Planning Commission recommends deleting planned collector segments near IH69 after debate on safety and developer impacts

The Planning Commission voted to recommend deleting contested collector segments in the city's Transportation Master Plan that would have crossed the Neck Town Center commercial tract and the adjacent Meadow Ridge residential site, following staff presentations, fire-department testimony and arguments from an affected developer.

Public Works traffic engineer Horge Chavez told the commission that Public Works manages the Transportation Master Plan and had received two developer requests to amend it. "Public Works is supporting this amendment request because of the commercial development and it has access to I69 to the east and County Road 52 to the south," Chavez said, arguing the Neck Town Center property already fronts higher-capacity corridors and that removing the planned collector there would avoid routing commercial traffic through nearby residential streets.

The commission heard a contrasting staff recommendation on the Meadow Ridge site, where Chavez cited the Unified Development Code's access rules and a nearby approved River Ridge preliminary plat to support retaining the plan's east'west collector alignment. "The site meets the criteria providing external connectivity for more than one master-plan street," Chavez said, noting Meadow Ridge proposes approximately 89 units and that UDC section 8.2.1 requires multiple access points for developments of that scale.

The fire department urged the commission to preserve a secondary access. "Anytime we can have the secondary access, that's so vitally important," said Tony Pettis, assistant chief and fire marshal, describing worst-case scenarios in which a primary entrance could be blocked and a secondary egress would be needed for emergency response. Pettis said options such as a Knox-key gated access can preserve emergency access while minimizing through-traffic.

Developer Moses Magosi, representing MPM Development and the applicant for a proposed 87-lot subdivision on the affected parcel, argued that requiring a collector to cut through his approved plat would disrupt lots and drainage easements and could force substantial redesign. Magosi said his PI (public-improvement) plans are nearly complete and that his buyer plans to begin construction soon; he proposed alternative mitigations such as a double front entrance and, if necessary, a gated private community to meet fire-code concerns without dedicating a public collector through his property. "If the C1 collector is not followed by the east property and the west property, then what's the sense in making those other developers on the hook for having to put that in?" Magosi said.

Commissioners and staff debated technical constraints from TxDOT, which must approve approaches near highway off-ramps, and how easements (including aerial-a easements for utilities) limit where public right-of-way can be built. Staff said TxDOT had been contacted but that final access approvals depend on site-level plans.

After extended discussion of compromise options (reducing a 60-foot right-of-way to 50 feet, requiring only an emergency-access easement or allowing gated emergency access with Knox devices), one commissioner moved to delete the contested collector segments; another seconded. On a voice vote the motion carried (several commissioners voted in favor, one opposed). The commission's action is a recommendation; city council has the final authority.

The commission also approved the consent agenda, including two replats, and approved the meeting minutes earlier in the session. The meeting adjourned after the vote.

What happens next: The Planning Commission will forward its recommendation to city council, which has the authority to accept, modify or reject the amendment to the Transportation Master Plan. Staff indicated that site-specific access approvals (including TxDOT permits for highway approaches) will be addressed during the public-improvement and site-plan process.