“That rural field isn’t necessarily going to be a reality in 2023.”
Ashlee Boswell, Planning and Zoning Commission
To neighboring residents’ dismay, Pearland’s Planning and Zoning is recommending city council allow an assisted living facility to operate at 3205 Dixie Farm Road.
“We do have to acknowledge the growing pains within the city and the limited real estate that still remains with Pearland. That rural field isn’t necessarily going to be a reality in 2023,” P&Z Commissioner Ashlee Boswell said during the Jan. 17 discussion. “There has been a consistent need for (assisted living and memory care).”
In 2020, city council approved a conditional use permit for an assisted living facility at the location, but that permit expired after a year went by without a building permit submitted.
Now the applicant, Friendswood-based G and G Partners Development, is seeking to renew that permit.
Plans for the one-story, 22,000-square-foot facility with memory care are the same as that approved in 2020, according to Chris Heard of GMS Connects LLC, representing the applicant.
At the P&Z discussion, residents of Pine Hollow turned out to voice concern about commercial uses encroaching into residential areas.
“The more allowances we make for commercial, the less value our property is going to have. We have so many assisted living properties already available to us,” Valerie Hammond told the board. “I bought in Pearland in ’93 because I liked the community. Now, I’m practically in a commercial zone. I don’t think that’s what any of us wants.”
“It seems like the city is bending over backwards for this property owner,” said neighboring resident Greg Nelson. “Putting commercial in is going to devalue these properties.”
Angela Ornelas’ home backs up to the property.
“We have a lot of concerns about a memory care facility being developed there,” she told the P&Z board. “Patients would be living there 24-7 with all kinds of health issues which would require EMS to be called. Due to the fact this will be 100 yards (from homes) we’re concerned about how much sound (it would generate).”
The number of dumpsters required by an assisted living use, drainage and traffic also concern neighbors.
“I live really close to this as well,” Commissioner Derrell Isenberg said. “The memory care is not a very intrusive building to be in that area. It’s a tough call, but the bottom line is Pearland is growing and that section in Dixie Farm Road is not going to be residential. Something is going to be built there.”
Now occupied by a home built in 1963, the 9.6-acre site was zoned neighborhood service in 2017.
“I understand concerns, but change happens,” P&Z Commissioner Angela McCathran said. “We have to learn how to adapt with that change.”
Pearland City Council will consider granting the conditional use permit at a future meeting.
