Manara-CS090529
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MAY 29,2009
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SERVING COPPELL, VALLEY RANCH AND HACKBER
City Council Says No to Saving;
Moving Old Service Station ~
torical SoCiety to reconsider pre-!
serving or moving the building:
to other vacant City property
downtown. The Council recently,
acquired by eniinent domain ac-!
tion the 1962 building that~
housed an active business,:
Coppe] I Auto Cent~r. The action:
was taken in preparation for al
new road and new developmentl
on the large' Carter-Crow]ey\
1
tract, south of old downtown.'
The City also removed il1e 1904:
Kirkland house frqrniis origin all
location to another old downtowni
site in preparation for the newt
road and development. I
"We are concern;d that
these actions are removing aj
portion of the remaining historic~
'. - j
see COUNCIL onpage 23\
1
The CoppelI Historical Society Tuesday presented photos de-
picting adaptive reuse of service stations, this one in Austin.
By Jean Murph
in preserving the old service sta-
tion in downtown Coppell that it
will soon tear down, despite a
request from the Coppell His-
The Coppell City Council de-
clined Tuesday to take any role
o I
. 1
P&Z 'Denies' Manara Charter School ~equestl
By Jean Murph
grade, for 326 students for the
coming school year. City staff
had recommended approval of
the request The issue will now
come before the Coppell City
Council on June 9 in regular ses-
sIon.
Site for the proposed school
IS the old Christ Our Savior
On a technicality, a 3-3 tie
vote that resulted in denial, the
Planning & Zoning Commission
said no to the request of Manara
Academy Charter School for a
zoning change to operate a
school, kindergarten through fifth
, '.,' i
Lutheran Church School, 140 S. \
Heartz Road, whi<::h formerly j
housed 400 students when iq
was operatiomiL The church!
also plans to continue ~se of thel
church for services. 1
. The public hearing on the is- I
1
see MANARA on page 23 i
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MANARA
from page 1
sue, which lasted for several hours,
included speakers evenly splil on
the issue. Those in favor of the
school pointed to the excellent prin-
cipal and staff planned for the
school and the fact that the school
was only one of eight charter
schools approved by the Texas
Board of Education for the coming
year, meeting stringent require-
ments. Charter schools receive state
funding.
"We have worked diligently to
address the concerns" of the neigh-
borhood, said Sakek Shai, spokes-
man for the academy, pointing out a
traffic study that the school paid
for at the request of the City. "We
plan to hold meetings to alleviate
any concerns."
Those opposed to the request
cited traffic and safety concerns.
Wes Mayes, president of a
,nearby homeowners association,
said that "increased traffic flow will
impact the neighborhood."
"Safety is a huge concern of
mine," responded the principal of
the proposed school to those con-
cemedabout the issue.
One resident stated that "the
majority of students were (coming
from) outside the Coppell area."
"Is it really the traffic?" asked
another resident. "I had initially
thought we would be talking about
how good the school was. This
(building) used to be a church and
a school. Were there such meetings
(as this) when the church had
events ?"
After much discussion, three
Commissioners, Anna Kittrell,
Charles Sangerhausen and Chair-
man Edmund Haas, voted for the
request. Commissioners Gregory
Frnka, David Shute and Derek Jett
opposed the request, resulting in a
denial.