The Bridge City Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing Monday with the City Council. The hearing was done to receive public comments on a request to change the zoning for a stretch of FM 408 from single family residential to second commercial.
The owner of the property Juan Ceja wants to build town homes there. Seven citizens spoke against granting the request. The primary concern was the drainage in that area of FM 408 is already not good and building town homes on the land would make a bad situation worse.
Angelee Scales testified to the highway flooding frequently and the lighting on FM 408 being poor in that area. She said in any moderate to heavy rain water will go to the center lane. Many drivers swerve to get out of the high water and could cause wrecks. The lighting near the city’s water tower on FM 408 is not good and is very dark at night. Scales advised, “I don’t feel like it’s going to help any unless somebody is planning on making this problem better before we start building something else.”
A contractor for Ceja was the only person to speak in favor of the zone change citing that as the zoning currently exists, they could build residential homes there if they passed all the Drainage District studies since the property is currently zoned residential, but does have a history of flooding. After hearing the citizens comments the Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to deny the request for the zoning change.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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