A developer named Hines, out of the Houston area, wants to build 670 homes on a 163-acre plot. But to do so, it needs the city to re-zone the land from "airport industrial" to "residential."
The plot sits along Highway 114 and Cabell Drive on the North Side of the airport.
City leaders weighing the project are split between those who think it sounds like a terrible place to live and those who figure people would move there regardless.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport’s northern tip is in a great school district, after all, they said. The developer has plans to muffle the roar of jets and semi trucks. And houses seem to sell quickly in Irving, no matter where they are.
After weeks of lobbying and debate, the City Council passed the plan 7-2 over the objections of airport executives and the city’s zoning committee. Only Allan Meagher and Joe Putnam were opposed.
“What I've found is people are starving in this area for single-family homes; they want to be in Irving, and they want to be in Coppell ISD,” said Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne.
"I can’t believe the consumer will be buying this $300,000 to $600,000 home and not know what they’re getting themselves into," council member John Danish said before joining the yes votes.
DFW Airport opposed the project, "Not only is [the housing project] going to experience arrivals and departures but also jet fuel odors and thrust reverses," said Sandy Lancaster, assistant vice-president in the airport's environmental affairs department.
Forward Air, a freight forwarding company that is located near the proposed project has also objected to it.
Lancaster had said that if the city approved the project, the airport would encourage Irving to require 25 decibel noise attentuation to all the parcels and include avigation easments on each lot for full disclosure to buyers of the homes.
Mayor Van Duyne said the proposed homes are valued at $400,000 and up. “The property taxes that would be generated is very significant,” she said.
The mayor said the airport has challenged eight other developments in the past, and all eight projects have pushed through.
