Apartment project draws foes

By Janet Jacobs

September 06, 2008 09:57 pm

— An ambitious project just outside the Corsicana city limits is already creating controversy, and it hasn’t even been to the city planning and zoning commission yet.
The project is being called Independence Plaza, and it’s envisioned as a development on the western edge of Corsicana on West Highway 31 to include four medium-high buildings, about four to six stories each, and an additional housing development of about 135 homes on one-acre lots.
“It’s four buildings, about 65,000 feet for each of the four buildings, each one about four to six stories tall,” explained Robert Phipps, with Hi-View Real Estate, the company making the land deal. “On the ground floor of each one we’d have offices, shopping, retail and a variety of services open to the public, while the upper floors would be a mixture of condos and apartments.”
“Of course, we’d just have to see what the demand is,” Phipps said. “What he has in mind is one building for all retirees, and one would be condos and the balance would be apartments.”
Phipps insists the developer does not intend to create low-income housing. The developer is identified on city applications as Eustace Ashwood of Independent Management in Arlington.
The main 75-acre property is on West Highway 31, at the intersection of Balcom Lane, or CR 2090, shortly past Resthaven Memorial Park. Next to it is another 135 acres that could be developed into the single-family housing.
“The entire project would eventually have the capacity of 3,200 residents, as well as that shopping and residences,” Phipps explained. “I think it would just be a really nice development for Corsicana.”
He described some details, including fruit orchards and pools that would make the property more attractive and valuable, which the developer has already envisioned adding.
Phipps said the developer sees this as a long-term project, and that Ashwood intends to phase in the construction, starting with one building and erecting more as the demand develops.
“This is not a Section 8 project,” he said. “It would be a very, very nice project, probably the nicest project in Corsicana.”
On paper, the site is owned by Amanda Ott, who now lives in Ellis County. Before it became Ott’s property, it was in her father’s name, B.G. Williams, who runs an asphalt company. Williams said he’s not involved with the project.
One of the sticking points to the development is that it’s just outside the city limits in what’s called the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction, or ETJ. The ETJ is property ringing a city that isn’t inside city limits, but which probably will be one day, and so the city is allowed some control over what goes on there.
The developer wants to be able to install a stand-alone wastewater treatment system for the sewage, preferably to create a Public Infrastructure District (PID) to be able to tax the residents in the area to create a separate sewer system.
The city would prefer not to have 3,200 people on a stand-alone system.
“It’s a significant proposed population,” said City Manager Connie Standridge. “We do want to annex them, and we want them to provide central (city-provided) sewer.”
However, the developer is opposing that because he doesn’t want the higher city taxes.
Meanwhile, neighbors in the area are already lining up against the project.
Dorothy Douglas, who lives a stone’s thrown from the city limits, and almost directly across the highway from the proposed property, is not shy about saying she doesn’t want the project.
“I don’t want anything bad going in there,” Douglas said. “I don’t think Corsicana needs a big complex like that, and with housing like it is, I don’t think it will go over.”
She’s hired an attorney, Paul Fulbright, to represent her and some other landowners who are afraid of the proposed changes.
Fulbright argues that it’s in a dangerous place, on the highway just as the speed limit ramps up to 70 miles per hour. Of course, if the city does annex it, the speed limits would be lower.
His clients also worry about the density, about the rural nature of the area, about the upkeep on a large project, and whether or not the property will be maintained. They are particularly concerned that it could become lower-income housing.
“My clients want to make sure the city is very careful with what they’re going to do,” Fulbright said.
Standridge pointed out that while negotiations have begun, it’s still early in the process. The property hasn’t gone before the planning and zoning board for platting, which is the process of defining the property into legal lots and mapping them. Independence Plaza was scheduled to come before the commission in August, but it was postponed.
“That’s going to begin the discussion of whether it’s on sanitary sewer, whether it’s annexed into the city, those questions need to be answered during that phase,” Standridge said. “The preliminary plat has not gone before the planning and zoning (commission), so those questions are still unanswered.”
If the differences can’t be worked out with a compromise, it may be a moot point, Phipps said.
“If we don’t annex, they won’t get the taxes or sell sewer services, but it looks like unless we can come up with a happy medium everyone can live with, it will just be a pretty picture on paper,” he said.
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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com

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