The Flower Mound Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday recommended approval of a request to increase the parking ratio for a proposed H-E-B grocery store in the Furst Ranch development, allowing for significantly more parking spaces than town regulations currently allow.
Jonathan Kerby, a representative from engineering firm Kimley Horn, and Becca Wang, a representative with H-E-B, were at the P&Z meeting to answer questions in regard to a request to increase the parking ratio for a 22.86-acre lot near the northeast corner of Hwy 377 and FM 1171.
The recommendation was made to increase the parking ratio from 1 space every 250 square feet to 1 space every 150 feet.
In this case, the size of the potential grocery store would be 110,000 square feet. Under the Town’s current regulations, the parking lot would hold about 440 parking spaces. Under the recommended request, there could be up to 773 spaces.
Jonathan Kerby from Kimley Horn said the 1:150 ratio is standard across H-E-B locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
He cited a parking study done to justify the increase in parking spaces.
They looked at other locations in the Metroplex, including Plano, the first Frisco location and the Alliance location in North Fort Worth.
“On a normal Sunday in August, the parking lot was about 86 percent full,” he said. “On the day before a holiday, in this case December 23, the parking lot was 99 percent full or more with cars circulating trying to find a spot.”
In Plano, he said at one time there were 61 cars were circulating the parking lot with just six spots open.
While in deliberation, commissioner Michelle Jackson said it would be hard to recommend the full 1:150 ratio for approval.
“This is a lot of concrete,” she said. “I don’t know if we could potentially find some middle ground. I want there to be a great option in West Flower Mound, but there is more parking than building here.”
Commissioner Todd Bayuk said this is an extra special exception, but something that was talked about a lot when Furst Ranch started asking people what they wanted was a grocery store–and an H-E-B, in particular.
“Even though this is an exception of an exception, I think there are justifiable reasons for doing it,” he said. “I think it makes sense and I know the residents out there, including myself, will be excited to have this as an addition.”
Another concern from the commission was the commitment of H-E-B being a possible applicant. Recently, the grocer chose to build a store on the Denton side of I-35W at Robson Ranch Road instead of the Argyle side.
“We are moving forward with the Furst Ranch development and the parking study was one of the major things that we were looking for,” said Wang. “With buying or leasing properties, one of the major things that we look at is ‘can we have a fully functioning store here’… so, getting this through at this time was super important.”
The commission unanimously recommended the approval and the request is expected to go to Town Council on May 5.
