Zoning change clears way for senior living facility in Lewisville

Sparrow Partners has received a zoning change approval for a 9.25-acre tract along Valley Ridge Boulevard near Garden Ridge Boulevard in Lewisville. The zoning change from light industrial to medical district will allow the developer to build a four-story, independent-living community with 192 units for senior adults.

Most units in the facility will have one bedroom and one bathroom, but plans also include 67 two-bedroom, two-bathroom units. The residential units will surround a central courtyard with communal lawn space. The property plans include a 3-acre park with a loop trail. Carports and a few garage bays will ring the exterior of the residential complex.

Concept plans depict the bulk of the 3-acre park as set on the southwest edge of the facility between an adjacent neighborhood and the planned independent-living complex. Green space will also separate the property from an apartment complex east of the planned senior living community and vacant land zoned for light industrial on its west side.

A resident in the adjacent neighborhood submitted a letter opposing the development, citing concern over shrinking open space and wildlife habitat in Lewisville.

At a March 15 Lewisville City Council meeting, which included a public hearing regarding the zoning change, Kristin Green, Lewisville deputy mayor pro tem, said the new zoning would be “far less intrusive” to the neighborhood than would be a business fitting the previous light industrial zoning. Green also said she hoped the developer would preserve as many of the trees on the property as possible.

“But I don’t feel like I can ask the property owner to not do anything with it because the neighbors like the trees,” she said.

City Council unanimously approved the zoning change.