As of press time, officials were unable to confirm why council opted against voting on the item and when it might appear next at City Council for a vote.
The backstory
Pearland City Council discussed a request to rezone 11.8 acres located north of McHard Road and west of Old Alvin Road in the city’s Corridor Overlay District from general commercial to planned development to build a 96-lot townhome community at its March 10 meeting.
City Council did not vote on the ordinance March 10 because it was only a first reading and council members Rushi Patel and Mona Chavarria were not present to vote.
“We don’t have two members here; I’d like to give them the opportunity to be here so we can potentially have a full vote,” Mayor Kevin Cole said.
Cole said City Council would vote on the matter at the next meeting, but when City Council met March 24 they did not vote on the ordinance.
Communications Director Joshua Lee could not confirm why the item was not on the March 24 agenda.
Diving in deeper
The city sent public notices to all property owners within 200 feet of the property, according to agenda documents.
Seven residents wrote in opposition to the change and all four members of the city’s planning and zoning committee voted 0-6 against the proposal when it met Feb. 17, city staff said.
Four residents spoke against the proposal at the Feb. 17 meeting too, according to city documents.
Quote of note
Pearland resident Justin Graef spoke against the townhome development plan and said the townhomes, which if built, could look directly into his yard posed a privacy issue.
“For the privacy of my family, I just cannot handle the idea of walking out my back door and looking up and having at least three townhomes looking straight down into my backyard, into my back windows,” Graef said. “...If I was a betting man, I would bet that most of the people in here would not like that either.
