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Cleburne council denies planned-development request for 62.79 acres, assigns agricultural zoning
Summary
After a public hearing and debate about oversight and market timing, the Cleburne City Council unanimously denied a planned-development rezoning for a newly annexed 62.79-acre tract near Chisholm Trail Parkway and instead assigned the property agricultural zoning without prejudice to refiling.
The Cleburne City Council voted unanimously to deny a planned-development (PD) rezoning request for roughly 62.79 acres north of County Road 1125, and to assign the parcel permanent Agricultural district zoning while allowing the applicant to refile without the usual six‑month delay.
City staff and the applicant presented competing perspectives during a lengthy public hearing. City planner Bergman explained the PD would base zoning on the city’s Commercial‑Industrial (CI) district while carving out 11 CI uses and requesting deviations (reduced parking ratios, exemptions from minimum window coverage and one design feature, and altered plan‑development standards) and adding a 50‑foot landscape buffer with an 8‑foot masonry wall on the residential flank. Bergman also noted the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial by a 6–0 vote, which would require a council supermajority to override.
Tony Cream of KBC Advisors told the council that entitlement status is critical to attracting large corporate users and urged approval to keep the site competitive. “If you zone it, they will come,” Cream said, arguing that large users often remove unentitled sites from consideration. Developers who spoke in support — including Jonathan Stites, who worked on the nearby Amazon project — emphasized new road connections and the area’s shift toward an industrial node.
Councilmembers repeatedly cited past experience with PDs that required later rewrites and emphasized the city’s interest in protecting the corridor that fronts Chisholm Trail Parkway. Mayor Scott Kane said the city was “very pro‑business” but wary of taking action “in blind faith” without clear guardrails and oversight. After debate about compromise options (sending the proposal back to Planning & Zoning for more detail, approving a PD but removing certain waivers, or approving straight CI zoning), Councilmember Blake Jones moved to deny the PD without prejudice and to assign Agricultural District as the permanent zoning classification; his motion passed unanimously.
The denial preserves the city’s control over future rezoning while keeping the door open for the applicant to refile quickly if they secure a time‑sensitive prospect. Council asked staff and the city attorney to work with the applicant to expedite any future submittal and to craft PD language that would preserve council oversight of subsequent site‑plan or PD amendments.
Provenance: Topic introduced SEG 668; topic discussion and vote concluded SEG 1583.
