Monday night’s Flower Mound P&Z Commission’s decision to table making a recommendation to the Town Council on the Lakeside Village development project until a joint workshop meeting has been held, forced the staff and council members to set that meeting date.
If the P&Z Commission has not reached a recommendation decision on an issue– whether it be to deny or approve– the Town Council is legally not able to consider it.
Tabled were the Lakeside Village developer’s request for a Master Plan Amendment (MPA) from Campus Commercial land use to Mixed-Use for Sections 1.0 and 2.0 of the Lakeside Business District (LBD), as well as a rezoning request to amend Mixed-Use District-1 for additional land (the recently acquired nine-acre Hines tract), amend certain conceptual plans and development standards in the Lakeside DFW Code, plus certain exceptions and modifications to the Code of Ordinances.
Whew … right? Just two requests– a Master Plan Amendment and a rezoning; but, look at all the verbiage used. Well, that was just a precursor for the obfuscation to follow.
Town staff’s hour-long presentation– including land designation history, Code of Ordinances, possible options that might/might not be acceptable and numerous statements of “it depends,” without elaboration for either the cause or affect– was like asking the commissioners to unravel a ball of yarn … blindfolded.
The Lakeside Village presentation by Ricard Myers, managing director of Realty Capital, included several animated visuals, which were ethereal, but lacking in the detailed specifics the commissioners needed to reach an educated decision.
A simplified map for commissioners to reach a Lakeside Village Rosetta Stone needs to be created.
The town needs better graphics– maybe even color-coded– to represent their word blocks; the Realty Capital developers might consider inserting some data– like occupancy numbers, completion dates and approximate costs– in their beautiful aesthetic fly-through videos.
A joint workshop, to clarify the overload of information for everyone, will be held on Wednesday, April 4 to be followed by the project rescheduled as an agenda item on the regular Monday, April 9 P&Z meeting, then listed on the Town Council’s Monday, April 16 meeting.
The enthusiasm for a quality development on Lake Grapevine south of Lakeside DFW is not in question; creating the path to reach that goal is what’s being explored.
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