The Waxahachie City Council on Monday voted to continue consideration of ZDC69-2025, a request for a specific-use permit to allow an indoor amusement (haunted-house) at a Light Industrial-2 zoned property downtown, after council members, neighbors and the applicant asked for more time to resolve parking, lighting and safety concerns.

Council members set the new hearing for July 7 to give the applicant and city staff time to produce a consolidated plan addressing off-site parking, pedestrian walkability and lighting, and to document agreements with property owners that would supply additional spaces.

Councilman comments and residents’ testimony focused on whether the streets and sidewalks around Madison and Patterson are safe at night and whether the applicant can reliably provide the 110 parking spaces required under the city’s zoning ordinance. Trenton, a city planning staff member, told the council that the ordinance’s parking calculation was based on the building’s total 11,000 square feet, not the roughly 5,000 square feet the applicant said would be used for the attraction: “It was, on the 11,000 square feet.”

The applicant, Alex Lohman, told the council he and his partners had learned from a Planning and Zoning meeting and made changes to the proposal. Lohman said they have secured additional parking and would withdraw the current application to refile unless council preferred to continue the item: “we are gonna start the process back over. We're gonna go back to planning and zoning with all this new information and put together an even better and more comprehensive plan than the current 1 we have.” Council and staff recommended a continuance to allow documentation of the changes rather than a withdrawal.

Neighbors raised nighttime safety and infrastructure concerns. Kathleen Bowen, who lives on West Jefferson Street near the site, told the council the public “needs to know what's going on and they need time to review that to know what's going on.” John Weddle, another nearby resident, warned that Madison and Patterson already see on-street parking on weekend nights and said the area has limited lighting and no sidewalks in some stretches.

Supporters of the attraction — including several downtown business owners and tourism advocates who testified during public comment — said the event would bring visitors and revenue to the area. Kalen McCarthy, who manages large seasonal events in Ellis County, told councilors the type of attraction proposed typically operates with time-ticketing and indoor queueing and gave attendance examples to show it can be managed in a residentially adjacent setting.

Applicant and operator also walked the council through event safety plans. An attraction operator described a so-called “crisis control” system used in established haunted-house operations: “Inside the layout of the haunted house, every room has a set of light switches. There's a white, a yellow, and a red...and they're marked maintenance, security, and death,” the operator said, explaining how staff would respond to maintenance issues, security incidents and true medical or fire emergencies.

Council direction and next steps: Council voted to continue the item to the July 7 meeting to allow the applicant and city staff to submit a packet showing finalized parking agreements, a lighting and walkability plan, porta-potty and hand-wash station locations, the ticketing/queueing protocol, and any requests for temporary traffic or no-parking restrictions. The city attorney advised that because of the new information a continuance would allow additional public notice and give residents time to review the revised materials.

The continuance motion passed with an affirmative voice vote. The applicant agreed to work with staff in the coming weeks to prepare the materials for the next council meeting.

Less-critical details: During the hearing staff noted the proposed SUP would be limited to 2025 (a one-year expiration) so the council and community could evaluate the operation before any further approvals. Staff also said they had received three letters of opposition and at least 11 letters of support as of the agenda posting.