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Planning commission denies Charco storage waiver amid resident opposition
Summary
After extensive public comment from nearby residents about setbacks, traffic and neighborhood character, the Planning & Zoning Commission denied a request to waive the one‑year waiting period for the Charco mini‑warehouse zoning application, meaning the applicant must wait to refile unless a future waiver is granted.
The Planning & Zoning Commission voted to deny a request that would have allowed the Charco self‑storage developer to bypass the town’s standard one‑year waiting period after a failed zoning application.
Residents who live adjacent to the proposed site at Flower Mound Road and Old Orchard Lane urged the commission to reject the waiver, arguing the project’s size, proximity and potential traffic impacts have not changed enough to warrant restarting the zoning process. Dennis McCage, Arthur Stafford and several other speakers told commissioners the revised materials still left the footprint and primary impacts unchanged and expressed concern about truck traffic, noise and property values.
Applicant O’Neil Gray told the commission the project had been substantially revised since it first came before the Planning & Zoning Commission and town council: he said the requested setback variance had been reduced from 100 feet to 38 feet, roof/parapet heights had been lowered, gates moved farther from houses, gate hours limited (now proposed 7 a.m.–9 p.m.), additional landscape buffers and an 8‑ft masonry wall were proposed, and HVAC equipment was being moved to ground level and fully screened. Gray also said the applicant had collected written support from nearby homeowners and cited HOA survey results and case studies suggesting storage facilities did not depress nearby home values.
Commissioners’ deliberations centered on whether those changes were “significant enough” under town code §78‑154 to justify waiving the one‑year reapplication bar. Several commissioners said the reduced setback and other alterations were improvements but not sufficient to offset the core concern that the use itself—mini‑warehouse storage adjacent to single‑family yards—remained the same. Vice Chair Hobbs, Commissioner Harris and others said they did not believe the application had changed materially. The motion to deny the waiver passed on a roll call vote.
What happens next: Denial of the waiver means the applicant cannot file the same zoning application for a year unless the commission approves a future waiver. A denial of the waiver does not itself approve or deny the underlying site plan; if a waiver were later granted the applicant would still need to refile, go through public hearings, and obtain any required council votes.
The commission’s action was procedural rather than a final land‑use decision: the ruling only enforces the waiting period set by town code, preserving the one‑year interval intended to allow cooling and additional review after a substantial denial.
