The City of College Station Planning & Zoning Commission voted to approve a rezoning request to change about 19.33 acres at 2855 Graham Road North from R (rural) to CI (Commercial Industrial), a move that allows a proposed commercial-amusement development and sends the application to City Council for final action.

Staff planner Becca Blasingame said the applicant intends "to develop the property as a commercial amusement consisting of a golf driving range and other entertainment, such as outdoor games and snacks," and that the requested CI zoning aligns with the property’s current future land-use designation of Business Center. The commission held a public hearing and heard opposition from nearby residents before voting to approve the rezoning and forward it to the June 26 City Council meeting.

At the hearing, residents raised three recurring concerns: lighting, drainage and traffic. Paula Gardner, who lives at 13409 Suzanne Place, said she opposed the rezoning and asked commissioners, "Can you imagine the amount of noise we will have if this facility is built?" Gardner also told the commission that because her home is in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) "we pay College Station taxes, but we don't receive a lot of the benefits." Reese Gardner, at 14309 Suzanne Place, said local creeks flood during heavy rains and warned of erosion around a gas line that he said is partly exposed: "you're gonna get erosion from this gas line," he said.

Becca Blasingame told the commission staff had received one call in opposition and that concerns about lighting and drainage "will be addressed during site plan review." She said required site-plan standards and the city’s development review process would control lighting, drainage and buffering when the project returns with a preliminary plan, final plat and site plan. Blasingame also said staff mailed legally required notices to properties within a 200-foot buffer even though a posted sign on the property had reportedly fallen over.

A representative for the applicant said parking-lot and fence-line lights would be the only lights in the nearby neighborhood and that those poles would be "no larger than 30 feet in the air." The representative said detention ponds had been located to control runoff and that an environmental study informed the drainage approach. The applicant also confirmed outdoor courts would be lit by the same fence-line lights and said the latest planned hours of operation for the facility were midnight.

Commissioners asked staff and the applicant about vehicular access. Blasingame said access would be from North Graham Road and that Old Welborn Road currently ends at the intersection with North Graham; alternative temporary maneuvers such as U-turns or routing via Rock Prairie Road were discussed as short-term options. Commissioners noted the city’s thoroughfare plan shows General Parkway extending south in the long term to provide another route into the larger tract.

On procedural and jurisdictional points, staff clarified the blue-line map shown at the meeting designates where College Station Police Department service would apply inside the line and where county response would apply outside it. Commissioners also repeated that rezoning consistency with the comprehensive plan and future land-use designation is the standard used by the commission in deciding such requests.

After discussion, a motion to approve the rezoning was made, seconded and passed (recorded as "aye"; vote tally not specified in the transcript). The commission’s approval forwards the application to City Council, where residents may testify again and where final approval and any site-specific conditions would be decided. Any final development will still require preliminary plan approval, final plat and a site plan review before construction could proceed.