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Committee split on retail-parity paragraph; some want data updated or removed
Summary
Committee members disagreed about a consultant-sourced paragraph comparing Heath’s retail-acre-per-population ratio to a larger sample; some favored deletion or revision to avoid implying the city needs more retail development.
Committee members reviewed a draft paragraph reporting a consultant’s metric that Heath has 0.09 retail acres per 100 persons versus an average of 0.5 acres per 100 persons. Several members said the sentence reads as a deficit and could be misused to pressure rezonings.
One steering-committee member suggested removing the paragraph entirely to avoid creating an expectation that the city must increase retail acreage. Another proposed updating the ratio using only land already zoned for local retail (developed or undeveloped) and then framing the figure as a factual inventory rather than an implied shortfall. James (Steering Committee member) suggested language tying retail acreage to the town-center overlay and the EDC’s role, while others said the paragraph’s concluding sentence — that “the need for a better balance of residential and nonresidential uses is discussed further in later sections” — should be deleted.
Staff said GIS updates and a recalculation that includes parcels currently zoned for local retail could produce a more defensible figure. The committee asked staff to either revise the paragraph to reflect zoned retail and contextualize the figure (for example, noting nearby retail in Rockwall and Forney), or to remove the paragraph before the plan goes back to council.
No formal policy change was adopted; staff will provide updated acreage calculations and a proposed revision for the committee’s next review.
