The Westlake Planning & Zoning Commission held a public hearing last night regarding a zoning change request filed by Hillwood Properties for a 154 acre site on the Circle T Ranch, near the intersection of State Highways 170 and 114. The requested zoning change is needed to accommodate a development known as Project Blizzard, a proposed regional corporate office campus for Charles Schwab and is anticipated to employ about 1900 people for the financial services company.  Schwab's Westlake office campus would be adjacent to a mixed use development developed by Hillwood and their partner in the project, the Howard Hughes Company.  At the meeting last night, Commissioners voted to continue the public hearing for this item until Friday, Feb. 19 at 9:00 a.m.

The referenced request, if approved, would transfer zoning entitlement square footage from one zoning district further south on Hillwood's Circle T Ranch property to this Planned Development District 3-5. Hillwood is not requesting new zoning uses in this zoning case, only additional square footage for the office use and hotel use for which they already have zoning entitlements. This request also splits the PD3-5 zoning district into 2 sub-districts. When Hillwood presented this project this past November, they indicated their client wanted an "urban living" center (i.e. 750 apartments or multi-family use) on this property for employee attraction and retention. However, Hillwood is not making that a part of this zoning change request.  Again, this zoning district is entitled for all uses for which Hillwood is requesting additional square footage.  You may also recall, Hillwood already has zoning entitlements in this PD3-5 District for 275 single family residential units, either detached or attached (townhomes).

The public notice legal advertisement in the Town's newspaper of record for this zoning change request was correctly stated, and so were the notices to property owners within the required distance from the subject property. However due to an omission on the agenda posting, the P&Z Commission's public hearing regarding this request was continued and re-posted for this Friday, February 19th at 9:00 a.m. in the Council Chambers at Town Hall in Solana, 1301 Solana Blvd., Bldg.4, Suite 4202. The public is welcome to attend.