German specialty grocer Lidl received approval for a 36,000-square-foot building at 4007 Colleyville Blvd. at the Sept. 19 City Council meeting.

At the Aug. 14 planning and zoning commission meeting, Lidl’s request to place a store in Colleyville was denied 4-2. With that denial, Lidl set to work with city staff to see what changes the company could make to meet Colleyville’s requirements to place a store at the Southern Gateway of the city—a $15 million project.

“A new building will be the catalyst, we believe, for future redevelopment in the Southern Gateway area,” Economic Development Director Mark Wood said at the meeting. “You might be familiar with the site across the street in Hurst; they’re actually going through redevelopment at that site at this time, knocking down the existing older shopping center and putting in new, upscale retail and restaurant, so we think that combined with this, we think it will be a catalyst for that entire Southern Gateway.”

The property for Lidl is located on the east side of Colleyville Boulevard, just north of Cheek-Sparger Road and south of Acuff Lane. The property is currently undeveloped, but at the Sept. 5 council meeting the council identified some issues with the way the building plans were structured. The building was turned away from Colleyville Boulevard, which affected the orientation of the store’s dumpsters and dock doors. With these issues identified, the Lidl staff turned the building so that the front would face Colleyville Boulevard and oriented the dumpster and dock doors in the back of the store.

Lidl also developed a plan to plant and preserve trees on the property. Colleyville requires new development to have room for 192 trees on a property, which the store initially requested to have reduced to about 45. With the store’s new orientation, however, the property can accommodate 81 trees and 160 parking spaces, with open space reserved for parking development should that be required.

“I’m pleased with the changes that were made from last time; I think it was a great process,” Mayor Richard Newton said at the meeting. “The applicants and staff worked together to try to resolve the issues that were identified last time by the P&Z and the council. To me it was very significant to get the store turned.”

Council still had several requests to make of Lidl officials before granting full approval of the store. Council made the amendments that the store have a 10-foot cross-access public utility drainage easement on the north and northeast sides of the property and that the store should be completed by Oct. 1, 2020, or return to council for reconsideration.