Pearland - Friendswood Edition | May 2022

CITY& COUNTY

News from Pearland, Friendswood & Brazoria County

QUOTEOFNOTE “... IT IS ANHONOR TOHAVE APARK LIKE THIS NAMED

Inclusive playground to be named after Rep. Ed Thompson

BY ANDY YANEZ

at the Davis Days Crawsh Boil,” said Nikki Kamkar, board member at Forever Parks Foundation. “While they were there to enjoy crawsh and refreshments, I had a playground to tell them about.” At the event, Kamkar lobbied Thompson to attend the Forever Parks Foundation fundraising cam- paign kicko in May 2021, she said. Forever Parks Foundation is the nonprot organization behind the fundraiser. An all-inclusive play- ground allows children of all abilities to play with numerous features, such as a wheelchair swing, a music area and a gallery walk. Thompson showed up at the event, and a couple of weeks later, Kamkar

received a text message from him asking for the designs of the playground. By July, the nonprot was awarded a

PEARLAND The rst all-inclusive playground in Pearland, which is aiming to open at the Sports Complex at Shadow Creek Ranch at 13050 Shadow Creek Parkway, Pearland, by the fall, will be known as the Ed Thompson Inclusive Park. Pearland City Council at its April 25 meeting passed two resolutions. One gave the playground its commemo- rative name after Thompson, a state representative for District 29, and the other approved a cooperative purchase agreement with the Texas Buy Board for roughly $1.3 million in funds for the playground. “It was exactly almost one year ago that I met Ed and Freddie Thompson

AFTER ME.” ED THOMPSON, STATE

REPRESENTATIVE FOR DISTRICT 29, INCLUDING PEARLAND, ON PEARLAND’S NEW INCLUSIVE PARK

Pearland City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. May 9 and May 23 at 3519 Liberty Drive, Pearland. Meetings are streamed and available at www.pearlandtx.gov. Friendswood City Council will meet June 6 at 910 S. Friendswood Drive, Friendswood. A time for the meeting will be determined a week before the meeting. Meeting recordings are posted to the city’s YouTube channel. MEETINGSWE COVER CITY HIGHLIGHTS PEARLAND At a March 28 meeting, Pearland City Council members adopted a resolution outlining numerous priorities and goals for Pearland. Council members, Mayor Kevin Cole and City Manager Clay Pearson held a strategic visioning retreat in February for their vision of Pearland’s future. In order of priority, the group ranked improving government trust as the No. 1 priority for Pearland. The other ve goals are to establish a strong economy at No. 2, build a safe community at No. 3, create sustainable infrastructure at No. 4, maintain responsible nancial management at No. 5, and build a diverse and unied community at No. 6. Pearland aims to meet those goals by focusing on initiatives, including investing in public safety; supporting small businesses; and focusing on drainage infrastructure.

$750,000 grant from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department for the playground. The all-inclusive playground will be Brazoria County’s rst all-inclusive playground, Kamkar said. “I am a little bit lost for words for what to really say other than it is an honor to have a park like this named [after] me,” Thompson said. Ed Thompson

Friendswood City Council approves rst reading of zoning changes

BY SIERRA ROZEN

ZONING CHANGES Friendswood has existing garden home communities in the city. Friends Knoll Friendswood Cove West Ranch 1 2 3

FRIENDSWOOD On April 4, Friendswood City Council approved the rst reading of zoning changes for garden home districts. Garden home districts have been classied as multi- family developments since their creation in 1992, creating an issue because garden home communities are typically detached single-family homes with specic characteris- tics. Multifamily developments are typically produced as apartments, whereas garden home communities are meant to have less property maintenance but more green space freedom compared to an apartment, ocials said. The main amendment would be to remove any multi- family references to be able to clearly separate multifamily developments from garden home communities. It would also change the intent of a garden home community because of ooding and geographical limitations as well as adding design criteria for them. The last change would update the denition of how the communities are set up with neighboring structures.

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SOURCE: CITY OF FRIENDSWOOD COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

FRIENDSWOOD DR.

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PEARLAND FRIENDSWOOD EDITION • MAY 2022