Five years ago Missouri City had a chance to bring Lowe’s to their town and “saw it go away,” said Mayor Allen Owen. This time city council seems determined not to let that happen again.

After almost two hours of discussion with Lowe’s Home Improvement representatives at council’s April 21 meeting, the city and home improvement retail giant seemed ready to close the deal even though there’s still a long way to go regarding the details. One detail they did agree to compromise on was 18-wheeler traffic.

What Lowe’s requested at the meeting was a deviation from the city’s zoning regulations in order to use their signature red and blue colors and a lighter color brick and to use planting areas in their parking lot, which is a deviation from the city’s landscaping standards. Staff and Planning & Zoning said the deviations were fine with them, so at the council meetingmost of the discus sion centered on Hampton Drive, driveways, and 18-wheelers.

Lowe’s wants to buy what they described as expensive property at the intersection of Hwy. 6 and FM 1092 where the closed Memorial Hermann Hospital now sits. The 22-acre property includes large oak trees, landscaping, a defunct pond, buildings and parking, and all, except the Oak trees and various other flora, will be removed.

At the public hearing, six residents of Quail Valley’s Thunderbird West subdivision spoke and their concerns were 18-wheelers, noise, shifted soil impacting their property, environmental impact of another big box store, unsightly rearview of store and safety of children biking on Hampton with more traffic likely on that street.

Brendan McEntee, an engineer with McEntee Engineering and Design who represented Memorial Hermann Hospital System and owner of the property, covered all those bases and more. He noted that thanks to a meeting last July with Thunderbird West residents, Lowe’s not only changed “the traditional retail building” on their development plan but turned it around on the property to accommodate residents.

McEntee said, “A project does have to make financial sense,” and noted that when Lowe’s tried to go into First Colony “their requirements were so onerous we said no.” For Missouri City, he said, “Many steps have been made to engage the neighbors. Do we expect to accommodate every resident? Absolutely not.”

The biggest problem speakers had was 18-wheelers using Hampton to access the property. McEntee explained that Lowe’s owns 70 to 75 percent of the 18-wheelers that will deliver store merchandise and they will enter and exit the property via FM 1092 or Hwy. 6.

The other 30 percent, the store has no control over and that’s what worries residents. After miles of talk that included posting a no through truck traffic sign on Hampton, striping it to two lanes on each side, etc., the compromise came down to Lowe’s getting one driveway rather than two and it will be an entrance only from Hampton.

McEntee said Lowe’s is in the business of beautification so the large oak trees will remain, “one wall will fully screen the truck well, another the trash compactor and service areas will all be screened.” As for being environmentally conscience, he said Lowe’s standard building “far exceeds the industry average for being energy efficient” and that using gray water isn’t possible because of the size of the site.

As for moving soil to build the 171,069 square-foot building and garden center, McEntee said a geotechnical study the company had done showed it will not impact nearby home’s foundations or swimming pools because of the type of soil it is.

The property also has six out parcels Lowe’s will lease to retailers, restaurants, etc., and those were worrisome to some speakers who felt fast food drive-thru establishments would generate more traffic in their neighborhood. McEntee said it is Lowe’s intent to lease them to “sit down, high quality restaurants, maybe a drug store and some general retail.

Mayor Allen Owen wrapped it up by saying that the $20-million project will bring in property taxes and $1 million a year in sales taxes to the city. “I’m stretching that but the sales taxes Wal-Mart generates pays for four policemen plus their cars every year. Citizens continue to ask us to lower taxes and the only way we can do it is replace property taxes with sales taxes.”