{"id":151076,"date":"2026-02-04T20:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/151076\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T20:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:47:34","slug":"friendswood-city-council-rejects-zoning-change-for-large-mixed-use-development-clear-creek-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/151076\/","title":{"rendered":"Friendswood City Council rejects zoning change for large mixed-use development, Clear Creek Village"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollowing significant opposition from nearby businesses and homeowners, Friendswood City Council unanimously rejected amending the city\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Explained<\/p>\n

The request came from Houston-based EHRA Engineering<\/a> to amend the city\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“><\/p>\n

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-0 to recommend approving the development at its Dec. 11 meeting.<\/p>\n

Remember this?<\/p>\n

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

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

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\u2019s residential buildings, which is in compliance with the city\u2019s noise ordinance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter looking at those studies [and] using some online tools and some other calculations, we’ve proposed a performance standard that we feel comfortable with,\u201d Boutte said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a noise study, that\u2019s a math problem,\u201d Deutsch said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Public input<\/p>\n

Several residents and business owners spoke at the meeting in opposition to the development, citing a variety of concerns, including:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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,\u201d Cruise said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Resident Michelle Connely said she was concerned that the development could overcrowd Friendswood ISD\u2019s schools and increase traffic. She generally opposes large developments in Friendswood.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo more concrete,\u201d Connelly said at the meeting. \u201cFriendswood is not very much wood anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they\u2019re saying<\/p>\n

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\u2019s future growth strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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,\u201d Ross said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

City Council will hear and adopt the final comprehensive plan in the summer, according to previous reporting<\/a> by Community Impact.<\/p>\n

Council member Robert Griffon said he admired Friendswood\u2019s historic, low-density character and would continue to vote in ways that protected that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s industrial,\u201d Griffon said at the meeting. \u201cI 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.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following significant opposition from nearby businesses and homeowners, Friendswood City Council unanimously rejected amending the city\u2019s future land…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[62713,62712,62714,56,12072,58,57,50989],"class_list":{"0":"post-151076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-development-in-friendswood","9":"tag-friendswood-development","10":"tag-friendswood-real-estate","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-development","13":"tag-houston-headlines","14":"tag-houston-news","15":"tag-houston-real-estate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}