Some Lake Highlands area residents Thursday plan to fight a request to rezone the property at 9220 Skillman, just north of I-635. Earlier today I tried to reach the city staffer on this project and I will update this when I hear back from him.
Meanwhile, Steve Wakefield, the former LHAIA president told us that if approved, the rezoning would allow a nightclub like business that would serve alcohol and stay open until 2 a.m. He is asking his neighbors to help him protest the rezoning because he doesn’t think a late night bar or club would do anything to improve the area. There was a club there a few years ago — people loitered late into the night, and someone was murdered in the parking lot near the end of its run, he says.
Flavor restaurant recently closed shop in the same center because of the crime, and the perception of crime, the owner told me. The area’s crime numbers, however, have improved according to a recent talk I had with Deputy Chief Tom Lawrence, commander of the Northeast Patrol Division. I don’t know how much a nightclub, if that is in fact the plan, will do to help improvements along.
There is a public hearing on the case scheduled tomorrow at City Hall at 1:30 p.m.
