way of the new development.
Deacon said the shopping-center component on his part of the land should be for high-income people. Market research, he said, labels a three-mile radius around his property as the highest concentration of the “High Affluent” in southern Denton County.
The market analysis showed that currently every shopping center in Flower Mound, apart from Parker Square, is configured in the “strip super-center anchored by grocery store” format and that he wants something different for the new development.
Michael Kirby, a 20-year Flower Mound resident, said he has worked in commercial development for 30 years. He currently works for Invesco Real Estate. He has concerns about the viability of the possible retail development on the northwest corner of the Deacon property.
“My greatest concern is that we get enamored with an idea that might not be truly viable and it clouds the real issue, which is the higher density development of single-family land,” Kirby said.
From a retailer’s perspective, the land is not very attractive, he said.
“When we talk about high-end retail, specialty retail, they have some very specific criteria for sites they are looking at,” he said.
He said Starbucks looks for about a population of 18,000 in a 1-mile radius, Sullivan’s Steakhouse look for 100,000 in five-mile radius and White House Black Market look for 100,000 people in five-mile radius.
“Clearly, we may be high society, but there is just not enough of us,” he said.
Toll Brothers said that there are 217 lots possible on their portion of the development. They have a conceptual agreement with Rock Point to sell a plot of land for them to expand parking.
Developers have also promised to permanently close a gas well that sits on property on the turn from Flower Mound Road. The woman who owns the mineral rights could still access them but the well would be properly capped forever, which would also eliminate a 500-foot development buffer.
“We see ourselves as transitional land use. We would be less dense than Bridlewood,” John Dickerson developer of track 4B, said.
“I think it’s important for the commission to see our heart and our intent.”
Rand Richard, 4200 Quail Run in Flower Mound, has lived on the property since 1959.
“Fifty odd years ago, I would have never imagined that a development like Wellington would be directly across the street from us or there would be an elementary school sitting right against our western fence line,” he said.
Rock Point Church was built to the northwest of his property. Tom Thumb recently built their shopping center to the northeast. He said his family has had no problem with this growth.
“However, to this day I’m still curious why our land is even in the CTCDD,” he said. “I can’t understand why a person is allowed to do with their property as they see fit.”
