Grapevine Gazette Vol. 1, No. 2
Mustangs Officially Have New Head Coach • Car Wash Proposal Washes Out Again • ‘Tricky’ Corner Primed for Development • Garage OK’d Despite Neighbors’ Concerns
Well, we did it. We published the second edition of the second newsletter from Suburban Subscriptions LLC. Thanks for being here.
Mustangs Officially Have New Head Coach
Nearly a week after his hire was announced, Ryan Smith was officially named the new head football coach of Grapevine High School on Thursday morning.
The Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Board of Trustees approved his employment during a special meeting that began bright and early at 8 o’clock. Smith thanked the trustees and the administration, and he also took a moment to express gratitude to his wife, Kristi Smith: “Honey, we’ve done this a lot, and I just want to say thank you.”
By “done this,” I assume the coach meant “changed jobs.” Here’s a rundown of his most recent gigs:
2024: Offensive coordinator at East Texas Baptist University
2023: Athletic director at Ovilla Christian School
2022: Offensive coordinator at Midlothian Heritage High School
2018-2021: Head coach at Southwestern Assemblies of God University, his alma mater
2016-2017: Head coach at Newton High School in Mississippi
Smith said becoming the head coach at a Texas high school had been a long-term goal.
“As you go down this journey and you start this pathway of coaching, and you go through those things, you get to a place and you start to identify things that align for you — with family and your future goals and aspirations and those type things — and we identified this very early,” he said.
Smith is replacing Bob DeBesse, who retired after two seasons at the helm. Grapevine went winless in 2024, which ended a streak of nine years with winning records.
Board President Shannon Braun, a graduate of Grapevine High, said she’d love to see the Mustangs get back on track, as she pointed out that one of her fellow trustees, Dianna Sager, was a longtime coach at Colleyville Heritage.
“That rivalry exists, and we need to, you know, make sure that Grapevine High School’s competing,” Braun said with a smile.
Smith seemed up to that challenge.
“We feel we have a clear vision on what direction we needed to go, being very process-driven, but getting results, as Ms. Braun told me I need to get very soon,” he said with a laugh.
Smith brings more than a process and a playbook to the position; he’s also adding a player to the Mustangs’ roster. He and his wife were joined at Thursday’s meeting by their teenage son and daughter. Trustee Tammy Nakamura asked the kids whether they would be going to school in GCISD, and Sager asked specifically whether they would attend Colleyville Heritage or Grapevine.
“He’s a quarterback,” Smith said. “Yes, he is going to Grapevine High School.”
A coach’s son who plays quarterback? Who’d have thunk it?
Car Wash Proposal Washes Out Again
The second time was not the charm for developers who want to build a car wash on Ira E. Woods Avenue.
A vacant lot west of Pool Road is zoned as a Professional Office District, but the developers represented by Grapevine resident Matt Carnes want that changed to a Community Commercial District. The City Council rejected their request in 2023 and again last Tuesday.
At the beginning of Tuesday’s public hearing, Planning Services Director Erica Marohnic said the request is not consistent with the city’s Comprehensive Master Plan, which designates the property for low-intensity commercial uses. Carnes said his clients had commissioned a traffic study since the 2023 rejection, but the city officials were unmoved.
“This is still an intense use right there by the schools,” Planning and Zoning Commissioner Jason Parker said. “Crazy intersection right there, with the train coming through and everything. I still think this is not a good fit for that space.”
When Commissioner Beth Tiggelaar pointed out that the proposal doesn’t conform to the master plan, Carnes said that’s why his clients had asked for the rezoning. That prompted Mayor William D. Tate to chime in, even though council members usually hold their questions and comments until the commissioners have had their say during the panels’ joint hearings.
“We zone to a master plan. And if it doesn’t fit the master plan, then it’s spot zoning; it’s not legal zoning,” Tate told Carnes. “So it’s not that just we go out there and just zone something because somebody wants it zoned that way. Zoning has a purpose, and it has a plan. And it makes things fit together.”
The commissioners took two unanimous votes against the zoning change and the associated request for a conditional use permit. The council’s votes were both 5-2, with Darlene Freed and Duff O’Dell dissenting.
After the votes, Tate said this: “The problem is we just don’t have enough land for this type of facility left. We’re nearly built out.”
Knowing he would probably see Carnes the next day at a Grapevine Rotary Club meeting, Tate then referenced one of the questions in the Rotarians’ Four-Way Test: Is it fair to all concerned?
