The Bryan planning and zoning commission voted 4-3 at its last meeting to turn vacant land near 29th and Villa Maria into apartments.
But five votes were required.
That means denial of a conditional use permit to build up to 71 mostly one bedroom units behind behind Hillier Funeral Home off Bristol Street.
The applicant has ten days to ask the city council to appeal.
Click HERE to read information presented by city staff to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Developer Jeff Brown says multiple property owners have tried for 14 years to build medical and office facilities. What they have learned is that there is a housing need to accommodate patients and employees around St. Joseph Regional Health Center.
Brown also says they have no problems with meeting the same requirements as homes in the Upper Burton Creek neighborhood.
Click below for comments from Jeff Brown.
27 opponents spoke to the P&Z body for more than one hour.
The president of the Upper Burton Creek neighborhood association, Pastor Obed Matus, says “those of us who live here know we’re in a neighborhood that is already bursting at the seams with traffic, whose sewage system is already stressed, and whose houses just downhill from the proposed apartment complex are already flooding.”
Click below for comments from Obed Matus.
Another resident, Les Rice, spoke of sewage backups from recent heavy rainfall.
P&Z Chairman Scott Hickle says it was most restrictive permit request he had ever seen and he agreed there was a need for housing employees and patients around St. Joseph’s.
Crowd inside the Bryan Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, August 7 2014.
Site of proposed apartment complex southwest of the corner of 29th & Villa Maria.