The Kyle Report is a column written by Kyle resident, Pete Oppel, that covers city leadership issues. You can follow The Kyle Report here on the Kyle Life or by subscribing to Mr. Oppel’s blog, The Kyle TX Report.
Although no action was taken directly on either how or by whom Marketplace Road will be extended to North Burleson or whether Onyx Lake Drive will be extended to Goforth as per the wishes of many of the residents of the Southlake Ranch subdivision, the prospects for both looked a little brighter as a result of actions taken at tonight’s city council meeting.
Council member Tammy Swaton met with a group of residents of the subdivision about their concerns over a prospective zoning change at 1433 and 1435 Goforth Road. It really wasn’t about the possible changing of the zoning designation from agricultural to retail that bothered those living directly behind the property in question, it was more about extending Onyx Lake Drive to Goforth. (You can get much of the background on this discussion here.) Swaton apparently alleviated the residents about the zoning, telling them that much of their concerns were going to be satisfied because the property was located directly across Goforth from Lehman High School, which would eliminate many of the types of retail establishments that worried the residents. She also told them that before ground would be broken on anything at those addresses, a “concept plan” would have to be presented and approved by the City Council. Now, I may be overly optimistic because the road extension makes so much sense, but I got the impression by what was said and left unsaid by council members at tonight’s meeting that the concept plan had better include the Onyx Lake extension.
“At the last (council) meeting the residents had some concerns,” Swaton said. “There is an existing road that is not finished out — Onyx Lake Drive — and we discussed the possibility of bringing that to Goforth Road as well as some other issues. I do not believe there was an agreement made between the applicant and the residents. With that being said … we are looking at two different legitimate issues.” One, she said, was the actual zoning. “But with the road and other items, I was hoping that (the city staff) would bring the site plan to the council for approval rather than having it administratively approved.”
Mayor Todd Webster said he wanted the staff to present “a concept plan” to the council before it offered a site plan “instead of using the administrative review process that’s already in place.”
City Manager Scott Sellers told the council in no uncertain terms “We will move forward and present a concept plan to council when it’s ready. We will bring that total site plan back for council approval as opposed to administrative approval.”
Webster said the immediate concern was the zoning and then there will be “a future conversation about the appropriateness of a road which seems from an aerial point of view very logically placed here.”
Now anyone is free to interpret the above any way they like, but my interpretation of it is the current thinking of the council is to make the Onyx Lake Drive extension to Goforth a reality.
The Marketplace Road extension was a slightly different matter. There was never any question about the fact it was going to be extended from its current terminus point at City Lights Drive to Burleson. The issue was where exactly it would connect to Burleson. Under an agreement the council voted on during its last meeting, Marketplace would take an almost 90 degree left dogleg intersecting Burleson in the vicinity of Old Post Road. However, between the last meeting and tonight’s, Sellers, along with Swaton and council member David Wilson met with the Parker family that owns property in that area and the family agreed to donate a right of way through its property allowing Marketplace to extend in a straighter path, intersecting Burleson just north of where it intersects the Santa Fe railroad tracks, the alignment the city preferred from the get-go and, to be honest, the most logical alignment.
After being told all this, the council voted to replace the agreement it approved two weeks ago with a new one that incorporates the land donated by the Parker family.