Red Oak Zoning Board grants variance for Norton Street site after TxDOT right-of-way taking

The Red Oak Zoning Board of Adjustment on Feb. 24 approved a variance for a commercial property at 108 Norton Street that was constrained by a Texas Department of Transportation right-of-way taking.

City staff and the applicant told the board that the TxDOT acquisition reduced the site's lot depth, eliminated frontage parking and left insufficient room for required street trees and landscaping. The board voted 4-0 to grant the variances, which included a reduced front yard setback adjacent to Interstate 35E, a reduced setback along Norton Drive, a lower on-site parking count and relief from certain landscaping and lot-coverage limits.

Planning staff told the board the hardship arose from a third-party right-of-way taking rather than actions by the property owner. "The hardship that's been created was not by them or not by the city, but by a third party entity taking the right of way from the frontage of their property," a staff member said during the presentation.

Norman Patton, representing the property owner, said much of the property's frontage parking was lost to TxDOT and that the owner planned to add parking at the rear and install as much landscaping as the site would allow. "Virtually all of the front, had been parking previously, and... all that was lost in the taking by TxDOT," Patton said, describing the practical effect of the acquisition.

Board members pressed staff and the applicant on maneuvering space and whether adjacent informal parking could be counted. Staff acknowledged that people use pump islands informally, but said municipalities typically do not count pump stalls as formal parking when enforcing parking requirements.

After closing the public hearing the board moved to approve case ZBA26-01 as presented. The motion carried on a 4-0 vote.

The variance approval allows the applicant to pursue building permits and other approvals under the adjusted standards; staff noted the approvals respond to practical constraints created by the right-of-way taking and the revised site plan the applicant presented.