Planning commissioners recommend Solinski subdivision site plan despite driveway-spacing exception

The Flower Mound Planning & Zoning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of a subdivision site plan for Solinski Enterprises, including an exception to the town’s usual 250-foot driveway-spacing standard so a proposed curb cut would sit 114 feet from an existing driveway.

Staff planner Chuck, presenting the item, said the 5.17-acre property on the south side of Spinks Road will split into a western lot intended for a warehouse and an eastern lot that contains an existing athletic facility and roofing contractor. "Typically on Spinks, the requirement is 250 feet between drive approaches," Chuck said, noting the developer is asking that the new drive be allowed 114 feet of spacing because "Spinks Road is not a truck route" and truck access is anticipated from the east via Giroux.

Commissioners asked whether articulated 18-wheelers could safely turn into the proposed driveway. Daniel Stewart, the civil engineer for the applicant, said the facility is expected to be served by box trucks and pickups with trailers, not large tractor-trailers, and that the team used truck-turn software to verify access. "This will be mostly utilized ... by box trucks and or pickups with trailers," Stewart said. He added the driveway was placed as far west on the property as feasible, roughly five feet from the western property line.

Traffic staff briefed commissioners that the site is expected to generate roughly 15–20 trips and thus does not trigger a design threshold that would require an eastbound right-turn storage lane (the department’s cited trigger is 50 trips). Staff also said the proposed layout could reduce U-turn maneuvers that otherwise might create more hazardous traffic interactions.

After discussion about median geometry and the risk of a future, different tenant generating larger vehicles, a commissioner asked that staff "keep an eye" on traffic patterns and indicated site-plan review will revisit turning and curb-cut details. Staff confirmed the applicant will return for a site-plan submittal with additional exhibits if the commission’s recommendation is adopted by council.

A commissioner moved to recommend approval "as written," the motion was seconded, and the roll call vote recorded all Ayes (Commissioners Fitzpatrick, Jackson, Vice Chair Hobbs, Gilmore, Langley and Getty). The item will go forward to the Town Council for final action.

The commission’s recommendation does not itself change the driveway-spacing standard; it forwards the specific exception and site plan recommendation to the town council for final consideration.