Princeton's Zoning Board of Adjustment will decide Tuesday whether the bank building at U.S. 380 and South Beauchamp Boulevard can sit far closer to the road than city rules allow, after the Texas Department of Transportation bought part of its frontage for the highway.
The Chase Bank property at 801 W. Princeton Drive is about 1.42 acres zoned C-1 Commercial, where buildings must be set back at least 25 feet from the front property line. According to the owner's engineer, the building now sits about 26 feet from the right-of-way. Once TxDOT's acquisition takes effect, the closest point will be roughly 5.5 feet away.
The request would cut the required front setback by 19.5 feet, to 5.5 feet, and clear the way for a new barrier wall.
A July 2 letter from Matthew Cragun, a civil engineer with Cumulus Design of Grand Prairie, describes a wall about 3 feet tall and 84 feet long that would run along the U.S. 380 frontage and wrap around the corner onto Beauchamp, about 4 feet from the building face. It would be built of materials matching the bank.
The letter says the wall is meant as an added vehicle barrier between the new right-of-way and the building. At about 3 feet tall, it would not block the view of eastbound drivers on U.S. 380 or interfere with planned road work next to the site, the engineer wrote.
In a memo to the board, Planning Manager Parker McDowell wrote that applying the ordinance as written would create a hardship that stems from the state's right-of-way purchase rather than from anything the owner did. The board can approve the variance, approve it with conditions or deny it.
To grant it, members must find that it meets seven tests, among them that it is not contrary to the public interest, does not harm neighboring land and is not sought only for economic gain.
The city mailed notices on Oct. 29 to nine property owners within 200 feet. The staff memo lists restaurants to the north and west, and a retail superstore, a convenience store with gas pumps, shops, a dental office and a fitness center to the east and south.
