McKinney planning staff is recommending that the Planning and Zoning Commission deny a request from Tupps Brewery to change how it screens a new soccer field from the neighborhood next door.
The item is on the commission's Oct. 13 agenda, which was posted Tuesday.
How the wall came up short
Tupps operates its brewery, brew pub and outdoor entertainment space on about 3.9 acres at 402 E. Louisiana St., on the east side of downtown. Single-family homes sit to the south and east.
According to the staff report, the brewery recently built a soccer field in the southeast corner of the property. Fill placed inside the existing 6-foot stacked concrete block screening wall to raise the field left part of that wall too short to do its job, and the city treats the field as an outdoor entertainment use that needs adequate screening.
The 2021 specific use permit for the site called for a combination of 6-foot metal fencing and a 7.5-foot concrete block wall along parts of Andrews and Green streets, plus extra landscaping, on top of the city's standard screening rules.
What Tupps is proposing
Instead of raising the wall, Tupps wants to keep the 6-foot block wall and add evergreen shrubs to an existing 8-foot living screen along the southeast edge of the property.
An engineering letter dated Aug. 24, prepared for the brewery by RCS Enterprises, says the wall is structurally sound but appears to have been pushed out and is leaning slightly where it meets the field, likely from compacting the fill. The engineer advised against stacking more heavy blocks on top and suggested lighter materials such as wood fencing or shrubs if more screening is required.
