During Tuesday’s meeting, the Coppell City Council was presented with citizen requests to reserve parking spaces on weekdays for businesses in Old Town Coppell. With George Coffee and Provisions customers taking up neighboring parking spaces for hours at a time, other businesses on Houston Street lack available space in front of their doors.

“George is very popular and their customers take up a lot of the parking in Old Town,” said Lynne Pence, who operates her family business, Advisor’s Resource Company, situated three doors down. “There is plenty of parking all around George — the problem is the first place people go to park when they go to George is along Houston Street in front of the three businesses east of George. Those spots fill up early in the morning and are full all day.”

With parking spaces consistently occupied, customers struggle to find easy access to other businesses on Houston Street. This is especially true with George’s next-door neighbor Old Town Holistic Pet Center, who deals with disabled and special needs animals.

“Ninety-five percent of my patients have an inability to walk more than four or five steps,” said Dr. Michele Broadhurst of Rehab 4 Pets, a practice inside Old Town Holistic Pet Center. “We have some pets that are in the 100-pound categories and to ask the human clients to move these pets effectively when we don’t have any parking is incredibly challenging. I appeal to all of you to not only think about the impact this has on the pet community but also on the people who own these pets and love them, in so many cases, more than themselves.”

A zoning change for the Coppell Service Center was approved, allowing for a new 8,664 square-foot building adjacent to the current and an additional parking lot. The new building is to include office space, collaboration areas and meeting rooms while the existing building is to be remodeled to have more locker rooms, storage areas and staff sleeping areas. Additionally, a bioswale vegetation trench is to be planted in front to filter out pollutants naturally.

“I’m just really excited about this project,” council member Kevin Nevels said. “That area of our town needs a little bit of love. So I’m really excited to move forward with this.”

The council terminated the city’s four-year affiliation with retail energy provider, iChoosr, due to worries of the city’s identity being used on the for-profit company’s website and advertising. Residents will still be able to select iChoosr for electricity if they so choose.

The council named April 13 as Assistance League of Coppell Day, where the chapter will be recognized for its service of 25 years at the Frisco Roughriders game.

“The Assistance League of Coppell is such a well established part of the fabric of this community,” council member Jim Walker said. “You do so much to make this a better place to live and on behalf of everyone in town, I just want to thank all of you for all that you do.”

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