Richardson commission approves Galen College expansion to cap 450 on-site students

The Richardson Planning Commission voted 5-0 to approve an amendment to a special permit allowing Galen College of Nursing to expand operations at 1301 West President George Bush Highway, increasing the maximum number of students on campus at any given time from 300 to 450 and expanding the college's leased area.

Planning staff introduced the request, saying the site is a roughly 10.3-acre parcel south of President George Bush Highway and north of Waterview Parkway. Planning staff said the college seeks to expand into additional space in the existing three-story office building and increase enrollment at the Richardson campus.

The permit amendment would expand classroom and related uses and apply a parking ratio of one space per 100 square feet of classroom area, the same standard used on the original permit. Staff told the commission the office park has 770 parking spaces in total and that, after accounting for continuing office uses, about 468 spaces remain available; under the parking ratio staff calculated that 333 parking spaces would be required for the campus as proposed. Staff said the hours of operation would remain Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with occasional Saturday evening classes, and that many students use a hybrid schedule or are off-site for clinical rotations.

Wes Hobowitz, an applicant representative, said the college is expanding because enrollment grew after the campus opened. "We're here less than two years later after opening and we're needing more space," Hobowitz said. He described the program as a mix of online theory classes, on-site instruction and off-site clinical work and told commissioners the campus draws commuting students from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

A resident who said they attended a community open house spoke in favor, calling the facility "impressive and contained and organized." Commissioner Constantino said staff and the record showed no neighborhood complaints and moved to approve the special permit as presented. Commissioner Purdy seconded the motion; the commission voted 5-0 to approve.

Staff noted that if enrollment grows beyond the approved cap in the future, additional traffic mitigation or another special permit review could be required.

Clarifying details provided at the hearing included the applicant's estimate of a 450-student maximum on-site at one time, three access driveways (one to President George Bush Highway and two to Waterview Parkway), and the campus's hybrid scheduling and off-site clinical rotations. The staff report included a trip-generation memo and applied the 1:100 parking ratio used on the original permit. The staff presentation included two different lease-area figures in the meeting record (an earlier reference to expanding from about 40,000 square feet to 67,000 square feet and a later reference to a 60,000-square-foot figure); the record did not clarify which single figure will be written into the final permit condition.