Three restaurants and an upper-level bridge proposed beside Nordstrom at Stonebriar Centre; staff recommends denial for now

Stonebriar Centre's owner and Nordstrom are asking Frisco to sign off on a cluster of restaurants on the mall's north side, but city staff is recommending that the Planning & Zoning Commission deny the plan as submitted when it comes up Monday, Oct. 12.

The preliminary site plan, listed as The Bridges at Stonebriar Mall, Block A, Lots 1A and 8, covers 57.8 acres on the south side of Gaylord Parkway, about 330 feet east of Parkwood Boulevard. The applicants are Stonebriar Mall LLC and Nordstrom Inc., according to the commission's agenda.

What the drawings show

Plans prepared by Kimley-Horn, resubmitted to the city Sept. 8, show three restaurant buildings grouped around a new courtyard between the main mall building and the Nordstrom store:

• Building A, an existing two-story structure marked for redevelopment, with about 56,600 square feet in all, including 40,898 square feet of restaurant space and a patio of roughly 7,800 square feet.
• Building B, a new one-story restaurant of 8,398 square feet with a 1,790-square-foot patio.
• Building C, a new one-story restaurant of 7,394 square feet with a 1,638-square-foot patio.

The site plan also labels a proposed pedestrian bridge connection at the upper level only, tied to the main mall building. The drawings do not name any restaurant tenants.

The work would take out 135 existing parking spaces, according to the plan's parking table: 76 on the mall's lot, leaving 549, and 59 on the Nordstrom lot, leaving 738.

Why staff says no, for now

The staff report says the plans, first submitted May 26, do not yet meet several city codes. Among the issues it lists:

• The fire department says the fire lane does not give its trucks enough room to maneuver, and that an access road for aerial ladder trucks has to run along the front of the largest building to satisfy the 2024 International Fire Code. Staff says it told the applicant this at a Sept. 23 meeting. Grease traps cannot sit under the fire lane, and a drop-off area on the north side cannot be in it either.
• Planners want a table showing each building's use, size and required parking.
• The landscape plan has to identify replacement trees separately from the trees already required.
• Public works says some utility lines now fall outside an existing easement and that a gas line needs at least 4 feet of separation from a water main and fire hydrant.

Under state law, a denial is not the end of the road: the report notes the applicant can return with updated plans and a written response showing how each problem has been fixed.

The commission meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the council chambers at the George A. Purefoy Municipal Center, 6101 Frisco Square Blvd. The item is on the regular agenda, not the consent list.

Sources

agenda.friscotexas.gov

agenda.friscotexas.gov

agenda.friscotexas.gov

agenda.friscotexas.gov