Whisper Creek approval to open up residential road

By Chris Roark, Staff Writer
Few people had a problem with the proposed master plan amendment or the rezoning request associated with the incoming Whisper Creek residential subdivision.

For some, however, the development hinged on a gate.

Flower Mound Town Council members voted, 4-0, Monday to approve a master plan amendment, rezoning request and a development plan to allow Whisper Creek to come to fruition but only after some changes to the development plan brought forward were made.

The property is located east of Long Prairie Road and north of Spinks Road.

Council member Jeff Tasker was absent.

The master plan amendment changes the land use designation from estate density, low density and medium density to low density. The rezoning approval changes the area from agricultural district to single family district.

Among the changes was the omission of a gate on the west end of Foxborough Trail to separate the Foxborough Hollow subdivision and the future Whisper Creek. With the development plan, it would extend westward into Whisper Creek.

Residents in Foxborough Hollow, which is to the east of the future subdivision, said they wanted the gate to remain to help control the amount and speed of traffic.

“A big concern is the children,” said Foxborough Hollow resident Steve Carleton. “You see accidents on TV all the time, and we say, ‘If only we could have done something.’ We have a chance to do that.”

Others, however, didn’t want the gate as part of the plan because they said it would hamper an already-congested thoroughfare system.

Council members agreed that the gate would cause the town to miss an opportunity to open up some roads.

“One of the challenges we have here in Flower Mound is, we’re very limited on our north-south and east-west connectivity,” Mayor Pro Tem Tim Trotter said. “What we would love to see with our thoroughfare plan is to have additional accessibility to take some of the pressures off our state roads. Now, we’re not asking everyone to drive down Foxborough Trail, but any accessibility is for the better.”

With the omission of the gate, Whisper Creek Drive would instead be an extension of Foxborough Trail.

Another component to the development plan is 9 acres of park land donation from the developer, Ken Hodge and Associates, to the town.

Also at the meeting, the council approved a land use regulation amendment to allow new standards in street design and road section details for green developments.

The vote allows for a narrow pavement section with a pervious surface and bar ditches in certain areas in town. This section can be used in areas such as: in gated small scale residential areas of less than 10 acres; developments of 10 or fewer residential lots with at least 40 percent reserved as open space and/or a floodplain; and areas where trails are incorporated within the development and there is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) “Gold” certification for each home.

A benefit of the surface is that it has a lower water-to-cement ratio, and the gravel that is used in it is all one size, so water can percolate through instead of running off as it does on concrete.

The makeup of the system would include the 6-inch porous pavement course on top of a 12-inch sub-base, which is made up of 1- to 2-inch diameter rocks without the small particles mixed in. That would allow water to trickle into a filter fabric layer, which separates the sub-base and the natural material. The sediment-catching filter and the porous layers would provide for cleaner water.

Water could travel to the bar ditch through a perforated pipe or an extended rock layer.

Also at the meeting, the council voted to approve a specific use permit to allow Kol Ami-Early Childhood Education Program, located at 1887 Timber Creek Road.