Car repair chain plans Amarillo store

Amarillo figures into a Houston auto repair chain’s plan to triple its 50 faith-based franchises in the next five to seven years.

Christian Brothers Automotive Corp. will shift its plan to build a 5,000-square-foot store into gear once it obtains approval from the city of Amarillo for the rezoning of a tract on Coulter Street, north of Hillside, a company executive said.

The Amarillo Planning and Zoning Commission will consider Christian Brothers' request for "planned development" zoning during a meeting at 3 p.m. today in the Commission Chamber at Amarillo City Hall, 509 S.E. Seventh Ave.

A report by city planning staff recommends changing the "general retail" zoning designation for the site, a vacant tract next door to Discount Tire at 5820 S. Coulter St., Senior Planner Cris Valverde said.

General retail zoning allows businesses offering light auto maintenance, such as tire and oil changes, but not more extensive car repair.

Christian Brothers stores will replace engines, but they don't offer “heavy line jobs” like transmission rebuilding, body work or welding, according to Josh Wall, vice president of development for the chain.

With planned development zoning, the city can control specific site aspects, such as signs, hours of operation, landscaping, lighting and architectural compatibility with adjacent structures.

Christian Brothers’ stores look like a house, Wall said, with a gabled roof and a brick and stone exterior. Interior customer areas are decorated with hardwood floors, leather couches, artwork and decorative lighting.

The city mailed notices of the zoning application to owners of property within a 200-foot radius of the site, as required by state law. No one had contacted the city to oppose the zoning change by Friday, Valverde said.

Zoning ordinances must be approved once by the planning commission and twice by the City Commission to take effect.

The chain intends to begin construction in April or May, Wall said.

Christian Brothers Automotive Corp. touts a “family-first value system,” Wall said.

The company requires its franchise owners to be born-again Christians, though store employees can observe any faith they wish, or none at all, he said.

The chain also closes its stores on weekends to allow employees more family time, Wall said.

New stores stay open on weekends for the first four months of operation before adopting the Monday through Friday schedule.

Say something

You've got one more chance to get in on the ground floor of a plan that will guide the future of the city of Amarillo.

The final community meeting to gather public input for a comprehensive plan for the city will take place at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, at Puckett Elementary School, 6700 Oakhurst Drive. Anyone can join in.

More than 30 residents turned out at Lawndale Elementary School tonight to talk about their vision for Amarillo for the next couple of decades.

Their number was more than matched by representatives of the city -- members of a city Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, the city Planning and Zoning Commission, city staff and elected leaders.

Consultants who are working with the steering committee to draft the plan for led discussion groups. Here are some ideas that rose to the top:

"Amarillo is becoming known elsewhere as a speed trap."

"We have world-class arts and music. But there's a disconnect. People don't always feel like they could be or should be a part of that."

"The southeast part of town is growing. It might be time to look at another junior high, another high school."

"Maybe (add) a police substation in the southeast, northeast."

"It seems like everything used to be centrally located. But now everything is in the southwest. We're the forgotten stepchildren on this side of town."

"The behavior of the citizens governs a lot of where people are going to put things. Restaurants, they'll go anywhere there's money. But if people don't think they're safe or the area is pleasant, they're not going to come."

"The parks staff does an excellent job during the summer. They have all kinds of events and activities (for kids). And the director of Parks and Recreation (Department) is probably the best around -- Larry Offerdahl."

About Alamo Park: "I think they did a great job with it. I've never seen so many kids and families picnicking there."

About the senior park amenities being added to Ellwood Park: "I think we're going to have to do more of that, more projects in the parks where they (seniors) feel safe."

"Our alleys are very bad. ... It's overflowing with trash continually, people just throwing out their couches and tires."

"There are cars on properties, not tagged, no tires."

"With all the new development, the dirt's gone away. Asphalt and concrete has taken its place, and there is a drainage problem."

More about drainage issues: "Especially on the access roads of I-40, it will be from curb to curb most every time we have a rain."

Many entrance and exit ramps to Interstate 40 were designed in the 1960s. And they're short and dangerous.

"Can a lane be added to I-40 to improve traffic flow?"

"Here in the east part town, we have to drive to get to anything. We're the ones who are pretty much on I-40, so we know. Yes, lanes need to be added to I-40."

Newer thoroughfares such as Coulter and Soncy already are congested. Other streets mentioned included Bell and Western.

"While we do have to wait (through lights due to traffic), our son, who lives in Dallas, laughs at us when we talk about it. It's nothing at all to him," one woman said. And then, speaking directly to the consultant, she added, "You're talking to a spoiled people."

