Orthodontist and urgent care eyed for an industrial corner at Beauchamp and Myrick as council weighs rezoning

A small lot inside Princeton Business Park could trade its light-industrial zoning for medical offices if the City Council agrees Monday night.

Retail at Princeton 9, LLC wants to rezone about 1.49 acres on the northeast side of the intersection of South Beauchamp Boulevard with Myrick Lane from M-1, the city's light manufacturing and industrial district, to Planned Development 47. The council holds a public hearing on the request during its 6:30 p.m. meeting on Nov. 9.

Who might move in

In a letter to the city dated Sept. 28, the applicant's agent, Jessica Hernandez, wrote that the owner is talking with an orthodontist and with a provider offering urgent and primary care. The letter does not name them.

The owner first asked for C-2, the city's general commercial district. After review by city staff, the request was changed to PD 47, according to a memo from Planning Manager Parker McDowell.

Borrowing an existing rulebook

The council created PD 47 on Jan. 12 covering roughly 53.39 acres in Bois D'Arc Professional Park, a short distance away. It uses C-1 commercial zoning as a base and adds its own limits, allowing medical and dental labs by right while barring or requiring special permits for more intense commercial uses.

The rules cap buildings at 55 feet, require coordinated masonry architecture, require a parking space for every 400 square feet of medical or dental office floor area, and generally call for at least 20 percent of a site to be landscaped or open space.

This request would extend those same rules to the Myrick lot. It would not create a new planned development or change PD 47's standards.

Staff recommends the change. The memo says homes and community uses have grown up around the business park, that replacing industrial zoning lowers the chance of incompatible activity next to neighborhoods, and that the city's growing population has raised demand for health care close by. It also cites Princeton's Playbook, the comprehensive plan adopted in August.

Rezoning would not approve a site plan or driveways. Access, parking, drainage and utility capacity would still go through the city's development review.

The city mailed notices on Oct. 22 to the 11 owners of land within 200 feet. The Planning and Zoning Commission was set to hold its own hearing Nov. 2; the staff memo was written before that meeting and does not give the commission's recommendation.

Sources

princetontx.gov

princeton.granicus.com

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