The Orange Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday rejected the preliminary plat for the upscale Oak Alley subdivision by businessman David Hinds on Allie Payne Road.
City Planning Director Kelvin Knauf said the plans did not meet all the city’s requirements. Commission Chair Cullin Smith then asked why the commission was voting on the plat.
Knauf said the Texas Legislature made a law that says once a plat is submitted, a planning and zoning commission has 30 days to deny it or it automatically will be accepted.
Hinds’ development near his home on Allie Payne will have 18 houses built in the New Orleans style.
Some people who live near the development complained about losing privacy on their properties because of the development.
Scott White, who lives on White Oak Road, said the development will affect his property. He is concerned about rain runoff onto his property that could flood his lake.
White said he bought the acreage and house for the way it is set up and affords a wooded view from the backyard. The housing development will “remove any reclusiveness as a property,” he said. He bought the property two years ago and said he was surprised by the news of the development.
The lake is 15 feet from the property line and White said he worries about a child or teen going swimming in the private lake.
Hinds said he will protect White’s property and that he lives by it. He is said he is building Oak Alley “so we don’t have a house project or some junk one-story houses” along Allie Payne Road.
In other business, the commission agreed to change the zoning on five acres along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive by Faith United Methodist Church to commercial special. Knauf said part of the acreage was zoned residential.
A church member said the acreage has been on the market and a real estate agent found a buyer. The difference in the zoning was found and the land needs the whole plot zoned commercial special.
Social Media