Universal's Texas project gets green light from local city council

I'm always amazed that people don't understand what property around them can be used for, and don't endeavor to find out before they buy a house. I see there was some zoning adjustment in this case, but it most certainly was about sub-types and was broadly zoned commercial or industrial in the first place. I hear this all of the time in the HOA I'm in, where people freak out because someone suggests an old folks home or daycare nearby. It could always have been one of those things. We have a big old commercial retail lot at the front of the development, and I can't wait for folks to freak out when they decided to develop it.

People around me went nuts when a dave and busters type place was going to move into an empty K-Mart in an EXISTING strip mall like it wasn't already an overbuilt eyesore.

Kmart sucks.

There are 3 things that amaze me about this project:

Resident have a complete ignorance to the idea that economic development discussions and negotiations happen in advance of projects like this.

Frisco is loaded with entertainment and retail properties: a big mall, the Cowboys headquarters, a minor league ballpark, a minor league hockey and basketball arena, golf courses, resort style hotels. Why this is the last straw for some residents is beyond me.

A lot of the opponents keep citing the statistic that crime in areas surrounding new amusement parks goes up 198%. This area is an open field and the surrounding neighborhood was an open field 5 years ago. Of course crime is going to go up that rate with an increase in traffic. One car break in and one DWI that have nothing to do with the park could cause crime to go up 200%.

GoBucks89:

Kmart sucks.

I looked it up. Kmart sucks is from Rain Man? Or was it just a statement? I never know around here anymore.

Why can't it be both. Gosh, your so binary! 😉

Jeff:

I'm always amazed that people don't understand what property around them can be used for, and don't endeavor to find out before they buy a house. I see there was some zoning adjustment in this case, but it most certainly was about sub-types and was broadly zoned commercial or industrial in the first place. I hear this all of the time in the HOA I'm in, where people freak out because someone suggests an old folks home or daycare nearby. It could always have been one of those things. We have a big old commercial retail lot at the front of the development, and I can't wait for folks to freak out when they decided to develop it.

happens here in Texas all the time. Residents just assume when they move into a new house next to big open fields it’s going to stay that way forever.

In my little town, very few residents ever keep up on city council meetings or planning and zoning.

what’s Universals plan here anyways? A smaller version of their Cali and Florida locations? I can’t imagine it being the size of those? Frisco doesn’t seem like a tourist destination?

I assumed GoBucks was referencing Rain Man. But it also works perfectly fine as a stand-alone statement.

From the linked article. “A project designed to appear to families with young children and a 300 room hotel”.
Also linked, study shows that Universal will draw less traffic than Frisco’s H.E.B.

Psssht. If they needed a hotel, they would already have one.

"What did the bird say when it flew over K-Mart?"

"Cheap cheap!"

-A joke from when I was a kid