To the question, 'Is Amarillo a good place to walk or bike?' came this reply: "There are too many buildings that are terrible. Who wants to be around buildings where we don't know if there are transients."

"There are people parking on the sidewalks."

About the bus system, came a comment about the need for "different routes so people don't have to walk eight, 10 blocks to get to a bus stop."

Another bus system comment: "You have to go all over the place before you get to where you need to go."

The voices of your community

At least 50 residents attended a community meeting tonight at San Jacinto Elementary School to talk about their vision for the future of the city of Amarillo.

Their number was matched, collectively, by members of a city Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, the city Planning and Zoning Commission, city staff and elected leaders.

If you weren't there, where were you?

You have a couple more chances to participate in the meetings, which will help those city representatives draft a comprehensive plan that will act as a guide for the kind of city we want Amarillo work toward becoming in the next couple of decades.

What are the challenges we face? The opportunities we shouldn't miss?

Try, try, try to attend either of the next two meetings, or both:
-- 6:30 p.m., Sept. 8, Lawndale Elementary School, 2215 S. Bivins St.
-- 6:30 p.m., Sept. 9, Puckett Elementary School, 6700 Oakhurst Drive

Add your voice to these comments:

On thinking like a city approaching 200,000 in population: "We spend a lot of time bragging about our low tax rate instead of building on big ideas -- and I'm not saying this is it -- but like a sports complex downtown. They say, 'We can't do that.'"

"If we do have increased growth, I’d like to encourage more people-scaled developments and less dependence on the automobile for just your everyday errands."

About a lack of follow-through on vision for some valuable or historical areas, such as Sixth Avenue, commonly known as the Sixth Street Historic District: "Yeah, we want to save the community, but we forgot why."

"In terms of development, we're in an area all around us where water is depleting. Amarillo has lots of water for the future, but we're taking it from other parts of the Panhandle. And, when agriculture goes, lots of communities are going to be hurt, including Amarillo."

"We need to think in terms of saving the playas (playa lakes), not plowing under the playas."

On placing water conservation requirements/regulations on property owners: "The sprinkler systems around here do a really good job of watering the sidewalks."

On the "embarrassing” lack of curbside recycling: “Austin does it. Are we just stupid up here? Over a 10-year period, they ought to be able to phase it in."

"One good thing is that downtown revitalization has gotten off high center."

Growth has been well-managed, “to a certain extent,” one man said. “But when you concentrate all your medical facilities in one part of town, it creates difficulties, as far as access."

"I have always wondered why Amarillo's hospitals and emergency systems are located in one area. If it ever got hit by a tornado, there would be a lot of problems."

"One thing the that comes with growth -- and the city's doing a real good job with it -- is health care. The city is building a new health department, and it will take care of a lot of the ... refugee population."

On the need for health department offices in all quadrants and for educational tools, such as "newsletters in water bills about how to manage the (H1N1) flu."

"We don’t have retirement facilities for people that are poor ... or average."

On good planning in newer neighborhoods: "But that's new. They haven't done anything for the old areas."

"We are in need of urban infill. We have all this new growth, and Paramount (Boulevard) is just a wasteland. We've got that empty (former) Michael's store. We have two empty Albertson's."

The city should design roadways "not just looking as bicycles as recreation, but as transportation."

"I'd like to see support for green building."

"The tremendous brain drain we have: It's been talked about, but it's just been talked about."

"Do we have enough transportation for parents who are disabled (and) trying to get their kids to school? ... A lot of kids are being raised by their grandparents."

"We're behind the times. There's no technological hub."

"Future stormwater containment areas ... should be usable public spaces. We should be using them as amenities, instead of building a big hole in the ground like we have at Western Plaza (now the Western Crossing shopping center). I don't think it would, but we need to make sure that can't happen again."

"Aside from the Big Texan and Cadillac Ranch, I'm not really sure what folks from 700 miles away would think of when you ask, 'What do you think of when you think about Amarillo?'"

Amarillo has an "I've been through it" image.

T Anchor tidbits

A few facts from City Manager Alan Taylor's T Anchor Lake presentation at the Amarillo City Commission meeting on Tuesday:

-- The cost estimate for construction of a park at T Anchor Lake, which lies north of Interstate 40 at Nelson Street, is $11.5 million.

-- The bulk of the cost -- almost $6 million -- would go for earthwork. A lot of dirt will have to be moved to make some areas habitable and dig other areas deeper so that the lake still has enough capacity to handle the drainage it receives from a surrounding 4-square-mile area.

