A plan to subdivide 12.44 acres on Rock Prairie Road West for future student apartments goes before the College Station Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday, and city planners are recommending the commission turn most of it down.
The preliminary plan, filed by applicant Mitchell & Morgan under the project name Rock Prairie Student Housing, would create a single lot west of where Rock Prairie Road West meets Old Wellborn Road. The applicant is asking for four waivers from the city's subdivision rules.
Staff supports one of them and recommends denial of the other three and of the plan itself, according to the staff report in the commission's Oct. 15 packet.
Under city rules, the plan can only be approved as submitted if all four waivers are granted. If any is denied, the plan is denied too, the report says.
What the developer wants to skip
The four requests, as described by staff:
- Not extending Sergeant Drive, which already reaches the edge of the property, through to Old Wellborn Road.
- Not continuing an alley at the northwest corner of the site.
- Allowing a block about 1,513 feet long along Old Wellborn Road, from Tang Cake Drive to Rock Prairie Road West, where the code caps block length at 1,200 feet.
- Leaving Old Wellborn Road as a dead end without a formal turnaround.
According to the staff report, the applicant argues that the neighboring land is already built out with its own access, that Old Wellborn Road no longer connects to Rock Prairie Road West, and that extending Sergeant Drive or the alley would shrink the buildable area.
The applicant also told the city the apartments would have gated access from Old Wellborn Road and Sergeant Drive, and that a hammerhead turnaround would be provided later, though not one built to the city's standard.
