College Station Votes Thursday on a 1,266-Acre Neighborhood Between Pebble Creek and Southern Pointe
The Savannah Oaks plan would rezone vacant land along Highway 6 for homes, apartments, shops and about 285 acres of parkland. City staff recommend approval. The council holds a public hearing Thursday.
College Station could approve a new master-planned neighborhood on Thursday. It would be about 1,266.7 acres, roughly two square miles of vacant land between the Pebble Creek and Southern Pointe subdivisions.
The meeting
The City Council meets Thursday, Oct. 22, at City Hall, 1101 Texas Ave. The agenda calls for a closed executive session at 3 p.m., with the open meeting resuming no earlier than 6 p.m. Anyone who wants to speak on an agenda item must register with the city secretary two hours before the meeting is called to order.
What Savannah Oaks would be
A staff report in the agenda packet says the land lies east of State Highway 6 and Nantucket Drive and is now zoned rural, with part zoned commercial industrial. The request would rezone 1,104.1 acres as a planned development for single-family homes and natural areas, and 162.6 acres as a planned mixed-use district for apartments and commercial space nearer the highway.
The development rules filed with the request:
No detached single-family lot smaller than 5,000 square feet.
No more than eight homes per gross acre for detached houses, and 14 per acre for townhomes and attached housing.
About 285 acres of parkland, including floodplain and amenity areas, to be dedicated to the city as the land is platted.
In exchange for flexibility from city code, the developer offers wider and more heavily planted landscape buffers, native canopy trees, smart irrigation controllers and a ban on internally lit cabinet signs. The deed cited in the ordinance names Animate Habitat, Ltd.
Traffic and roads
A traffic study projects full build-out by 2039. Recommended fixes include signal timing changes, new signals at Nantucket, and restriping and bridge widening at Southern Pointe Parkway and Mesa Verde. A related item would amend the city's thoroughfare plan to realign four planned roads and reclassify two. It would also drop a planned grade-separated bike and pedestrian crossing on Lakeway Drive and replace it with a path connection. The city's Active Transportation Advisory Board recommended that change 4-0 in August.
Staff recommend approval, saying the plan fits the comprehensive plan and the area. The Planning and Zoning Commission was scheduled to consider it Oct. 15. The packet was prepared before that meeting and does not report its vote. Staff also note that if the road plan amendment fails, the rezoning would no longer match the comprehensive plan.
Two square miles of new neighborhoods will change south College Station for a generation. Residents of Pebble Creek and Southern Pointe, and anyone who uses Lick Creek Park to the north, should look at the concept plan before Thursday.
Also on Thursday
In closed session, the council may discuss an economic development agreement for land generally located between the Pebble Creek and Southern Pointe subdivisions, the same general area as Savannah Oaks. The consent agenda includes a $14.6 million contract for phase 3 of the Northeast Sewer Trunk Line and $13.6 million for the Jones Butler extension and roundabout, both including contingency. The council will also hold a public hearing on how city code defines and permits data centers.
Related on Dock Line: Denton Makes It Harder to Build a Data Center; Edinburg Rewrites Its Development Rules and Puts a Fence Around Data Centers
