I want to take this opportunity to thank all Park Ridge residents who attended Monday's Plano Planning & Zoning meeting; I think you saw firsthand that your presence really made a difference.  The visual display of a full house (especially all the Park Bridge residents with “No New Retail Zoning” signs) impressed the members of the Plano Planning and Zoning Commission and they listened carefully to all the concerns of our neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Park Bridge HOA Vice President Rick Henn presented the Park Bridge HOA briefing which focused on our communities opposition to the Retail Portion of the Haggard Zoning Application and our communities recommendation to include more single story patio homes within the development.  Single story patio homes are in great demand now and that demand will continue on into the future within the Plano community (several of the Planning & Zoning Commission members echoed our recommendation in their remarks after the Park Bridge briefing).  Another speaker from the surrounding neighborhood spoke against the high density within the Haggard tract (specifically the Single Family Attached zoning portion of the application).  There were other speakers who discussed ingress and egress as well as beautification issues along Country Place.  We support all these other speakers in their endeavors to eliminate the Single Family Attached Zoning portion of the application and to improve the Country Place traffic & beautification issues.  We met with all these adjoining neighbors to the North and Northeast on Saturday 9/17/11 to coordinate all our 9/19/11 briefings to the Plano Planning & Zoning Commission.

Kate Perry of the Plano Planning & Zoning Staff and the vast majority of members of the Plano Planning & Zoning Commission recommended against the retail portion of Mr. Haggard's proposed development in remarks (only 2 of 8 Planning & Zoning Commission members voiced some support).  Kate Perry noted that there was tremendous opposition to the Retail portion of the Haggard Rezoning Plan from surrounding neighborhoods.  In addition, Kate Perry said that the additional proposed retail was not in synch with Plano’s Land Use Plan which planned for all this land to be residential.  Kate Perry also communicated that the proposed retail was also not in synch with a recent study on “Underperforming Retail” within Plano which communicates that there is way too much zoned retail (much of it underperforming) within Plano.

For those of you who were not able to be attend this past Monday, you will have another opportunity next month (probably Monday Oct 17th at 7 p.m.) because the Plano Planning & Zoning Commission voted to table the current Haggard Rezoning Proposal for 30 more days to allow Mr. Haggard to revise his plan to address the various neighborhood recommendations.

We need all of you at this next meeting…it will be just as important if not more important than the last Planning & Zoning Meeting.  Once the revised Haggard Rezoning Plan is released and the Planning & Zoning date is formally announced, we will pass on that specific information to you. It will be very important for all of us to attend the October meeting to voice any concerns we may have regarding Mr. Haggard’s revised zoning plan.

Finally, but not least… a big thank you to Rick Henn, Pat Morgan, Grace & David Lovrien and Kim & Ken Helpert for all their efforts in helping to prepare the Park Bridge HOA Strategy / Briefing.  Also, a big thank you to Robert Miller of the Plano Homeowners Council who helped us greatly in crafting the Park Bridge HOA neighborhood strategy.

Ken Helpert
Park Bridge HOA President