FORNEY, Texas — With two months left in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, home starts have already doubled last years total home starts and city officials say the year is expected to end with more home starts than the last three years combined.
FORNEY, Texas — With two months left in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, home starts have already doubled last years total home starts and city officials say the year is expected to end with more home starts than the last three years combined.
On Tuesday night, Community Development Director Peter Morgan provided the Forney City Council with a report on current and proposed residential developments inside the city limits and within its extra territorial jurisdiction (ETJ)
At the end of July 2017, Morgan reports, with two months remaining in the fiscal year, 417 home starts for FY 2017 — the most new home starts since FY 2005 and 2006 which represented 536 and 605, respectively.
In the past decade, beginning in FY 2007, the City of Forney has reported home starts of 241, 111, 80, 165, 140, 140, 244, 154, 89, and 210. This year’s total is expected to be more than the last three years combined, Morgan stated.
The developments presented to council included the following, which are located inside the city limits: Brooklyn Village, Eagle Ridge, Gateway Parks, Gateway multi-family, Grayhawk, Park Trails, Trails of Chestnut Meadows, Fox Hollow and the Villages of Fox Hollow, and Villas of Mustang Place, or Mustang Place Phase 2.
The developments outside of the city limits but within its ETJ included: Forney Ranch, Lakewood Trails, Windmill Farms, and Vintage Meadows.
On the multi-family front, Gateway developers are expected to begin the third phase of apartments, which will consist of approximately 337 multi-family units, later this year. A pre-construction meeting is scheduled for tomorrow with the developer, contractors, and City of Forney representatives.
The Gateway Cedars, Phase 1 of the multi-family development, completed 330 units in 2015 and Gateway Oaks, Phase 2, completed 334 units in 2016.
Gateway Parks, the 1,850-home development between Farm-to-Market (FM) 1641 and County Road 212, has begun or completed 103 homes of 441 lots in Phases 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B since December 2015. Phase 3 and 6 were approved in May 2017 and allow for another 397 lots.
Brooklyn Village, located just south of Bowie Street, has completed or permitted 91 homes of 116 lots in Phase 1. Phase 2, which was approved in January 2016, allows for an additional 106 lots.
Eagle Ridge, located south of Ridge Crest Road and across from the Diamondcreek neighborhood, has completed or permitted 91 of 148 available lots. The development will stretch from Ridgecrest Healthcare to a future extension of Longhorn Lane.
Grayhawk, located on FM 548 near the southern city limits of Forney, has completed or permitted 187 of 190 lots in Phase 1, which began in 2008, 115 of 163 lots in Phase 2, and have not started in Phase 3 which has been approved for 155 lots. Morgan says one or two more phases remain in this development.
Park Trails, located north of Ridge Crest Road and northwest of the Diamondcreek neighborhood, has completed or permitted 74 of 75 lots in Phase 1, 64 of 91 lots in Phase 2, and currently has Phase 3 under review by the City of Forney. The complete planned development proposed 430 lots.
Trails of Chestnut Meadows, located south of College Avenue and west of FM 548, has six available lots in Phases 1 through 4 and has completed or permitted another 36 of 58 lots in its final phase, Phase 5. Morgan says the developer does not plan to develop land they own across FM 548.
Fox Hollow, located east of FM 548 and south of FM 1641, has completed or permitted 358 of 365 lots in Fox Hollow Phase 1, 115 of 124 lots in Villages of Fox Hollow Phase 1 and 129 of 135 lots in Villages Phase 4. Villages Phase 2 and 5 were recently approved and 18 permits are under review in Phase 2 of 113 lots. 63 lots in Villages Phase 5, expected to be the largest lot sizes and home sizes in the development has been approved but has not issued any permits at this time. An additional 326 lots are zoned in the development.
Mustang Place, located west of FM 548 across from AMC theatre, received approval earlier this year for a Planned Development for Phase 2 of their development with standards similar to SF-6 and Phase 1 of the development which was completed approximately 10 years ago. Previously approved plans for Phase 2 called for much smaller lot sizes for which the planned development doubled, according to Morgan.
In the ETJ, Forney Ranch, proposed west of the intersection of FM 460 and FM 740, received preliminary plat approval in July 2017 for 545 lots.
Lakewood Trails, proposed west of FM 741 and south of Forney High School, received preliminary plat approval in June 2017 for 605 lots on 208 acres.
Vintage Meadows, located on FM 741 just north of Interstate 20, has nearly complete Phase 1 with 133 completed or permitted of 143 lots. In Phase 2, 14 have completed or permitted of 117 lots and Phase 3 allows for another 114 lots.
The Planning and Zoning Commission, on August 3, denied a zoning change request for approximately 70 acres east of Lovers Lane and north of U.S. Highway 80 for a proposed residential planned development, Lovers Landing, which proposed 220 residential lots and approximately eight acres zoned office district.
The current zoning called for SF-15 standards with some agriculture and the planned development proposed standards similar to SF-8 standards. Although the standards were higher than the adjacent Heritage Hill and Skyline Estates neighborhoods, the commissioners denied the request, some citing a conflict with the City of Forney’s Concept Plan which called for a higher education learning facility.
The council also discussed concerns about developers proposing planned developments with mixed lot size requirements citing a need for per phase building requirements instead of total development requirements. Council members were concerned developers would build the smaller lot sizes in their first phases, to fulfill those obligations, but may not develop the larger lot sizes as the development progressed or ultimately, ceased development.
The council cited the Windmill Farms development and a need to track overall lot size percentages as the development progressed — to allow lot size scrutiny in the later phases.
City staff has begun collecting lot size information in Windmill Farms but are awaiting some 700 lots which have since been unavailable from Kaufman County.
Residential Projects update to Forney City Council on Aug. 15 by inForney.com on Scribd