Ever drive by Hunter Road and Wonder World Drive and notice that lot of land? Well H-E-B sure did and they have taken the first step towards building their new store on the 6.4 acre area.
In a meeting held on Tuesday, the San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commissioners approved H-E-B’s Planned Development District by a 5-2 vote. Betseygail Rand and Jim Garber, two of the board members, were not present for the vote.
The 5 members in attendance voted in favor were: Shawn Dupont, Douglas Beckett, Angie Ramirez, Lee Porterfield, and Saul Gonzalez. The chairman, Travis Kelsey, voted against the proposal and so did Kate McCarty.
A concern for how it will affect that floodplain area came up early in the meeting. After a review of the area’s history and a 2D flood model the City decided that there wouldn’t be a problem with the water surface elevation, downstream of the development.
Real estate director, Benjamin Scott, was at the meeting to represent the grocer.
He wanted it to be clear that it wasn’t going to replace the “small” H-E-B location off of Hopkins where they will be leasing for at least another nine years. Its size will be somewhere in the middle of the “small” H-E-B and the “large” H-E-B located off of Thorpe near I-35. They chose that location with hopes of reducing traffic at the other two stores in town. It will be able to service the surrounding neighborhoods in that area with less of a drive for those residents. It will solely be a neighborhood grocery store, without a gas station or car wash.
He mentioned the Purgatory Creek watershed and how they would deal with any problems that arrive. They plan to build two underground detention and water quality facilities to meter floodwaters without having a “concrete pond at the end of your parking lot” says Scott. He was very confident about their control of the water quality issues.
He addressed the traffic concerns with their plans for two driveways off of Hunter Road, one aligning with the Elysian at Purgatory Creek Apartment’s driveway, and two off of Wonder World Drive, one being for trucks only.
The proposal will still have to be approved by City Council in a meeting that will be held on August 2nd.
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I love HEB, even shopped at the 1st one on LBJ Drive (Austin Street) and not the one where the old justice center WAS. And this new HEB would be even closer to my home and my office. There will be major traffic problems here and more accidents on Wonder World. But the worst will be traffic jams and bottlenecks. I live in Willow Creek area and my office is off Wonder World and Corporate Drive, which means simply that I have to drive on Hunter Rd. and Wonder World every day to cross over WW and then to cross back to go back on Hunter Road. Have you ever seen the traffic from the Bridge to Hunter Road--there are times you have to wait 5-10 minutes to get to the other side---but the real danger is the cars driving toward the West-Wimberley--NEW-HEB---are Bumper-to-bumper and that is going to be the BIG Problem---bumper-to-bumper NOW with no stops or slowdowns until Craddock----if HEB opens, there will be at least 2 driveways into or out of the HEB parking--which means THIS--all the traffic coming from IH-35 or the Bridge-on WWD--will suddenly start to STOP--there is no space to slow down and go slow-STOP--have you been on IH 35 lately when there is an accident--everything stops. And of course there are always going to be drivers that do not expect the slowdown or the STOP--and many accidents will result. I don't think that Hunter Entrances to the HEB would work either. A possible solution would be to come into HEB from Craddock (maybe) even if an extra--access road is built, since there is a light at Craddock and WWD, and probably far enough from the bridge and Hunter Road, to safely stop and turn right. I think that it would be a little scary to even test this---by setting up ORANGE CONES around the area on WW where the entrance to HEB is going to be---at different times of the day--where all cars would have to stop or move to the Left Lane--I would not be the one to make the decision on 'doing the test' it's just too fast there.
I JUST READ THE ARTICLE -AND WOULD ADD THIS; ALMOST ALL SM RESIDENTS THAT LIVE OFF HUNTER ROAD-INCLUDING WILLOW CREEKS 12 OR SO SUBDIVISIONS THAT SHOP AT HEB WOULD SHOP AT THE NEW STORE--BUT IF IT WAS BUILT ON MCCARTY--IT'S ABOUT THE SAME DISTANCE, BUT FOR SURE-CLOSER THAN THE HOPKINS STORE-DOWNTOWN.