-- Fingers of the area that drains into T Anchor extend south, beyond Interstate 40, to Southeast 34th Avenue; west to downtown Amarillo; and, north to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks.

-- The city is awaiting new Federal Emergency Management Agency flood plain maps that are expected to raise the 100-year flood plain level of T Anchor by a couple of feet, Taylor said.

-- That means the earth moved to make the area habitable for a park will need to be piled a couple of feet higher than it would have under the old maps. The finished floor level of anything built in a 100-year flood plain area must be 1 foot higher than the elevation level set by FEMA.

-- Parts of the site lie more than 30 feet below flood plain level. And the deepest part of the lake is about 50 feet below flood plain level.

-- An estimated $1.63 million of the estimated $11.5 million cost of a park would pay for drainage system improvements and pipe to carry water and prevent flood issues.

-- The pump that takes stormwater out of T Anchor when it fills sends water westward through a pipeline to a stormwater drainage system in downtown Amarillo. That system moves the water north to Thompson Park.

Sim City for real

What do you want Amarillo to look like, act like and feel like in the next 20 years?

Last week, the city of Amarillo launched a planning process designed to put ideas for the city's future into a blueprint that will guide city development.

Consultants from Kendig Keast Collaborative will lead the comprehensive planning effort with the help of a 21-member steering committee of Amarillo folks appointed by the Amarillo City Commission. The work will take more than a year.

Kendig Keast Vice President Gary Mitchell, the project manager for Amarillo's plan, gave committee members an overview of the job they've been assigned -- no easy task.

"This committee discusses things to, at the end of the day, get (the list) down to manageable priorities," Mitchell said. "You need to take a 30,000-foot view of the city and decide what do you work for in the near term to get to where you want to be in the long term."

The plan will touch on every aspect of life in Amarillo:

-- Land use: Development patterns, zoning, and even aesthetics.
-- Growth management: infrastructure, constraints, annexation, green building and conservation.
-- Mobility: streets, bike lanes, pedestrian travel and transit systems.
-- Parks and cultural offerings, including historic resources and preservation.
-- Housing and neighborhoods: available housing stock, variety and needs, undeveloped areas within the city that could be filled in, neighborhood design.
-- And, implementation: Determining priorities for the next one to three years, and action strategies for accomplishing short- and long-term goals.

"These things don't happen in a couple of years," Mitchell said of the long-term goals. "Some things you need to plant seeds for. You'll be laying groundwork for significant things."

Committee members are: Barry Bedwell, Anette Carlisle, Bill Chudej, LuLu Cowan, Beth Duke, Lilia Escajeda, the Rev. Darrel Fincher, Belinda Gonzales-Taylor, Ken Graham, Dr. David Hernandez, Bob Juba, Claudette Landess, Grover Martin, Rosie Powell, Four Price, Bobby Sanders, Don Sanders, Eddie Scott, Betty Trotter, Ben Whittenburg and Dana Williams.

At the June 17 meeting, Carlisle was elected to chair the committee. Escajada will serve as vice chair.

The input of residents in the city will be vital to the process. A series of public meetings will be scheduled so that the committee and consultants can hear what you want.

The meeting last week opened up a number of avenues for conversation. Because there's only some much room in the print edition, I hope to post some of the comments here and blog about the process as it goes along.

So check here, and please comment. And consider attending the public meetings when they're announced. Whether you want to plan the perfect city or just fix problems you perceive around here, this process is for you.

Downtown group appears ready to hire

Downtown Amarillo Inc. could soon hire a full-time chief executive officer.

Board officials for the nonprofit organization created to push downtown revitalization said three finalists have been interviewed and a hire could soon be announced.

“We’re not going to have to wait much longer,” board member Gary Pitner said.

Jorgenson Consulting helped DAI identify 120 to 130 candidates to court, and about 30 submitted applications as a result, Pitner said.

"We have had some excellent prospects," board member Bill Gilliland said.

All three are from Texas, with at least one being from Amarillo, he said.

The Amarillo City Commission created DAI in July so that the organization could continue the work of a city-appointed committee that guided development of a strategic action plan for reviving downtown.

The commission budgeted $230,500 for the group in the 2008-2009 fiscal year and gave it several goals. Those benchmarks included establishing the organization as a nonprofit, hiring a full-time CEO to market downtown to potential project developers, and making several presentations about what tools the city and the Center City Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone have available as incentives for downtown development.