Trouble brewing: South Abilene residents stirred up about Starbucks store

Abilene has eight Starbucks locations, which, some would say, seems to be enough.

Especially factoring in that popular, locally owned coffeehouses are also scattered across town.

The construction of a ninth Starbucks, however, has created pushback.

Ground is being cleared in the on the east side of the 5300 block of Buffalo Gap Road, south of a Golden Chick restaurant. To the south is the Woodlake neighborhood.

Buffalo Gap Road is the only access to Woodlake homes, resident Denise Jones wrote. She called her neighborhood "the perfect place to raise our family."

Jones: City broke its 2004 promise

Jones has contacted the city of Abilene to complain that residents 19 years ago were promised in a Planned Development District document dated Dec. 4, 2004, that zoning would protect the neighborhood from the very businesses now going in.

Jones said city officials in 2004 assured residents that the PPD "would eliminate large grocery/department stores, fast food establishments, open storage units, etc., from building in that area."

"I never like to use the word 'liar,' but our neighborhood was grossly misled by the current administration’s interpretation of the PDD," Jones wrote to City Manager Robert Hanna. "In our opinion, the P&Z overstepped their authority .... and to add insult to injury, by having a P&Z employee inform us of their 'mistakes' that led to this point."

She believes the city's Planning & Zoning Commission erred in allowing the Golden Chick to be built in 2019, and now, perhaps fearful of litigation from Starbucks, is allowing the newest location.

If constructed, there would be four Starbucks locations within a two-mile stretch. The others are at the corner of Buffalo Gap Road and South Danville Drive and inside Target and United Market Street stores.

The site in question, according to the Central Appraisal District, is one of six acres sold by Pak Harris Enterprises LTD to CJ Sharboro Abilene LLC.

Pak Harris also sold the Golden Chick property last August to 3W Brands LLC.

In her email to Hanna, Jones said a member of P&Z told her that the Golden Chick "was never supposed to have been built in that area, but it slipped in."

Jones could not recall the name of the person she contacted.

"It doesn't matter who the employee is, he was telling the truth," she said.

In his reply to her, Jones said Hanna "basically said, no, Golden Chick should not have gone in there. It's not a standard restaurant."

Only what she calls a "standard restaurant" should be allowed, she wrote - more of a traditional sit-down establishment as opposed to a site with a drive-through.

Golden Chick is a fast-food restaurant, offering drive-through service.

Jones previously was told precedent was set by allowing the construction of a Golden Chick, and that the city could be sued by Starbucks if a request to build there were to be denied.

"Two wrongs do not make a right," Jones started in her email.

In his email reply to Jones, Hanna said being sued is not his concern.

"I'm worried about doing what is right," he wrote. He believes allowing a Starbucks location to be built is "a consistent use within the PDD based on specialty store use.

"I believe my staff made the right call, and I support it."

Jones disagrees.

"It does not fit the criteria of the PDD," she said.

What is a 'specialty store'

Jones also received an email response from City Council member Kyle McAlister.

He wrote to her: "Starbucks would fall under 'speciality store' as listed in this PD. Therefore, it is allowed. And since it is an allowed use, it will not come before council."

Hanna also addressed that.

"There is no definition for specialty store in the Land Development Code (that I can find). A store that specializes in the sale of coffee, coffee mugs, coffee makers, coffee cakes and pastries and light lunch fare customary in a coffee house seems to suggest a Starbucks might qualify as a specialty store."

Jones said she believes Hanna is in agreement that "there is no wording in any of the zoning ordinances said discuss a specialty store."

Hanna, in his email, wrote: "I would suggest that the uses identified in the PDD are vague and undefined. "

She has consulted an attorney locally and one in Arlington. They could not find a clear definition of specialty store in any city zoning ordinance. To list specialty store as a possibility, they made up that definition.

"He says he stands behind it because it might suggest that it fits the criteria. If there is no definition, how can Starbucks qualify? You just can't make it up."

Buffalo Gap Road is now a business corridor

Jones is concerned about traffic, noise and light pollution that the new business would create.

She has heard that a six-foot wall would be erected between the business and an alley, which is used, she said, for rear entrance to homes.

That is no good, she said. It does not mitigate the noise or lights on the property.

The PDD, she said, "was never designed to approve not one, but two fast food establishments with drive-through windows whose orders can clearly be heard in our neighborhood on most any given day and night. What about the city ordinance for noise level? Commercial lighting in the parking lot with head-n parking approximately 30 feet from the homes on the north side of Woodhollow?

"Traffic jams with one egress/ingress that belongs to Golden Chick? Hendrick Medical Center Emergency Room directly across the street with the largest Catholic church in Abilene on the lot near it having police direct traffic after each Mass on Sundays? All very valid concerns."

Even a "standard restaurant" would have an impact, Hanna said. Traffic volume could be high.

"A restaurant that had live music and patio also would be allowed," he wrote.

Jones, in speaking with the Reporter-News, laughed. They have a patio and live music.

"We hear it every night," she said.

And what about alcohol sales, with Holy Family Catholic Church nearby, she asked.

Buffalo Gap Road has filled with business ventures and traffic has increased, spurring the current road construction project that has snarled traffic from the Winters Freeway toward Antilley Road.

There goes the neighborhood

Jones, who stated she and her husband, Van, have lived in the Woodlake neighborhood for 27 years, is concerned that construction will continue in the Woodlake-Hunter's Creek area.

Not only would that have a great effect on the neighborhood atmosphere, home values would tumble, Jones wrote.

"A potential buyer has backed out of purchasing the home at the west end of our cul-de-sac once they heard about the Starbucks going to be in their backyard," she wrote to Hanna. "So much for the PDD protecting property owners and their home values.

Thus begins a slow decline of a once desirable neighborhood."

What next?

Jones said her husband had to file a request for a copy of the building permit, which, she said, would identified how the property is zoned. The city has 10 days to respond, he was told.

That may be protocol, she said, but "it does lend itself to the general public like me, that there is something that they don't want me to see."

Jones said a local attorney, sizing up their situation, said he was appalled.

"He basically said 'you're screwed. They shouldn't have done it.' He said, 'You're not the first neighborhood that has had to deal with something like this, and you won't be the last,'" she said.

Filing an injunction to stop construction would be "in the neighborhood of $10,000, he said. Our neighborhood can't afford that.

"And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Starbucks had deep pockets," Jones said.

"If that goes in and they can call that a specialty store, there's land back there behind it and no access, so what would they call that?

"Is the city is going to turn a blind eye?"

Starbucks everywhere

Here is where the coffeehouse chain is located in Abilene:

SOUTH SIDE

• 1390 Barrow St., across from H-E-B

• 3710 Ridgemont Dr., inside Target

• 4150 Buffalo Gap Road, near Winters Freeway

• 4450 Buffalo Gap Road, inside Market Street

NORTH SIDE

• 2106 Pine St., inside United Supermarket

• 1095 N. Judge Ely Blvd, inside United Supermarket

• 760 Library Court, inside Brown library on ACU campus

• 2626 Enterprise Dr., near Walmart and Lowe's

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Trouble brewing: South Abilene residents stirred up about Starbucks