Planning Commission Meeting

The Planning Commission met today and revisited the sub-division request for the four apartment complexes Provident wants to build here. A Mr. Bob Voelker from Dallas spoke in favor of the apartments, and questioned why the the issues outlined by the Fire Dept. last week were a problem for the apartments, but didn't seem to be a problem for the new Lowe's or Wal-Mart. Some of these issue's were the fact that any alarm in the apartments would be a 2-alarm fire, drawing down available resources from the Fire Dept, the problem of traffic trying to get into the apartments ( Fire, Sheriff, Ambulance, etc. ) while residents are trying to get out, available hydrants, etc.
Mr. Richard Lewis on the Planning Commission explained that it was not valid to compare them. People live, sleep, smoke, cook, etc in apartment buildings, unlike a Lowe's, and it was not fair to compare one to the other.
The discussion went back and forth for a short while, then the Planning Commission voted to uphold it's decision from last week and deny the request.
The next scheduled meeting for the Commission is Sept 22, 2009...........where this leaves things is not clear. It might go to the Council or back to court, or both. As of today, the Planning Commission stuck by it's previous decision to deny the developers request. Stay tuned......there is surely more to come on this.