The city of Keller plans to paint the historic water tower on US 377 after Keller ISD's high school football season ends.
Keller City Council also tabled a planned mixed-use development and approved a contract with a third-party company for inspection work during the Oct. 6 meeting.
Plans for the Kroger Marketplace development were also tabled at this meeting, according to previous reporting.
Water Tower
Public Works Director Alonzo Liñán discussed the water tower project during the work session that followed the regular council meeting.
The Minnie Street elevated water tank is at the corner of Minnie Street and US 377. The tower does not currently hold water and was last refurbished in 2001, Liñán said.
Viking Industrial Painting, from La Vista, Nebraska, estimated the cost of painting and rehabilitating the tower at $249,200. Council members still need to approve the contract at a later date.
The project is expected to take eight weeks, depending on the weather, Liñán said. A tent will be placed around the water tower to allow the company to blast the exterior and remove and dispose of any lead coating.
Engineering consulting company Baird, Hampton & Brown inspected the water tower earlier this year and reported the tower was structurally sound but needed minor repairs, including replacing missing bolts and welding near the catwalk. The inspection also noted flaking paint and oxidizing iron, according to a city presentation.
Liñán said lighting is not part of this project and would be addressed later.
The 50,000-gallon tank dates to at least 1937 when the tower fell to the ground and helped extinguish a fire, according to a video on the city’s YouTube page.
Samantha Springs Commerce
A proposed mixed-use development called Samantha Springs Commerce along US 377 was tabled until the Oct. 20 meeting.
Jason Claunch of Catalyst Commercial proposed rezoning 15.63 acres owned by Joe McCombs from commercial and light industrial to planned development-mixed use. The first public hearing addressed the proposed zoning change. The development would feature 31 brownstone homes, retail locations and 3.27 acres of open space, according to city documents.
A second public hearing addressed an amendment to the future land use plan, changing the designation from retail/commercial and patio/garden/townhome to mixed-use. That was also tabled to the Oct. 20 meeting.
Claunch said the homes needed to be built before work could move forward on the retail portion of the plan, which included redeveloping three vacant buildings: Shannon Brewing Company, the Samantha Springs water bottling plant and the former Harvest Christian Center church.
The three vacant buildings offer more than 18,000 square feet of potential retail space.
“[This site is] going to be hard to activate without the brownstones there; it's going to make it very difficult or impossible to activate the commercial," Claunch said. "We need the vibrancy and the activity and the type and quality of the brownstones to motivate more commercial on that site.”
Council members referenced the Center Stage development when discussing the proposed plan with Claunch and McCombs. According to previous reporting, Keller City Council approved the first phase of the Center Stage development on Dec. 1, 2020. The development, planned for 26.8 acres, was to include 475 loft-style apartments, 24,000 square feet of commercial space, a community lawn, an outdoor music venue and hiking and biking trails. Mayor Pro Tem Shannon Dubberly said the struggles with the commercial development of Center Stage is one of the main reasons he ran for council.
“I do share the concerns some of my colleagues have brought up and I understand that this project isn't Center Stage, but the idea is kind of similar,” Council Member Charles Randklev said. “This idea that they build it and we're going to get all these great things that go with it. That's a concern that I have.”
Construction inspections
The Public Works Department will change how inspections are performed.
After the city’s construction inspector became a traffic operations technician, the city requested a proposal for a professional services agreement with Dunaway, an engineering firm based in Farmersville. The company provided services under a short-term contract during the past year, according to city documents.
A new $325,000 contract will cover franchise utility installations and add construction inspections, city documents state. The company will be responsible for:
Inspecting and documenting the installation of public infrastructure on city and development projects
Conducting weekly erosion-control inspections at all active construction sites
Inspecting sanitary sewer and water connections, drive approaches and sidewalk installations
Performing drainage and grading inspections on new residential construction
Monitoring franchise utility installations to ensure damage is repaired and restoration is completed
