Title
Public Hearing on a Change of Zoning from PD, Planned Development to PD, Planned Development for a Car Wash and Eating Place with Drive Through Service on approximately 2.00 acres in the Thomas Bratton Survey Abstract No.162, City of Mansfield, Tarrant Co, TX, located at 1850 E Broad St. Shane Farrar, Applicant/Owner (ZC#24-013)
Requested Action
To consider the requested change of zoning.
Recommendation
The Department of Planning and Development Services recommends denial of this zoning change application. The proposed zoning change does not meet several standards and requirements of the Mansfield 2040 plan and the Mansfield Zoning Ordinance, including Planned Development (PD) requirements. Critical deficiencies remain despite resubmittals.
Description/History
Existing Use: Vacant
Existing Zoning: PD, Planned Development District
Mansfield 2040 Land Use Designation: Mixed-Use Local
Surrounding Land Use & Zoning:
North - Day Care, PD, Planned Development District
South - E Broad Street
East - Elementary School, SF7.5/12, Single Family Residential District
West - Vacant, PD, Planned Development District
Thoroughfare Plan Specification:
East Broad Street - 6-lane divided arterial street
Cannon Drive - 4-lane divided arterial street
Synopsis
The applicant is requesting a PD, Planned Development District, for a self-service car wash and a beverage drive-through establishment. A new PD is necessary because the current zoning prohibits drive-through facilities. During the original 2007 zoning case, the property directly adjacent to the school was restricted from drive-through use at the original developer’s request. Based on staff’s experiences, these types of uses are considered noxious when adjacent to school type uses based on noise and traffic considerations. While drive-through service establishments are generally found major along thoroughfares like Broad Street, these uses are inconsistent with the vision and recommendations found in the recently adopted Mansfield 2040 Plan.
The inclusion of drive-through and automotive service establishments just south and west of an elementary school promotes land use that prioritizes motorists rather than creating a balanced environment for both motorists and pedestrians. This approach to site design also restricts opportunities for the subject property’s ability to transition to non-automobile focused uses in the future.
Mansfield 2040 Goals and Strategies
Goal MU.1: Support Vibrant Intensity (not met)
Strategy MU.1(b): Ensure mixed-use development provides residents and visitors with active lifestyle options, including pedestrian-oriented urban design, integrated gathering spaces, and connections to the outdoors.
ii Ensure mixed-use developments offer amenities to both residents and the general public, such as plazas, venues, activated open spaces, and commercial establishments.
Goal MU.2: Promote Quality Mixed-Use Development (not met)
Strategy MU.2(b): Incentivize high-quality building techniques and materials, such as masonry products, decorative finishes, and frequent transparency applications.
Strategy MU.2(c): Establish a balanced and complementary mixture of uses within buildings and developments.
Goal MU.3: Create Unique Destinations throughout the City (not met)
Strategy MU.3(a): Integrate public and private amenities aimed toward residents, businesses, and visitors.
Strategy MU.3(b): Utilize mixed-use applications around existing neighborhoods to provide local destinations and services.
Analysis
The subject property contains approximately 2.00 acres located along east Broad Street. Other uses near that intersection include the Willie Brown Academy of Young Scholars, Children’s Lighthouse of Mansfield, and the Atwell Apartments. The applicant is proposing a car wash facility and a quick-service drive-through establishment. The desire of the applicant is to design, construct and operate a car wash facility and a beverage drive-through establishment with limited retail space.
Site Plan
The proposed development includes a car wash facility of approximately 3,748 square feet and a drive-through establishment of approximately 2,206 square feet.
The proposed site layout places the car wash facility toward the rear of the property, featuring 20 vacuum stalls, while the quick-service drive-through establishment, primarily serving beverages, is situated along East Broad Street. This site plan layout lacks amenities that might encourage pedestrian engagement, limiting opportunities for an environment that accommodates both foot traffic and vehicle access.
The site plan is shown on Exhibit “B”.
Building Elevations
The car wash and the drive-through establishment building consist of a mix of brick, stucco, wood appearance tiles and metal accents, including canopies. Building elevations have been provided for all buildings in Exhibit “C”.
The building elevations are shown on Exhibit “C”.
Landscape Plan
The landscape plan does not provide dimensions, so it cannot be verified if the provided site plan complies with the landscaping section of the ordinance (155.092).
The Landscape Plan is shown on Exhibit “D”.
Signage
The project is subject to the General Business Sign regulations in Section 155.090 of the Zoning Ordinance. These regulations limit signage to one (1) sign per street frontage plus one (1) wall sign for the occupant of the property. Monument signs are limited to a maximum sign area of 50 square feet with a maximum overall height of 10 feet and maximum width of 10 feet. Detached signage can only be on the lot that it serves and must not be located in visibility triangles and thus setback a minimum of 10 feet from the ROW. The signage plan and elevations combine signage elements. The attached signage is not dimensioned, so staff cannot verify the signage for compliance. The elevations also show more signage than allowed by the ordinance.
The Sign Plan is shown on Exhibit “E”.
Deficiencies and Non-compliance Issues
Inconsistency with Mansfield 2040 Mixed-Use Local Designation
The project does not align with the guiding principles, goals, or objectives set forth for sustainable land use, quality of life, and built environment protection. As proposed, the development does not support mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly environments as described in the Mansfield 2040 Plan.
The East Broad Street corridor is one where efforts to create walkable, village-like development have been the focus since the adoption of the Reserve Planned Development District. Although the proposed development is just outside the Reserve PD, the site offers an opportunity to create not only a gateway to the future Town Center but to continue efforts to limit drive-through uses in an area where walkable mixed-use development has been the maintained focus as the corridor has developed.
