Commission backs padel sports complex rezoning but urges traffic review with mosque outreach

The Zoning Commission recommended approval of a rezoning to permit an outdoor padel sports complex at 5321 Casabella Drive, but several commissioners urged the applicant to continue outreach with a nearby mosque and flagged the site’s narrow, dead-end access for further traffic review.

Diego Sanchez, the project’s general contractor and project manager, described padel as a growing racket sport with court sizes similar to pickleball and said the team had reached out to neighbors — including mosque patrons and a nearby hotel owner — and planned on-site parking. Commissioner Kelly said he was generally supportive of the project but asked the applicant to coordinate scheduling and access with the mosque given Friday prayer traffic and the presence of an adjacent child-care facility.

Staff and engineering representatives said the site’s traffic impacts and necessary stacking/queuing will be addressed at the plat and permitting stages; staff noted that a traffic impact worksheet had been submitted and that the project may require a fuller traffic review during permitting depending on final site layout. The Commission’s approval is a recommendation to City Council; engineering and traffic waivers or exactions, if needed, will be applied under rough-proportionality standards at the appropriate stage.

What happens next: The applicant must complete plat and permitting steps where traffic mitigation and queuing will be reviewed; the commission’s recommendation will be transmitted to City Council.