Residents of Plum Creek filled City Council chambers at Kyle City Hall on Feb. 5 to voice their displeasure with Plum Creek Development Partners' plan to put a convenience store at the corner of Fairway and FM 2770.

The Plum Creek Bread Basket development will include a 4,600-square-foot building, eight gas pumps and a 5-foot clay-colored side yard fence. Hours of operation will be 6 a.m.–midnight.

Residents of Plum Creek spoke against the development, and many voiced concerns that it would lower their property value.

In a letter written to the Planning and Zoning Commission, Bill and Faye Toland, residents of Plum Creek whose backyard will look directly onto the Bread Basket, said they were under the impression the property had been zoned for commercial development.

"If the property under consideration here is to be developed commercially, then the City of Kyle must ensure that such development maintains the standards of the community so as not to cause loss of property values of nearby residences nor increase the risks to neighborhood children from such things as increased traffic and outside influences," the letter reads.

The letter states that a convenience store "does not even come close to meeting such standards."

Tony Spano, project manager for Plum Creek Development Partners LTD, which is developing the site, said the land had always been zoned for mixed use.

"I am at monthly meetings with homeowners," Spano said. "That's an open forum, and we kind of just lay things out to talk and discuss through these things, as we frankly did with the Bread Basket and have been for the last year. I would love to see more communication between us as the developer and the homeowners. We relish that opportunity."

Spano said the idea of placing a Bread Basket at FM 2770 and Fairway was first presented at the annual homeowners association meeting in March. Since that time, Spano said he had a few "individual" meetings on the subject with homeowners and people stopping by his office, but the level of outcry at the Feb. 5 meeting surprised him.

"I was kind of taken aback by it, only because this was really not new," Spano said. "It was something that we had been talking about publicly at our monthly meetings and at our annual meeting last year.

"We're here for the long run. We've been here since the mid-90s, and we have a lot of land, but more than that, we have a very big portion of ownership we're very concerned about our citizens, and we understand the reason we have Plum Creek is because of those 1,500 homes that are sitting out there."

Kyle Director of Planning Sofia Nelson began her presentation on the site plan with a reminder to council and residents that at this stage in the development process, the plan could only be denied on grounds that it did not meet the minimum site plan requirements.

After reviewing the plan, council members deferred to City Attorney Julian Grant who recommended the city follow Nelson's recommendation to approve the plan. Grant said that if the council opted not to approve the plan, it would have to be based on a feature of the site plan that was not in compliance with the Plum Creek Planned Use Development. Grant said he would be obligated to defend the city's decision, but it would not be an easy one.

"It would be an uphill battle," Grant said.

Council ultimately decided to unanimously approve the plan, but Mayor Lucy Johnson said she planned to review the city's definition of a "mixed-use development" and bring it up at the next council meeting Feb. 19.