Debate continued at a Feb. 21 Bellaire City Council meeting over the best plan for a former Chevron campus at 4800 Fournace Place, Houston, with the vote ultimately being pushed to March.

The council approved the North Bellaire Special Development District at the site last May in a 4-3 vote, but debates are ongoing over three development applications that have been filed by SLS West Loop LP, which owns the property.

On Feb. 21, the council met with a packed agenda, including three items concerning the special development district. Nearly five hours were spent debating how to proceed.

The district was divided into three proposed sections. The first, dubbed the “Fournace portion,” concerns three single-story buildings for retail purposes, a two-story building for multipurpose use and an 18,000-square-foot park area in between.

Section two, the “Rice portion,” includes one two-story and one three-story building along Rice Avenue for retail and entertainment; a four-story building along the district's northern boundary for similar purposes; a 775-stall garage; and 230 surface parking spaces along Rice Avenue and Fournace Place.

Section three, the “Freeway portion,” contains a five-story building in the interior and a six-story building along the Loop 610 frontage road, both for retail and entertainment use, as well as an 805-stall commercial parking garage.

During the meeting, some of the council members brought up several concerns regarding the plans, including the effects on traffic. Council Member Catherine Lewis gave a presentation expressing her unease over the increased residential traffic the district would bring along Rice Avenue, and Imperial and Mayfair streets.

Council Member Nathan Wesley expressed a general wariness over the project as a whole.

“Here's the problem: We had a lot of input that was very unstructured,” Wesley said at the meeting.

Not all of the council took as cautionary an approach. Council members Winfred Frazier, Ross Gordon and Brian Witt largely supported the development proposals.

“Some of the [community's] issues are addressed in these plans,” Frazier said. “These plans have been in place in some way or another for a while now.”

Ultimately, a decision was pushed back to allow the city to make additional plans, including restrictions on drive-thrus and a potential road widening of South Rice Avenue to alleviate expected increases in traffic.

Bellaire Mayor Andrew Friedberg expressed a desire to vote on the plans during a March council meeting.