Keller City Council has cleared the way for 21 custom-built, roughly $2 million homes to rise on a stretch of land tucked directly behind Keller High School's tennis courts and bus lot. The council approved the zoning change for the gated development, called Providence, in a 5-1 vote with one abstention on Tuesday.
The land was once unused excess property that Keller ISD put up for bid around the tennis courts, equipment storage, and bus and car parking, according to district documents cited by Community Impact Newspaper. The buyer was DW Commercial, a Sage Group client whose owner, David Washington, is developing the site into the gated neighborhood. Washington told the paper the project will generate around $450,000 in tax revenue for Keller ISD.
Each of the roughly 5,000-square-foot homes is expected to be worth about $2 million once built. The project narrowly trimmed down from its original pitch: the initial proposal called for 22 houses on about 21 acres with 2.6 acres of open space, including public green space, but the approved version settled on 21 houses after one home was removed and its land redistributed among the rest, pushing the average lot size up to nearly 36,000 square feet.
Why the Zoning Had to Change
The property's original zoning allowed single-family homes on 36,000-square-foot lots, but according to a developer presentation, the land's shape and lot-depth requirements would have forced a single row of houses along one adjacent road. To avoid that constraint, Sage Group principal Curtis Young, the applicant, proposed a planned-development zoning designation for single-family homes on 25,000-square-foot lots instead — a classification that sidesteps the depth requirements tied to larger-lot zoning and lets developers deviate from certain restrictions with council sign-off.
The deviations baked into the Providence plan include greater house and driveway lot coverage, narrower corner houses, and larger side yards than standard zoning would normally allow. Young said the planned-development process lets the project fit the site and complement neighboring properties. The adjusted zoning also let the development's lot lines align with the houses in the neighboring Gean Estates to the north.
Design Tweaks and Neighboring Concerns
The approved proposal swaps the iron fencing currently bordering the tennis courts on the east side for masonry walls, and the development will retain part of the existing tree grove as a natural buffer separating it from Keller United Methodist Church to the east. Property work is set to begin with rerouting drainage and installing water and sewer lines that could end up shared with Keller High School itself.
Not everyone who spoke at the meeting was sold on the plan. Public commenters raised concerns about tennis-court lights, bus noise, and the prospect of football games across the street affecting future residents of the gated community, per the Community Impact account.
A Split Vote on the Council
Mayor Ross McMullin and Mayor Pro Tem Shannon Dubberly joined council members Greg Will, Karen Brennan and Jarrett Armstrong in voting for the zoning change. Council member Chris Whatley cast the lone dissenting vote, arguing for stricter adherence to the existing zoning, particularly since 36,000-square-foot single-family lots were still possible on the site. Council member Charles Randklev abstained from the vote.
The Keller land sale fits into a broader pattern of the district offloading excess property; a separate report noted Keller ISD is also selling a 20-acre plot at 901 Johnson Road, just north of the same high school tennis courts. Washington estimated crews will break ground on Providence in about a year, with home sales expected to begin roughly two years from now.
