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Commission approves Shops at Sandy Lake rezoning and companion replat after neighborhood traffic debate
Summary
After extended public comment focused on peak-hour traffic and safety, the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission approved a rezoning to allow a 14,480 sq ft retail/medical center (Shops at Sandy Lake) and a companion replat, subject to staff engineering and landscape conditions; staff’s traffic study found no signal warrants under existing and proposed conditions.
The Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission on July 16 approved a planned-development rezoning and companion replat for the Shops at Sandy Lake, authorizing a 14,480-square-foot retail and medical center on roughly 2.03 acres along Sandy Lake Road.
Mary Perron Boswell, city staff, told the Commission the developer had removed restaurant and patio uses since an April denial, increased the rear building setback to 30 feet, preserved 55 existing trees and proposed planting 31 overstory trees plus 71 trees along the rear property line to enhance screening. The revised plan shifts the building location so it acts as a buffer between parking and residences, replaces a prior proposed connection to Arbor Manors Drive with driveways onto Sandy Lake Road, and proposes a monument sign set six feet from the property line but effectively 30 feet from the road because of the parkway.
Cole Baker, the city’s engineering/traffic reviewer, summarized the traffic study commissioned at council direction: trip counts were taken in May (before schools were out), the consultant found no evidence of systematic cut-through traffic in the neighborhood within the study area, and neither the studied intersections nor the proposed conditions met MUTCD signal warrants. Baker said Phase 2 — a warrant analysis for Arbor Manors Drive and Sandy Lake Road — was pending finalization when staff reports were published.
Residents who spoke during the public hearing strongly disagreed with the study’s conclusions and urged the commission to delay action until counts taken during school sessions or additional field observations were completed. Speakers from Arbor Manors described lengthy peak-hour delays, property damage from crashes they said had occurred, and quality-of-life concerns including noise, garbage collection times and potential odors. Several residents asked for enforceable guarantees that restaurants would not be allowed; the city attorney and staff said the current zoning request does not allow restaurants and any future application to permit a kitchen would require a new public hearing and re-notice.
Tyler Alley, the developer’s representative, described a number of concessions: removal of restaurants and patios, no drive-thru, moving the curb cut farther west, saving more trees, a 30-foot rear buffer and a proposed $25,000 contribution to the HOA for wall/screening improvements. Alley also offered at council that the applicant would contribute up to $100,000 toward a traffic signal if an engineering study ultimately warranted a light.
Commissioners expressed empathy for residents’ safety concerns but noted the property is commercially zoned and that the revised plan addressed multiple neighborhood issues compared with the previously approved PD. After deliberation a commissioner moved to approve PD 214 R 11 - C and the companion replat, subject to staff conditions; both motions passed on unanimous roll-call votes.
