On April 22, 2024, the Richardson City Council considered a request by a private school to move into an existing church building on Abrams Rd. near Walnut St. The school is Coram Deo Academy, a classical, Christian, K-12 school with three campuses. It wants to relocate its Dallas campus on Alpha Rd to Richardson. Because of zoning regulations, a special permit is needed.
Here's what the Councilmembers had to say, in part. Their comments have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Councilmember Dan Barrios: "I've heard great things about y'all and I know many of the charter schools, while they don't have as good of a reputation as you guys, so I mean if we're going to have any charter school you guys would be the ones we would want to have in the neighborhood."
No one corrected Barrios, but Coram Deo Academy is not a charter school. It's a private school. There's a big difference. It probably wouldn't change the calculus in the decision at hand, but I'm surprised Barrios would make this mistake, given that he works in a public school. Not that he should let his personal job influence his decision, but the governor is demanding the legislature pass a voucher program to divert public school dollars to private schools like Coram Deo Academy. You'd think Barrios would know a detail like this. The applicant merely said, "I appreciate that."
Barrios: "I'm not too worried about the roads being able to handle that traffic."
Barrios is right. A traffic plan needs to be carefully thought out (and it seems to have been), and there are many other schools in the same situation who have traffic challenges. Other Councilmembers seemed more concerned, judging by the amount of time they talked about it. This should be a land use question, not a test of how to design a queuing system for dropping off children at school. Don't get lost in the weeds. But it wasn't just traffic at the beginning and end of school days that was a concern. The school plans to have after school and weekend volleyball and basketball games in a gymnasium. Yet no neighbors spoke in opposition, so having a school there might not be an issue for the neighborhood. Some might even see it as a plus, although Councilmember Curtis Dorian later alludes to a desire by the neighborhood for retail and restaurants, not another school. I didn't hear that the applicants held any community meetings to determine what the neighborhood wants, so who knows?
Barrios: "I wouldn't be surprised in the next year or two if [Richardson ISD] decides to sell this one off too because, you know, they're trying to bring in some money just like every other district is."
He's referring to the huge undeveloped land across the street, one of the largest pieces of undeveloped land left in Richardson. That land is zoned commercial. The future of that land weighed heavily in the thinking of other Councilmembers, as it should.
Councilmember Curtis Dorian: "I certainly wouldn't want to hinder any developments such as bringing retail, restaurants and some other things that I know that the community there has been asking for for quite some time."
He's speaking of the state law that denies the sale of alcohol within 300 feet of a school, which might restrict some new businesses from investing nearby.
Councilmember Ken Hutchenrider: "In your very first presentation, you said you're only going to have that be a right turn out lane. And you show a left turn there on your description. So it just always bothers me anytime I sit through these meetings and you say one thing and then you put up your your information out there and you show something different."
Hutchenrider is lost in the weeds. The applicant tried to explain: "We did those renderings prior to the City Planning Commission meeting and that was a requirement that came out of that meeting..." Hutchenrider cut him off: "I've heard enough. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it." Barrios said to the applicant, "You want to finish your thought there?" The applicant said, "We finished those renderings prior to the City Planning Commission meeting...We didn't get a chance to update or resubmit anything."
Mayor Bob Dubey: "I think we're sending the wrong message to Richardson ISD. If we say let's put 400, 800, whatever students over the course of time when RISD gets paid by having seats in the seats. And so you take 400 of them out, 800 of them out, and then we're having to tweak this zone to make it work for them, where the same time you're taking money away from RISD and we know the problems that they have recently had and everyone on this Council's received letters because they are having to cut their budgets. I'm having a hard time with it to be honest with you."
It seems pretty clear that for Mayor Dubey the key thing is not traffic, it's not other potential development, it's the competition that private schools pose to public schools.
Dorian: "I do agree with you mayor that we have to support RISD, but secondly, I feel that that area has potential for planned development."
So Dorian is looking at this decision from a long-term land use perspective and not just a concern of its impact on RISD. In this case, both considerations will lead him to the same decision.
Councilmember Joe Corcoran: "I really don't view this as an RISD or enrollment thing. I really see this more as a long-term planning and land use situation. What I see is a huge lot of greenfield which we have very little of left in the city right across from this property. I see a corner that is extremely over parked and us putting something very permanent right there in the heart of that. I understand that this is great as far as private schools go, it's top class, but it may just not be the product, so to speak, that we want in that corner at this moment."
Corcoran is with Dorian. Look at this decision from a broader and longer-term land-use perspective. Ding, ding, ding. Give the man a cigar.
Mayor Pro Tem Arefin: "This is an opportunity for really some huge development in that area. It is possible that the RISD might sell the property on the other side that is a huge land area. We waited on so many [other sites] for so many years, so I think we can wait a little bit on this one for a better other development."
For the Mayor Pro Tem, too, it's the long-term land use consideration that should drive decisions in this neighborhood.
By now, you can guess the outcome. Hutchenrider offered a motion to deny the application, which passed 5-1, with only Barrios in favor of the school. Councilmember Jennifer Justice was absent.
PS: This application made it to City Council after being approved unanimously by the City Plan Commission. That suggests something is askew with how City government works. Maybe the CPC uses different criteria to decide zoning cases than the City Council uses. Why should that be? Or maybe it's all government by whim. You know which way I think Richardson leans on that question. For example, Hutchenrider put it this way in the debate over naming parks: "Trying to come up with a policy and, you know, come up with all this criteria, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, no, I'm dead set against that." Maybe because we don't have a uniform set of criteria to make land use decisions, we get lost in the weeds again and again. If there's one thing that I hope the Comprehensive Plan update brings to Richardson, it's clarity on this question: How should we decide land use questions?
"Not just about school,
But land use and future plans,
Corner's transformation."
—h/t ChatGPT
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