More COVID-19 testing facilities to open
The flags fly at half mast in honor of the life and public service of United States Representative Ronald Jack Wright in front of Coppell Town Center on Tuesday. City council meetings are regularly held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m.
February 10, 2021
Tuesday evening, the Coppell City Council granted a moratorium from needing a special property use permit to operate a COVID-19 testing facility or vaccination site.
Currently, Coppell only has one temporary drive-through testing site located in Andy Brown Park Central. With the previous zoning ordinance, the timing for the applicants to be granted approval would be 60-90 days. The new resolution allows for quicker turnaround times for approvals and could approve testing or vaccination in as little as two weeks. The motion also allows for testing facilities to take up 70-75 percent of the designated parking spaces.
Those wishing to be tested or vaccinated will enter the site from Royal Lane and enter a portion of the site that has proposed testing. After turning in, they will go to the toll booth area with a designated lane for COVID-19 testing, then proceed north to a boxed-off area, where the actual testing will occur.
The moratorium is intended to allow for greater testing and vaccination sites and sets up the administrative approval process. Administrative approval will be valid until June 30, after which the staff will evaluate the status and bring forward the recommendation to renew if determined to be appropriate.
“To me, this seems like a very reasonable request, especially in today’s day and time when we’re learning how to do a lot of things differently,” Coppell Mayor Karen Hunt said. “I appreciate this being brought forward because it will provide additional benefits for our citizens, both those that live here and that work here.”
Last night’s meeting also had several citizen appearances, all of which were advocating for stricter dog tethering laws that would not allow for dogs to be tethered longer than a certain number of hours.
“I think we pride ourselves on being a very forward thinking city, with our city planning and the way we take care of our citizens, our parks, our walking trails, our recreation and wanting to be a Blue Zone City,” Coppell resident Dorothy Fischer said. “But I can’t imagine a Blue Zone City that allows its dogs to be tethered up 24/7 in very dodgy conditions. We’re not a rural sleepy town anymore. We need to catch up with our own growth, and we need to start paying more attention.”
Hunt also briefed the city on some minor information. The transition to the new City of Coppell website was made official yesterday, and though the URL has not changed, www.coppelltx.gov has a new look. She also reminded citizens interested in running for city council that candidate filing for mayor and city council Places 2, 4 and 6 ends at 5 p.m. on Friday, and candidate filings for Place 3 ends at 5 p.m. on March 1. Municipal, general and special elections vote will be held on May 1, 2021. Applications, forms and information regarding running for elected office can be found on the city secretary’s election page.
