Hilltop Estates, a planned south Taylor neighborhood, is moving ahead in procedural steps as nearby residents have concerns.
Last Thursday, July 28, the Taylor City Council held a public hearing and introduced an ordinance to rezone the planned site’s approximately 27.89 acres from a single-family residential district to the same district but with a residential planned development overlay. Hilltop Estates would be located at 1910 CR 452, off of Old Coupland Road and Southwood Hills Drive.
“The applicant is not proposing to change that base district,” said Tom Yantis, Taylor director of development services, “but just to add the planned development overlay which allows them to have some design flexibility in the layout of the neighborhood.”
Design schematics show lots that are smaller than the minimum allowed within a standard single-family district, hence the reason for the overlay.
Hilltop Estates’ property owners are Rick Northcutt and Candy Buzan, who submitted their first application for rezoning in 2019. Councilmember Dwayne Ariola thanked them for their patience and said he looked forward to the new neighborhood.
“I know they’re going to build a beautiful subdivision and take care of it,” said Ariola, “and its additional housing just like we are hoping for.”
Several issues were brought up during the public hearing. One of resident Raymond Hernandez’s concerns was increased usage of adjacent roads due to the approximately 40 new houses that would be in the area.
“Most families have at least two cars, so now you’re adding 80 cars that are running through there,” said Hernandez. “Our roads are bad enough as it is that they typically just go and fill up the potholes.”
Public Works Director Jim Gray addressed Old Coupland Road in particular.
“We’ve done two level-ups to date and will probably get one more in this year,” said Gray.
Among Hernandez’s other concerns was area drainage. Yantis discussed how that matter will be looked into as the Hilltop Estates’ process continues.
“The stormwater drainage system design happens during the subdivision improvement plans process,” said Yantis, “and so their civil engineer will ensure that the runoff from the new neighborhood does not negatively impact any of the surrounding properties through that process.”
There have been reports of low water pressure in the vicinity as well, and Hernandez asked if the nearby water tank was operational. Gray and others commented on that as well as how a City Council meeting Tuesday, Aug. 2, might help answer questions.
“There are issues with low water pressure there. We’ve known about them for a while,” said Gray. “During that meeting, we will address some of these concerns that have been brought up. The tank currently is not in service and the reason being that we weren’t turning enough water over it, so it got stale and our chlorine count went down. We’re working to get that back on with a booster system. What they’re talking about are real issues, but we will bring you some solutions to that when we meet next Tuesday night.”
Yantis mentioned earlier in the meeting how Hilltop Estates’ ongoing procedures will tackle water pressure as well.
“They will have to address all of that because the new neighborhood will have to comply with all of our engineering standards for the provision of sufficient water pressure for fire protection,” said Yantis, “so in order to do that there may be upgrades needed to the system as it exists outside the neighborhood currently.”
Tuesday’s council meeting will be at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 400 Porter St. in Taylor. For more background on that meeting, click here.
For more on Hilltop Estates, view or download last Thursday’s agenda packet here. To view last Thursday’s full discussion, visit here.
