The zoning boundaries for 112 proposed townhouses in North Tyler. The project is tentatively called Garden Valley Estates North.

The focus of growth in South Tyler started almost 50 years ago, leading the city to set up the North End Revitalization, which was a part of the Tyler 21 plan in 2006.

At Wednesday’s Tyler City Council meeting, several housing projects for North Tyler were approved along with the Tyler 1st Comprehensive Plan.

Zoning was approved for a 168-unit apartment complex in southeast Tyler which will be a mix of multi-family and single family apartments. During the council meeting, housing for 119 units in North Tyler was either approved or tabled for a few questions to be answered.

The plans for the 168-unit apartments would be built UT Tyler and close to two other student apartment complexes.

A light moment happened before the 7-0 vote to approve the zoning when Heines was told there was one complaint from another apartment complex.

“I always find it interesting, when an apartment complex complains about another apartment complex,” said Tyler Mayor Martin Heines.

Jack Wassan, a developer from Frisco, said he has been working on Garden Valley Estates South, a possible gated community near the Willowbrook Country Club. Adjacent land recently became available and now, Wassan’s board feels an expanded project called Garden Valley Estates North near Garden Valley Road should have 112 town houses with three points of access.

“These are also market-rate,” said Wassan after questions about the housing. He said HUD is the lender, it’s not the voucher program, (meaning it will not be Section 8 housing for which the government pays a portion of rent).

Wassan also said, “We plan to build the roads ourselves. We are not looking for the city to build them. The property to the south is a gated community and we plan to build the roads ourselves.”

The approval was tabled for 30 days due to traffic concerns.

“I value this very much and I want the developer to know this, I am not doing anything to try to stop this,” said Heines. “Please work with our planning staff (so) we can come back in 30 days and take care of it. We definitely want to support you and what you are doing but we just have a few questions. I definitely want more rooftops in the north end.”

District 3 council member Shirley McKellar said one community member said “they were told it would be a form of an Airbnb (short-term rental used by property owners to supplement their income) so it’s good to know it’s not.”

Wassan said, “I can assure you this is not an Airbnb, it is straight up, townhomes rental units.”

Heines said he believed it and again threw his support behind the project.

“And I believe you sir,” Heines said to Wassan, who called into the meeting as no visitors are allowed at the time because of the pandemic. “I am looking forward to working with you more and the planning department a little more. We look forward to seeing progress on this project. We appreciate you being a developer wanting to do projects in the north end.”

Also approved 7-0 by council, zoning for commercial development for seven townhomes on Van Highway. A building was demolished on this site. The city said this would go toward the North End Revitalization to have 3,000 new homes built in North Tyler.

In other action Wednesday: Further developmental plans were approved in regards to the Tyler 1st Comprehensive Plan.

A request by Tyler 1st Comprehensive Plan Committee was made to receive a presentation and consider adoption of a resolution approving the final draft of the Tyler 1st Comprehensive Plan update as a guide for making decisions for the future growth and development of the City of Tyler.

The request was unanimously approved. District 1 council member Linda Sellers said, “The plan is so comprehensive and digs deeply into the things we need to address. I compliment you and your staff.”

The plan which entails plans to improve downtown traffic, advocates for transportation methods, historic preservation, and the development of North Tyler will be updated again in five years.

City Manager Edward Broussard gave an update on the coronavirus pandemic in the community and press conferences the community can expect.

“Monday, more orders will be made by the governor in regards to minimally reopening more businesses. Today, hospitals will resume elective procedures, and tomorrow will hold a press conference,” said Broussard. “Friday all retailers will be permitted to begin home delivery and curbside service. Schools and universities will not reopen until August.”

Businesses who need more information regarding how to operate a curbside service are recommended to register on the BBB website to receive more specific information, said Broussard.

He reiterated that Tyler State Park and Lake Tyler are open, however the public must continue to practice social distancing.

Heines reiterated his pride for the way the city, county, medical and educational communities have worked together to maneuver through the pandemic and protect the community.

“We started the EOC and there were only three or four cases and we immediately partnered with Northeast Texas Public Health, city and county employees. We’ve had 15 to 20 people that are working on contact tracing, and we have never not been contact tracing which has really helped us keep our numbers down,” said Heines.

Broussard said that the cases of deaths have remained lower in Smith County because of an emphasis on contact tracing as well as a focus on keeping nursing home residents safe.

“As soon as we determine confirmed cases in any relation with a nursing home we were isolating and quarantining and taking actions to keep the other residents safe,” he said.

Broussard went on to say that the challenge Tyler is facing is a shortage of testing access.

“Testing is one thing we don’t have enough of. The governor has tried to increase it. They are trying to implement drive thru testing bring more of that here. The public health lab is something we are still concerned about,” said Broussard.

Heines expressed that he doesn’t believe Tyler will be limited in regards to its testing capacity.

“I don’t expect us to have an incredible number of tests, because we were never a hotspot,” said Heines. “New Orleans was obviously able to get testing but what I understand is our number of cases was low so they didn’t increase our tests.”

Heines went on to say that Monday will be a very important day as the governor makes decisions on what measures the state will take as the nation begins to progress onward through the pandemic.

Taylor Miller contributed to this report.