From a sustainability standpoint, the single-use nature of the car wash structure provides limited adaptability for future land uses and lacks integration with the surrounding environment. Unlike a storefront, where future tenants would finish out the interior to meet their needs, the car wash would only be able to transition to a new car wash operator, another auto-centric development, or remain vacant until demolition or extensive modification is possible. The HTeaO building provides other options for future use, but all future uses would remain auto-centric as the drive-through is the primary operational portion of the development.
The development fails to provide pedestrian-focused elements like sidewalks and walkways, reduced setbacks, shared parking, or gathering spaces. The architectural finishes are not complementary to the surrounding area and do not meet minimum design and architectural standards of commercial buildings.
Zoning Ordinance Requirements
Community Design Standards, 155.056 (not met):
Both buildings fail to meet the architectural standards found in section 155.056 of the Mansfield Zoning Ordinance.
At the time of writing this staff report, neither building met standards for articulations, variations, architectural elements, screening, or material (masonry) requirements.
PD, Planned Development Standards, 155.066 (not met):
The project lacks the elevated quality and creative design required for PD districts. The project does not meet the intended purpose of a PD, Planned Development Districts, which is to “accommodate unified design of commercial uses and facilities or combinations thereof in accordance with an approved comprehensive development plan. This district is designed to permit flexibility and encourage a more creative, efficient and aesthetically desirable design and placement of buildings, open spaces, circulation patterns and parking facilities in order to best utilize special site features of topography, size or shape”.
Instead, the primary purpose of this application is to seek variances and waivers from base zoning standards. The proposed development does not provide elevated design standards or site considerations that would mitigate the variances. The development also fails to incorporate meaningful and connected civic/passive spaces and provides limited pedestrian access.
Sign Standards, 155.090 (not met):
The signage plan includes a 30-foot pole sign, a prohibited sign type, with an oversized sign board area and requests 5 signs over the allowed number of total signs attached to the buildings (4 total signs are attached to the car wash, where 1 is allowed and 3 total signs are attached to the HTeaO, where 1 is allowed).
Pole signs are prohibited outside of industrial districts. This is so because pole signs lead to a cluttered and unattractive built environment and in general are out of place in corridors where the city is targeting high quality development.
Landscaping and Screening Standards, 155.092 (not met):
Passive space and buffer zone areas are inadequately dimensioned and may not meet bufferyard requirements along site boundaries. Bufferyards are important to allow uses that may be more intense to transition towards those that are less intense. All side and rear bufferyards should be minimum 10-feet wide and have trees planted every 50 feet, this is not illustrated on the plan. Along the street frontage, a 20-foot buffer yard is required with trees spaced every 40-feet, this is not illustrated on the plan. Passive space requirements require that 10% of the building floor area be provided as usable and accessible areas with seating and a provided menu of features from the ordinance. Dimensions and features in these areas have not been provided and therefore staff cannot verify their appropriateness (approximately 375 sf for the car wash and 220 sf for the HTeaO, are required).
Inconsistencies with Mansfield 2040 Guiding Principles and Goals
1. Sustainable Land Use Practices
The development, focused on auto-oriented services, does not promote sustainable, adaptable land uses. The HTeaO building may support minor future retail/commercial uses but lacks integration with other neighborhood-serving, pedestrian-friendly uses.
2. Elevated Quality of Life
The project lacks essential pedestrian amenities such as sidewalks along East Broad Street and internal walkways, limiting accessibility and creating a vehicle-dependent design. Without designated public spaces, the development does not support community connectivity, walkability, or outdoor engagement. A late submission from the development team has provided what appears to be a small seating area, but this area does not connect to a public sidewalk or connect the two developments.
3. Protection of the Built Environment
The architectural design fails to meet minimum commercial building standards, negatively impacting the surrounding built environment and not adequately advancing the vision for the area.
Plat Review Committee (PRC):
The PRC is comprised of representatives from various departments permitting jurisdiction over applications for development. The PRC verifies application completeness, compliance with city ordinances, and appropriate application of all design criteria. The PRC expressed significant concerns regarding the overall circulation and fire access throughout the development, particularly at the car wash site. The site layout lacks adequate cross-access routes that would allow proper movement through the property. This limitation on access not only hampers efficient traffic circulation but also raises safety concerns by restricting emergency vehicle ingress and egress through and to the site. To address the issues, the PRC recommended exploring alternative site configurations or additional cross-access pathways to ensure compliance with safety standards and enhance overall accessibility for both regular traffic and emergency response teams. However, the applicant did not adjust the development of the site. As is, the provided fire lanes do not appear to meet standards as both fire lanes dead-end within the site and do not have adequate turning radii or hammerheads, as required by fire code.
Overall Submittal Comments (Missing Details)
The project lacks complete site plan dimensions, which impacts staff’s ability to review for full compliance. Planned integration between the two buildings and circulation remains unclear.
Summary
A PD, Planned Development is designed to encourage a diverse and unique blend of uses within a single site, creating a balanced environment that accommodates various needs and enhances both pedestrian and motorist accessibility for the community. However, the proposed zoning change, which includes self-service car wash, and a quick-service drive-through establishment is heavily geared toward motorist-oriented uses. This car-centric approach places greater importance on automobile traffic rather than achieving a well-considered mix that would support pedestrian activity and improve the area’s overall accessibility and character.
The zoning change application fails to meet the essential requirements of the City’s adopted plans and zoning standards. The application does not demonstrate adherence to the guiding principles of Mansfield 2040, lacks essential design elements, and does not contribute to a sustainable, community-focused built environment. For these reasons, staff recommends denial.
Prepared By
Helina Sarkodie-Minkah, Planner
817-276-4287
Arty Wheaton-Rodriguez, Assistant Director
817-276-4245
Attachments
Maps and Supporting Information
Exhibit A - E