Greg Yancey LetterProvident Company, Inc.
REAL ESTATE SERVICES
POST OFFICE BOX 1790
COPPELL, TEXAS 75019
TEL (214) 215-9400
EMAIL gregyancey@verizon.net
December 5, 2018
Mayor &Council
City of Coppell
255 E. Parkway Blvd.
Coppell, Texas 75019
RE: Samaritan's Purse / 1300 Creekview Drive
Dear Mayor and Council,
I am delighted to represent Samaritan's Purse in their zoning case before you next week, a
ministry my family began supporting over twenty years ago. If you are not already familiar with
this group and their relief work around the world, I hope you will be more excited about their
prospective facilities in Coppell after looking at the enclosed materials. Because they do not have
a real estate department, I was hired to shepherd them through the development process and you
are probably not surprised I recommended Coppell as the best location.
A friend of mine works for Franklin Graham who heads this ministry, by coincidence Franklin
was eating dinner last April at Hard Eight and contacted my friend to see if he knew a real estate
broker in the Dallas market who could find a property in a nice city like Coppell. Soon I was
working to identify prospective warehouse properties for sale but there were none available in
areas that offered DFW Airport access; hotels and restaurants nearby and safety for volunteers.
The search then became a development project where we considered several sites in other cities.
Despite the dlfflcultICS and added expense of developing the Creekview Drive property, it was by
far the best fit for the use. The seller of the property was Fellowship Church and they were very
excited to have this project adjacent to their campus.
Samaritan's Purse is engaged in disaster relief globally year-round, but it is most recognized for
ince it began in 1993.
Operation Christmas Child shoebox distribution in over 100 countries s
OCC underwent tremendous growth in 1995 when Franklin Graham distributed shoeboxes filled
with Christmas gifts to children in Bosnia. OCC has since distributed 157 million shoebox gifts to
refugee and impoverished children.
Anyone can fill
a shoebox with items like dolls; toothbrushes; a bar of soap; stuffed animals;
crayons; toys and the like. These boxes are first collected at churches, then sent to a Samaritan's
Purse warehouse for processing and shipment to a needy child. Some 12 million shoeboxes will
be distributed before this Christmas, approximately 1 million of those will be processed at the
rented temporary warehouse collection center in Dallas this year.
Should Council approve the zoning case, the proposed use of the Coppell warehouse is primarily
to house Operation Christmas Child. Beginning the third week of November through the week of
Christmas, volunteers from around the country will be at the site from 8 a.m. to 10 P.M.
inspecting, sorting, supplementing and packaging shoeboxes for shipment by truck or sea
container. Because volunteers are leaving during the evening, the safety of Coppell was an
important factor in the site selection process.
OCC volunteers must be at least thirteen years old, many of the shoebox packers are local church
youth groups. Some volunteers travel by air and spend an entire week donating their time, so the
close proximity to the airport and groowlng number of hotels sent of the zoning case, they expect a number of Coppell
restaurants in Coppell made this
site especially desirable. With your
churches to participate next year.
The Coppell site would also house North American Ministries Disaster Relief supplies and
vehicles to serve the central United States. Samaritan's Purse responds to natural disasters
throughout the United States and coordinates relief efforts abroad. They are still rebuilding homes
damaged by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area. This ministry is rebuilding homes in Puerto
Rico, South Carolina and Florida as well.
You may recall the physician from Fort Worth who was serving in a Liberian hospital when he
himself contracted Ebola in 2014. That was Dr. Kent Brantly, volunteering in a Samaritan's Purse
hospital. There are at least forty medical mission hospitals operated by Samaritan's Purse in
Africa, Asia and South America. Samaritan's Purse volunteers are constructing churches, schools
and hospitals throughout the Middle East and Africa, including rebuilding churches in Iraq.
All of this work is performed by paid ministry staff or volunteers. Funding for Samaritan's Purse
comes from private donors like me. Enclosed is a 2018 Christmas Catalog with suggested gifts, it
is remarkable what this ministry can accomplish with even small donations. In my own family,
we sometimes substitute giving each other a gift for one of these items instead.
Among the variances requested in the zoning case is the estimated tree
determined that t this mfee of in 0,06 0.
I asked Mindi Hurley to confer with the City Attorney and it a
not a church by definition and is subject to the tree preservation ordinance. I'm requesting that
Council consider waiving the fee for a number of reasons.
This ministry is funded entirely by donations, typically from church members. Local churches are
the backbone of Operation Christmas Child, it could not grow as it has without the church. All of
the literature produced by Samaritan's Purse clearly promotes the message of Christ. This
ministry is doing nothing but the work of the church, there is no commercial activity taking place.
The workers involved in disaster
tthework oftypically
Christ would take place at this proposed Coppell
ice of Christ may
be heard from a church platform:
facility.
This site was analyzed by two previous industrial developers who declined to purchase it because
the site coverage ratio was so low. The site also falls over sixteen feet from the existing curb
elevation on Creekview Drive to the west property line, so a retaining wall and fill are necessary
for any development of the site. I did my best to save the trees on the site where possible,
including a specimen cedar elm tree in the north parking area where we designed the perimeter
parking with an enlarged tree well to preserve it. Given the existing slope of the lot, it is not
developable without significant tree losses.
While the costs of development in this market are very high presently, Samaritan's Purse has
never sold a real estate asset since its inception in 1970 and did not want to postpone starting
operations here. It is not likely that waiving the mitigation fee would ever be a benefit to a
subsequent (commercial) user/purchaser.
On behalf ofSamaritan's
dollars.commercial alntere t
nA Purse,
the e a YM
Io with those simply absorb those saved funds, but this
group will use those dollars to aid the helpless.
The property will only house a permanent staff of twenty-five, so it is not a big job -creator for the
City. The economic impact would mostly be sales tax and hotel tax revenues driven by the
thousands of volunteers using those services during Operation Christmas Child. The City can
expect favorable press annually and at times when major disasters occur and relief efforts are
organized here. Hopefully Coppell would never require any disaster services.
I truly appreciate your time considering this request and hope you are pleased to see an
organization like this in Coppell. Please know that I would never intend to assign my own beliefs
upon others, so no matter what Council decides on this matter it has no bearing on my respect for
you or my appreciation for the opportunities I've had in this City. You can obviously tell I'm
passionate about what they do at Samaritan's Purse and am honored to be a part of their
development team.
Rather than take up time presenting this in the Council meeting, I wanted to provide this
information now to give you time to know the reasoning behind the request; look at the
Samaritan's Purse website or consider questions you have about this ministry coming to Coppell.
Sincerely yours,
ce
G K Y
cc: Mary Paron-Boswell, AICP
Mindi Hurley