“If it’s not on the master plan, then we, legally, we don’t have any right to do it,” Tate said. “So you need to check that out if y’all look for another site, but it’s gonna be hard to find a place in Grapevine, I’m afraid. We just don’t hardly have any land left.”
‘Tricky’ Corner Primed for Development
Although Grapevine may be running out of developable land, Colleyville still has some. But the number of available parcels in the latter city is about to dwindle by one.
On Wednesday, the City Council approved a zoning change for the tract on the north corner of Colleyville Boulevard and Tinker Road. Its zoning was switched from “AG Agricultural” to “CC 1 Village Retail,” which will allow a developer to build something along these lines.
“I’m amazed that it could look like that,” Council Member Ben Graves said. “That’s a tricky corner, man, and it always has been. You know, if they can pull it off and make it profitable for them, even better for us.”
Whether the project will be profitable is a key question. A creek channel running through the property will need to be diverted, and that process involves approval from the Army Corps of Engineers. A representative for the developer has estimated the diversion could cost $2 million.
“It just throws up a — I don’t want to say a red flag. It throws up the caution flag when you talk about 2 million dollars on that water,” Mayor Bobby Lindamood said. “That’s a lot of money.”
Mayor Pro Tem Brandi Elder wanted to know what would happen if this developer walked away. Would the zoning change let a future owner build anything they wanted on the land?
City Manager Jerry Ducay said the “CC 1” zoning would allow many “typical office-type things,” such as “professional offices, chiropractic, engineering offices, general business office, insurance agencies, optometrist, psychologist, physician, dentist, real estate, security broker, telemarketing.”
As for retail uses, Ducay said anything involving alcohol would require a special-use permit. He then began listing other potential retail operations: “Antique stores, apparel stores, arts and crafts, bakery, banks, credit union, barber shop, bicycle shop, books, stationery …”
At this point, I flashed back to my sons’ toddler years, when I would read to them from Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day? Meanwhile, Ducay continued reading his list:
“... civic, social, or fraternal organizations, copy centers, print shops, dance studios, commercial arts, department store, a dry cleaner, florist shop, grocery, hardware, home decoration, jewelry, mailing and shipping stores, meat and fish market, pet stores, pharmacy, photography studios, restaurants and cafes, and sporting goods, shoe repair, tailor — so it’s all the traditional retail uses is my point.”
Elder asked whether a car wash would be permitted. Because the property backs up to homes on Kingston Drive, she was worried about anything that would make a lot of noise.
Ducay said a car wash would not be allowed. He then launched into a list of other unpermitted businesses, most of which concerned vehicles: auto, truck, or trailer rentals, auto repair, upholstery repair, boat or watercraft service or repair, commuter transit (“That’s kind of funny, but no,”), gasoline sales, motorcycle sales and service, paint and body shops, etc.
“All of those uses that would catch your eye as concerning are not allowed,” Ducay said.
Speaking of eye-catching things, when the property’s landscaping was trimmed up a few years ago, city officials learned that a house stood among the trees. That abandoned structure’s days are numbered.
“It’s been a mystery for years,” Lindamood said on Jan. 7, during the council’s first public hearing on the zoning change. “Nobody’s known who owned that thing.”
Most of the remaining trees on the property will need to be removed to accommodate the construction and diversion. The developer will pay more than $22,000 worth of mitigation fees associated with the removal of 16 heritage trees, but the plans call for 35 new ones to be planted.
Garage OK’d Despite Neighbors’ Concerns
A homeowner will get to add a detached garage to his property, even though it will be accessible only via what his neighbors thought was their private driveway.
The home at 713 E. Texas Street backs up to the front doors of five condominiums with a shared address of 223 Wood Street. There is a paved driveway that leads from Wood Street to the condos. The condos’ owners pay for maintenance of that concrete, which they assumed was private property.
As it turns out, 15 percent of the drive is owned by the city. That means it can be used by the homes on Texas Street as an alley.
This kerfuffle came up during a Dec. 18 public hearing before the Grapevine Historic Preservation Commission. Because the house on Texas Street is within the Historic Grapevine Township District, the commissioners were being asked to consider the appropriateness of the new garage’s architecture.
Peggi Martinelli, who owns one of the condos, had other concerns. In the short term, she was apprehensive about the construction process.
“For me to pull out of my driveway to go somewhere — with construction trucks, et cetera — is going to be an issue, as it would be for my neighbors,” Martinelli told the commissioners.
In the long term, Martinelli said, she and her neighbors don’t like the idea of the new garage’s owner using their driveway without sharing in the responsibility for its maintenance.
