City planners approve 293 townhouses near Walmart

The city Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously approved site, landscape, photometric and elevation plans Monday for the 293-unit Villas at Stonegate townhouse project just northwest of Walmart.

The project is on 16.1 acres at the southeastern corner of Stonegate Road and Alan Stephens Parkway. The approval came on a second review by the commission after a September P&Z review generated five areas the body wanted developer BFH Group to address, all of which it did:

• Lack of pedestrian access and security gates to the Wells retail center and Walmart (another pedestrian gate was added on the community’s east side).
• Ensuring aesthetics of the community clubhouse match those of the other buildings, as the clubhouse design was not included in elevations (elevations were provided to the commission).
• Creating more “undulation” in the non-street facing units to break up the lines (this was shown in updated elevations).
• Lack of parking on the project’s north side (16 new spaces were added on the project’s north side).
• Not enough awnings for windows on west-facing units (awnings were added for all west-facing units).

BFH had previously made other concessions to comply with P&Z and public comments, including widening drive aisles and removing 25 units to expand the community’s open space, which is now more than four acres, or about 25 percent of the community.

All the units will feature three bedrooms and either two or two and a half baths, and a two-car garage.

Commissioner Bill Robertson was grateful for the effort by BFH to comply with the public and commission comments.

“I do appreciate you going back and sitting down and cooperating,” Robertson said. “It does show that sometimes a second look results in some good things and I appreciate that.”