Zoning leaves some Tea residents howling mad

The Howling Ridge Addition in Tea had residents vocalizing their concerns at the November 5 council meeting.

Lots 2-8, Block 7, of the Howling Ridge Addition is proposed to be the site of high-end single-family home villas by developer John Schwartzle. These villas are targeted towards a wealthier demographic, with the value of the homes ranging from $300,000 - 400,000 and are slated to have 36’ x 36’ attached garages.

The proposal is to fit these homes on platted z-lots at an angle, which have a unique slanted shape instead of a traditional shaped lot. With the R2 zoning, the lot widths are allowed to be a minimum of 65’ wide with 5’ side yards. Currently the land is zoned as AG for Agriculture, however, according to the 2040 Future Land-use plan, the future plan for this land was to utilize it as residential down the road. Schwartzle had submitted a re-zoning application to rezone the AG lots to R2 that was brought before the Planning & Zoning board on October 9, 2018.

This rezoning and the subsequent development is what had residents in the lots directly to the west of Lots 2-8 concerned. Residents voiced their concerns at the meeting primarily about a potential loss in property values, a loss in a view and their enjoyment of the retaining pond that buffers them and the lots to the East, and the choice of zoning to R2 with Z-Lots.