02 C14-2025-0091 - Covington Medical; District 7 - Responses from WCNA Meeting — original pdf

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DATE: November 25, 2025 TO: WCNA Board and Neighborhood residents FROM: Thrower Design RE: C14-2025-0091 – IH 35/Covington Responses to issues raised during WCNA meeting November 24, 2025 We greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet last night to discuss the rezoning of the 1.518-acre property located at IH 35 and Covington Drive. There was a lot of discussion associated with any development on the property and some discussion directly related to the rezoning. These are broken down for those two processes. Relevant to the rezoning – 1) The existing zoning is LR, Neighborhood Commercial which allows for development with 40’ of height, 0.5:1 Floor Area Ratio, and 80% impervious cover. 2) The proposed zoning is for GO, General Office to allow for out-patient surgical services. This zoning District allows for development with 60’ in height, 1:1 Floor Area Ratio, and 80% impervious cover. We agree to a Conditional Overlay to accompany the rezoning that will include limiting the height to 40’, and limiting the Floor Area Ratio to 0.5:1 which is equal to the existing zoning site development standards. Relevant to any development of the property regardless of the rezoning – 1) Access - a) Access is proposed to Covington Drive and we are seeking access to IH 35. b) There is ample distance between the large 48” Live Oak (to remain) along the Covington Drive frontage to accommodate a driveway and have distance from the single-family property and not impact the tree. The property is fenced today with a gate in the approximate location of a driveway. c) The driveway to IH 35 can be constructed, but with the ongoing construction of the highway hinders the immediate installation of the driveway. This driveway will also P . O . B O X 4 1 9 5 7 , A U S T I N , T E X A S 7 8 7 0 4 1 5 0 7 I N G L E W O O D S T . , A U S T I N , T E X A S 7 8 7 4 1 02 C14-2025-0091 - Covington Medical; District 71 of 3 include a deceleration lane across the front of the property to allow cars to get out of the travel lane of the frontage road and into a dedicated turn lane serving the driveway to the property from IH 35 frontage road. The contractor has a set contract for the IH 35 construction and after completion is a warranty period for their work. A driveway to IH 35 will likely not be possible until the warranty period is over. Once zoning is completed, the landowner will move forward with a site plan application that will take a year for approval. That site plan will likely show this future driveway as a separate phase. Approval of the site plan takes about a year, plus construction of the site takes about a year. This will hopefully coincide better with the finalization of IH 35 construction and the time for the driveway to IH 35 to be constructed sooner than later. 2) Drainage – a) Development of the property will include a detention pond that will capture the stormwater runoff from the development. This pond will capture all the impervious cover that is proposed for the site and the pond will be sized to City of Austin standards and to atlas 14 rainfall events. The pond will be located towards the Covington Drive frontage but not impose on the large 48” tree or other trees right at the right-of-way line. The pond will not increase the flow rate of water above the existing conditions. This pond will discharge to a storm sewer line to be constructed in Covington Drive that will discharge to Skunk Creek to the west. Again, this pond discharge will not increase the rate of storm water flow compared to existing conditions as the pond is designed to release the storm water over a period of time. By capturing the runoff from the proposed impervious cover and placing this storm water in a pond, this will reduce the flow of storm water that currently leaves this site and flows towards the single- family homes. b) TxDOT did not design their storm sewer system to accommodate storm water flows from this site because the existing drainage pattern does not direct flows to the IH 35 roadway. 3) Trees – a) There are several heritage trees on the property today as well as stands of protected and other regulated trees. Many of these trees will be retained including the large 48” tree along Covington Road and the other trees along the right-of-way of Covington Road. These will offer a buffer to the development and preserve the look and feel of 02 C14-2025-0091 - Covington Medical; District 72 of 3 the entry into the neighborhood. Some trees must be removed for development whether it is this development or another development. The plan is to preserve trees to an extent that also allows for reasonable development on the property. State law allows for vesting on Projects that can allow for removal of trees and the goal is to retain many trees with the development. It is important to note again that any development will cause for removal of trees and our client wishes to preserve as many as possible in a thoughtful design that also accommodates the proposed use on the property. 4) Billboard – a) The existing billboard on the property is currently under a lease with a billboard company. Removal of the billboard is not possible. 5) Traffic – a) The proposed use is expected to generate 216 trips per day. This does not equate to 216 vehicles per day. A trip is counted once for a vehicle or pedestrian entering the site and counted once again for a vehicle or pedestrian exiting the site. b) Compare this to 4 restaurants (as there are 4 legal lots today that can be developed individually) which could generate as many as 3,000-6,000 trips per day depending on if the restaurant is a fast-food, coffee shop, or other type of restaurant. 02 C14-2025-0091 - Covington Medical; District 73 of 3