City Plan Commission Delays Vote on Preston Center West to May 2, Community Meeting Set For April 10
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City Plan Commissioners responded Thursday to demands from the public that a community meeting be held before a vote is taken on development plans for Preston Center West shopping center.
District 13 Plan Commissioner Larry Hall, who was appointed in September, acknowledged the public criticism over a lack of feedback opportunities on the project.
“Perhaps a deficiency was we didn’t have a meeting for the general public,” Hall said. “There’s been some recent feedback on that. I’ll take part of the blame on that because I’m a rookie commissioner.”
Hall was preceded on the CPC by Claire Stanard, whose March 19 column for CandysDirt.com drew attention to the project. Stanard said she requested a community meeting two years ago and expressed concerns that the proposal for a high-rise office building and apartment complex undermined an approved area plan.
“I am so happy that the CPC demonstrated such good sense today in postponing [the zoning] case in Preston Center in order to conduct a much-needed Community Meeting in April to have the case presented to the neighborhood for input,” Stanard told CandysDirt.com after the meeting. “Preston Center is an iconic part of the Preston Hollow and University Park family area, and the residents deserve to have their voices heard and the 2017 Area Plan guidelines followed in any new re-development.”
A community meeting is tentatively set for 6 p.m. April 10, location to be determined. The CPC will hear the matter again on May 2.
“We’ll work through our council member’s office in order to have public engagement, to refresh the public on the Northwest Highway and Preston Road area development plans and to hear from those who live near the Center, including north of Northwest Highway,” Hall said.
Plans For Preston Center West
Senior Project Coordinator Michael Pepe briefly outlined the project in Thursday’s CPC meeting. Developers are asking for modified development standards, primarily related to floor area ratio, height, and design standards for mixed-income housing, he said.
The area in question is 4.5 acres bounded by Luther Lane, Westchester Drive, Berkshire Lane, and Douglas Avenue.
Suzan Kedron of Jackson Walker LLP said her team has been working on the project with surrounding property owners and stakeholders since last year.
“The reality is we started this work back in 2015 when they empaneled the Northwest Highway Task Force for the Northwest Highway Plan,” she said. “We’re excited about this redevelopment. It meets a lot of components of the plan. It brings a lot of ground-floor activating street uses. We’re upgrading an office building that’s currently there and we’ll be including much-needed multifamily.”
Kedron said she met with residents of a condominium in the notification area and they support the development.
City staff is recommending approval subject to conditions and a development plan. Read the staff report here.
