Following significant opposition from nearby businesses and homeowners, Friendswood City Council unanimously rejected amending the city’s future land use map to allow a developer to build a mixed-use development that would include nearly 400 residential units on FM 2351 at its Feb. 2 meeting.

Explained

The request came from Houston-based EHRA Engineering to amend the city’s future land use map to rezone 29 acres of land located along the 4700 block of FM 2351 from retail and industrial to mixed use in order to build Clear Creek Village.

The proposed Clear Creek Village Planned Unit Development would have comprised commercial, multifamily residential, shared green space and on-site detention, according to city documents.

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The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-0 to recommend approving the development at its Dec. 11 meeting.

Remember this?

Due to noise concerns, at a Jan. 5 meeting, City Council asked the applicant to update the request to include a sound study and postponed voting on the ordinance.

EHRA Engineering Project Manager Jeffrey Boutte said at the Feb. 2 meeting his team had not performed a sound study due to time constraints.

Instead, they reviewed calculations of how sound dissipates over long distances and determined that a decibel level of 70 at the property line would result in a decibel level of 58 at the project’s residential buildings, which is in compliance with the city’s noise ordinance.

“After looking at those studies [and] using some online tools and some other calculations, we’ve proposed a performance standard that we feel comfortable with,” Boutte said at the meeting.

Nick Deutsch, owner of Garage Ultimate, a premium car garage located adjacent to the property, said he did not think the calculations the engineering firm performed were a substitute for a true sound study, which includes a field study that identifies the source of the noise.

“That’s not a noise study, that’s a math problem,” Deutsch said at the meeting.

Public input

Several residents and business owners spoke at the meeting in opposition to the development, citing a variety of concerns, including:

An uptick in trafficNoiseOvercrowdingA potential for an increase in crimeKenneth Cruise, a resident of the Forest of Friendswood neighborhood, spoke against the zoning request, citing an experience his neighborhood had 15 years ago when a parcel of land near it was rezoned from residential to commercial.

“There were a lot of statements made at that time, incorrect statements, promised statements that were never held true and as a result, it changed the entrance into the Forest of Friendswood,” Cruise said at the meeting.

Resident Michelle Connely said she was concerned that the development could overcrowd Friendswood ISD’s schools and increase traffic. She generally opposes large developments in Friendswood.

“No more concrete,” Connelly said at the meeting. “Friendswood is not very much wood anymore.”

What they’re saying

Council member Michael Ross said he was wary of supporting a significant zoning change at a time when the city is updating its comprehensive plan, which will advise the city’s future growth strategy.

“It is just piecemeal zoning, and it puts it in the hands of seven people, as opposed to the community, because at the end of the day, that [comprehensive] plan is going to be reviewed by the community,” Ross said at the meeting.

City Council will hear and adopt the final comprehensive plan in the summer, according to previous reporting by Community Impact.

Council member Robert Griffon said he admired Friendswood’s historic, low-density character and would continue to vote in ways that protected that.

“It’s industrial,” Griffon said at the meeting. “I don’t see it being single-family, residential, but if it were, it’d be 90-by-120-foot lots if I were going to vote on it, because I don’t want the population in Friendswood to get over 55,000. I just don’t.”