P&Z to disregard Comprehensive Plan again, consider a Comfort Suites behind Target

One of these is proposed behind the Target store

A company called Ameristar is seeking to build a facility on Goforth Road just east of Dacy and Comfort Suites would like to locate a three-story, 71-room hotel directly behind Target. Both will be seeking approval from the Kyle’s Planning & Zoning Commission during its meeting scheduled to begin 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in City Council chambers.

Ameristar is seeking to have a 5.1-acre plot of land at 1151 Goforth rezoned from Agriculture to Warehouse "to develop a office/warehouse district for … Ameristar Screen and Glass and similar companies," according to a document filed by Ameristar President Richard Wood. Ameristar bills itself as the "No. 1 supplier of glass, mirrors and screens in Texas." It appears most of its customers are apartment complexes and/or those developing multi-family units. I have reached out to Ameristar officials in its corporate offices in Carrollton, Texas, to learn exactly what kind of facility it wants in Kyle — whether it will be a manufacturing location, for example — however that reaching out took place outside of the company’s normal business hours so, if I do hear back, it will probably be some time Monday at the earliest.

Wood’s letter did say, however, the property "is planned to attract small to medium commercial companies," in addition to his own. "The complex will have approximately 50,000 square feet of leasable space" and "will contain insulated warehouse space with small office spaces." That would indicate to me that Ameristar will more likely use its space for distribution rather than manufacturing, but, hopefully, I will learn more Monday.

City staff is recommending P&Z approve the zoning change even though the city’s Comprehensive Plan, which is an absolutely useless document since it is ignored on a regular basis, says the site is located in an area designated by the Plan as New Town and warehouse zoning is not recommended to be approved in a New Town character area. But since we all know that whatever a developer wants in Kyle, a developer gets in Kyle, regardless of what that Comprehensive Plan says. So there’s that.



Does this ....

The Comfort Suites application may be little dicier, however, because, according to the City, the drawings submitted with the application "do not indicate what materials will be used in what fashion on the building exterior." The proposed hotel is located in the Kyle Marketplace and the published "General Design Standards" for all buildings located in the Marketplace require "the buildings and the improvements constructed for the project

...remind you of this?

shall be consistent with the design concepts used in
the construction of the Kyle City Hall." I’m not sure exactly what that means but I drive by that Target almost daily and have shopped in it a dozen times or more and not once when I looked it did I think to myself "Man, that store reminds me of City Hall."

But that’s me.