Clear Lake council tonight to consider final play for Courtway Park development

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council tonight will consider approval of the final plat for the Courtway Park Subdivision on the east side of the community.

The Clear Lake Planning & Zoning Commission last week approved the final plat for the 64-acre tract of land that used to be Andrews Pre-stressed Concrete, located just north of State Highway 122 and between Interstate 35 and North 32nd Street. The southern portion of the property will have six lots zoned as “highway commercial”, with the northern portion having five lots zoned as “light industrial”.

Clear Lake mayor Nelson Crabb says the land is a prime spot for development. “It’s in a prime area. You’ve got the interstate going through, you got Highway 18 coming through, you’ve got a railroad track, a freight line right next to it. You’ve got the airport half a mile away. It doesn’t get much better than that. And you have a smaller town, a larger retail town to the east. It’s very, very good.”

Crabb says the community is realizing the potential of this development. “The people in the community, the Chamber, the City Council, the service groups, the entire citizenry have to be welcoming to expansion type things like this. Now, are we ready to explode to 20,000 people…that’s not going to be, but you know this is slow movement forward. Deliberate yes, but we all have our head screwed on pretty tight, we aren’t just flying around doing things willy-nilly, and it has to be done that way.”

A large-scale hotel and conference center is likely to be the keystone of the Courtway Park development. Old Dominion Freight Line has already announced they plan to use one of the lots for a $5 million capital investment, creating up to ten full-time jobs, for what’s commonly referred to as a “cross dock” or “less than truckload” distribution facility.

The Clear Lake City Council meets tonight at 6 o’clock at City Hall.