Council OKs special-use permit for indoor badminton and pickleball academy at Argyle Landing

The Town of Argyle on June 16 unanimously approved Ordinance 2025-001, a specific-use permit allowing an indoor amusement-commercial facility — proposed as Argyle Sports Academy — on Lot 92, Block D of Argyle Landing.

The permit covers a two-phase, indoor racket-sports complex that would open with about 14 courts in a 24,000-square-foot first phase and add roughly 6 courts in a second phase, according to the applicant’s presentation. The use and site plan shown to council place the building on a 2.3-acre southern parcel of a larger development that retains about 5 acres north for future office or retail use.

Planning consultant Marissa Brewer of McAdams and Kerry (Carrie) Reddy, representing the academy, told council the design follows a commercial-retail base zoning pattern within the project’s planned development and that the developer is proposing 25 feet of landscape buffer along Gateway Drive rather than the 50 feet that would normally be required under the town’s buffer standards. Brewer said the project meets parking requirements using a courts-to-spaces ratio used at the applicant’s Frisco location and that a traffic memo estimated the change from an office/retail buildout would reduce vehicle trips versus the original PD concept. Reddy said the academy’s business model mixes membership and training programs and that roughly 70% of revenues would be taxable annual or daily fees while 30% would fund kid-focused training programs.

Planning and Zoning recommended approval with four conditions: increase masonry/quality material on the east elevation to meet a 75% minimum, prohibit outdoor badminton or pickleball courts, increase required street-tree caliper to 4 inches, and require resolution of understory-tree planting either on site or by payment into the town’s tree-reforestation fund. During council discussion, the applicant agreed to the east‑elevation masonry change and withdrew the proposed outdoor courts.

Council members asked about nearby oil-and-gas pad setbacks and screening; town staff said the pad remains active and inspected quarterly and that any setbacks set by Denton County or the Railroad Commission would be checked as part of final permitting. Staff also said the Argyle Landing infrastructure (Gateway Drive) is expected to be completed by March 2026; building permits would follow infrastructure acceptance.

After the public hearing, a council member moved to approve item 9 with the four Planning and Zoning conditions; the motion carried unanimously.

The council’s approval only authorizes the special-use permit and conditions cited; the applicant must complete the replat, finalize infrastructure, and obtain any building and site permits before construction can begin. The applicant said phase one construction would begin only after the road and infrastructure are accepted and that the project’s indoor ceiling heights and flooring would be built to national/competition standards.

Key documentation and technical studies cited at the hearing included the site concept plan, updated elevations, a traffic memo comparing the proposed use versus the PD’s retail/office assumptions, and the Planning and Zoning recommendation packet. No final construction timetable was given beyond staff’s March‑2026 target for infrastructure acceptance.