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Council tables vote on connector
By Brandi Hart, McKinney Courier-Gazette
At least 10 people told McKinney City Council on Tuesday night in a special meeting that they do not agree with the technically preferred alignment of a four- to six-lane road that will be built in the northern city limits and could eliminate two families’ homes.
The council tabled voting on the technically preferred alignment of the Farm-to-Market Road 543 connector, which will be built south of FM 543. The council will next review the issue at the Feb. 5 council meeting.
The road will first be four lanes, and will eventually become six lanes. The city is asking for 130 feet of right of way for the road, which will serve as an additional east-to-west arterial to help ease traffic congestion for areas north of U.S. 380.The road will connect FM 1461 to U.S. 75. At least 80 people, including two who will lose homes from the technically preferred alignment, attended the meeting and public hearing.
“I’ve heard about the trees, but what about my home? How about saving my home? This will eliminate my house,” Clay said.
Clay spoke after numerous people who own land in the western section of the alignment, along Geren Trail, spoke about the alignment killing 80 feet of a tree line.
Billy Clay said after the meeting that he heard lots of property owners say they’ve lived or purchased land along the alignment route since the 1990s, but his father purchased the property where he now lives in 1980. He said he has a long history with the land and the area and did not want to lose his home.
Delia Bravo, who did not speak in the public hearing and who lives beside the Clays on the east side of the road, said she will also lose her home due to the technically preferred alignment.
“We’ve lived here for 14 years. My husband, Andres, planted two weeping willow trees there in the back yard so we can put a hammock between them there and sit there with our grandchildren,” Bravo said.
She was concerned and upset about possibly losing her home to the road.
Bravo said she attended the public hearings held in March and in June about the alignment. She also said she has not yet called the city staff about the alignment.
Bravo also said the public hearing announcement she received in the mail said the meeting was at 6:30 p.m., when in fact it was at 5:30 p.m.
The city mailed notices, which said it would hold a public hearing at the council chambers at city hall at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 18 about the technically preferred alignment, said John Kessel, executive director of the city’s Development Services Division, which includes the engineering and planning departments. The city mailed the notices Dec. 7 and they were received Dec. 12, Kessel said. He also had a copy of the notice on hand after the meeting. The city staff members mailed some to the city offices to keep a record of how long it took for property owners that live along the route to receive the notices.
Paul and Lori Powell, Kathy Harris and Keith Harrell also spoke separately in the public hearing for the alignment and asked the council to move the alignment 65 feet south of Geren Trail to save at least 80 feet of trees that form an east-to-west line south of Geren Trail. The trees include various types of cedar trees and serve as a southern buffer for property owners along Geren Trail.
Jack Geren Sr., his wife Marilyn, and their son Jack Geren, Jr. also attended the meeting, but did not speak. They have worked out their issues with the city about the alignment, which originally was going to remove the Gerens’ home and other areas of their property. The alignment has since been moved away from the Geren property.
Council member for District 1 Gilda Garza and council member for District 3 Bill Vitz said they were concerned about the Clays losing their home from the alignment.
Council member for District 4 Brian Loughmiller expressed concern about the many factors that the technically preferred alignment poses, such as how it would divide land that a man and his mother-in-law own both north and south of the alignment.
Rick Franklin, a McKinney Economic Development Corp. board member, also spoke in the public hearing about the Franklin Family Partnership property immediately west of the Baylor site and south of the alignment, just east of FM 1461. Franklin was concerned about the alignment affecting future commercial use for the land. He asked that the alignment possibly be moved farther north.
Mayor Bill Whitfield asked the city staff to please try and protect as many trees as possible for any streets or development projects.
All council members voted on tabling the issue except Mayor Pro Tem Thad Helsley, who left the council chambers during the entire hour-long public hearing as he recused himself from voting on the connector route. Helsley is a member of the Seeds for the Future limited partnership that sold about 44 acres north of the Seeds for the Future site to the Baylor Health Care System. The Baylor land is located immediately south of the preferred alignment, and is not the property where the system will build a hospital at the northwest corner of U.S. 380 and FM 1461.
Helsley recused himself after members of Jack Geren Sr.’s family called local media about Helsley being a partner of Seeds for the Future.
Bob Roeder, an attorney with McKinney-based law firm Abernathy, Boyd, Roeder and Joplin, represented Baylor Health Care System, which owns 44 acres immediately south of the FM 543 connector alignment. Roeder said Baylor would prefer the city not move the alignment farther south along the Baylor site.
Baylor’s official statement on the connector route should not impact development of the Baylor site.
“BHCS has worked through the McKinney City Council and the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission as Baylor explores issues around building Baylor Medical Center at McKinney. The land purchased from Seeds for the Future may be used by Baylor at a future date,” according to Susan Hall, of the Baylor Health Care System’s corporate media relations office in Dallas.
When asked by council member at large Bill Cox about what Baylor plans to do with the site near the FM 543 connector, Roeder said the company plans to build a medical facility. All council members expressed concerns about the various property owners’ issues and the alignment.
Martin Sanchez, owner of the Sanchez Group of McKinney and a former city of McKinney planner, also spoke in the public hearing against the technically preferred alignment. He represented a family that owns more than 44 acres north of Erwin Park and north and south of the preferred alignment for the road. He told the council his client presented numerous alignments to the city staff that included not removing any trees in the Jorba site. Sanchez said his client also offered to pay for road that would connect to the FM 543 connector road and the family would also donate right of way.
The city considered the alignment that was proposed by Sanchez’s client, but the technically preferred alignment route was recommended for reasons beyond just the trees in the area, Kessel said.
“Other factors that we considered included roadway geometry, adjacent land use, both present and future, and the cost of construction,” Kessel said after the meeting.
While the alignment that Sanchez’s client recommended to city staff would not adversely affect trees in Sanchez’s client’s property, it would, however eliminate the tree line along Geren Trail. The technically preferred alignment will be north of Erwin Park, which ensures that houses will not be built immediately north of the park, or other development other than a street.
“Our alignment retains the view corridor into Erwin Park,” Kessel said.
A representative of Addison Wilson III, a Dallas attorney who owns a large parcel of land adjacent to the connector alignment, near the U.S. 75 and FM 543 intersection, said the Wilson family has worked with the city for the last 20 years on trying to get a new intersection built at U.S. 75 and FM 543. The alignment will not adversely affect the Wilson property.
Contact staff writer Brandi Hart at hartb@acnpapers.com. To post comments online, access this story at www.scntx.com.
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