City staff and the developer’s consultants told the Colleyville City Council on Jan. 7 that a rezoning proposal for about 4.75 acres at 6,312 Colleyville Boulevard will likely require both significant site engineering and federal permitting, potentially adding about $1 million in mitigation fees and a similar order of magnitude in site work costs.

Ben Bridal, the city’s director of community development, described the property as currently zoned agricultural and partly occupied by a residence that would be removed if the CC1 Village Retail rezoning proceeds. The applicant’s representatives said the site contains a channelized stream that FEMA currently maps as a 500-year floodplain and that Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction is likely.

Samantha Renz of Evolving Texas, the civil engineer on the project, told council the Army Corps review could take "six months to a year" and that preliminary work already suggests a substantial mitigation and site cost: "the mitigation fees going through the Corps is close to $1,000,000 on this project, plus the boxes," she said, referring to proposed box culverts to route the channel underground. Renz said the owner purchased the land to develop it and hired consultants after learning of preliminary floodplain mapping.

City staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed site plans, tree surveys and a proposed landscape plan. The developer’s engineers said they plan to place the stream in large box culverts and tie the outfall to an existing channel across the highway. City staff noted the Corps could defer jurisdiction to local authorities in some cases, but council was warned to expect another set of federal reviews and potential changes to the project’s timeline and cost.

Planning and Zoning recommended approval of the rezoning at its Dec. 9 meeting by a 6–0 vote; the item was presented as a first reading on Jan. 7 and no final action was taken. Council members asked staff to include detailed tree mitigation and replacement plans and to work with the applicant to maximize on-site tree planting where feasible.

Because the rezoning is at the first-reading stage, council will act at a later meeting after staff and the applicant resolve outstanding engineering and permitting questions.