“Concrete cracks. I mean, we all know; we’ve had our driveways do it,” she said. “We’ve all had to pay for that, and that’s not inexpensive.”
The owner who submitted the plans to build the two-car garage, Larry France, did not attend the hearing. He and his partner have moved to New Mexico, and their home on Texas Street — also known as the Harrington House — is listed for sale. Historic Preservation Officer David Klempin said many potential buyers have indicated they’d like to see a garage added to it.
“I’m struggling with this whole thing being done by an owner we know is selling the house,” Commissioner Taylor Bunn said, but Klempin said that’s not within the commission’s purview.
“Our purview is, this is the proposal,” Klempin said. “We have to take it seriously and look at it in terms of what it is that’s being built.”
Commission Chair Sean Shope put it another way: “That’s the challenge, is hearing from our friends and neighbors and abiding by our rules.”
When Shope eventually called for a motion, nobody immediately raised their hand. “We’re between a rock and a hard place, aren’t we?” said Vice Chair Margaret Telford.
That led City Attorney Matthew Boyle to remind the commission of their charge.
“This body is not charged with things like setbacks and the like, because those are already pre-established,” Boyle said, “and as long as the property owner is in compliance, then you are down simply to look at it from an appropriateness standpoint. And in fact, the action that is before you today is to consider a certificate of appropriateness.”
With that, Bunn made a motion to approve the certificate of appropriateness, and Jana Garcia seconded it. The motion was approved unanimously.
Gazette Vignettes
• This is only the second edition of this newsletter, and I’m already publishing a correction. The debut edition includes an article called “Preservation Presentation Confuses Council” in which I misidentified Grapevine Mayor Pro Tem Darlene Freed as Council Member Sharron Rogers. I regret the error, which has been corrected on the website.
• I won’t have many more opportunities to misidentify Freed, because she announced she is not seeking a 10th term on the City Council. Sean Shope, who chairs the Grapevine Historic Preservation Commission, is the only candidate to replace her so far, but the filing period for the May elections doesn’t close until Feb. 14.
• All of the other incumbents on the Grapevine City Council, the Colleyville City Council, and the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Board of Trustees are unchallenged so far, except for Trustee Tammy Nakamura. She’ll contend with Matt Foust in her bid for a second term on the school board.
• On Tuesday, the Grapevine City Council approved a permit that will allow three electric vehicle charging stations to be added to the Grapevine Mills parking lot. The three stations, which will each be able to charge two vehicles at a time, will replace 12 parking spaces near Fieldhouse USA and Meow Wolf.
• On Wednesday, the Colleyville City Council approved a lease at 35 Veranda Lane, Suite 100, which will be the new home of the Colleyville Business Center. The Business Center has been at the former Wachovia building at 5601 Colleyville Blvd., but the city’s lease there will expire at the end of April. The Colleyville Chamber of Commerce will sublease space from the city at the new location.
• Also on Wednesday, the council approved issuing $35 gift cards that residents can use at Colleyville restaurants through March 9. Details about how to acquire one of these gift cards will be posted here.
Community Calendar
A Virtual Inside Look at Working with a Literary Agent: Attention, aspiring authors. The Grapevine Public Library will host literary agent Seth Fishman for a virtual 90-minute session starting at noon on Tuesday. Registration is required.
Art Night for Adults: The Grapevine Public Library will host adults between 6 and 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 5 for a fun evening of feel-good, no-pressure, crafty creativity. Admission is free, and all supplies will be provided.
State of the City: Mayor Bobby Lindamood will discuss a variety of topics — including economic development, infrastructure, and public safety — at 7 p.m. on Feb. 6 at the Colleyville Center.
Valentine’s Yoga: For the second year in a row, the Colleyville Center will host a free class courtesy of Colleyville’s Inspire Yoga. It will begin at 10 a.m. on Feb. 8. No registration is required, and anyone 12 or older is welcome.
Champagne Yacht Club: The band that bills themselves as Texas’ premier yacht rockers will perform at Grapevine’s Palace Theatre twice on Feb. 8, at 3 and 7:30 p.m.
Parents’ Night Out: The Colleyville Recreation Center will host children ages 6 to 12 between 6 and 9 p.m. on Feb. 14, so their parents can enjoy a kid-free Valentine’s Day dinner. Registration is required.
Thank you Dan for using the word kerfuffle in your reporting. I feel it is a word that holds much meaning and is seldom used.