Copperas Cove city council approves EDC purchase of 45 acres

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

The Copperas Cove city council approved the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation’s purchase of 45 acres along Mashburn Drive for future development during the council’s regular meeting on Tuesday. 

The CCEDC will be purchasing the 45 acres for roughly $2.12 million. This acreage is just off the Old Copperas Cove Road exit on the Highway 190 bypass. 

The property is to be developed for industrial use on the east side of the highway across from The Narrows Business & Technology Park, and is being called Phase 2 of The Narrows.

In April 2023, the CCEDC and property owners Jimmy Clark and Wesley Atkinson inked an agreement for the extension of utility sleeves from the Narrows Business Park to a new location in line with the proposed alignment of Interstate Highway 14.

One of the contract stipulations is that the CCEDC will start construction on a major collector street and all utilities – to include water, sewer, lift station, drainage and detention – to the southwest corner of a 28.11-acre tract of this property. 

Fred Welch, the CCEDC Executive Director, told the council on Tuesday evening that the CCEDC applied for and received a grant from the Economic Development Administration. 

The $3.1 million grant will fund that extension of water and sewer utilities and road improvements along Mashburn Drive. 

The utilities will be engineered and sized to accommodate the development of CCEDC and selling contiguous property. 

The CCEDC and Clark and Atkinson will work jointly to annex, plat and apply for all necessary utility CCN’s.

The CCEDC is using some of its reserve funds for the full purchase amount of $2,120,500.80.

Welch said that the CCEDC would be bringing a budget amendment back to the council in the near future for this purchase.

Also at the meeting, the council voted to approve changing the city’s Future Land Use Plan as well as rezoning 20 places of worship within the city. The parcels went from Low Density Residential to Commercial on the FLUP. Rezoning changed the parcels from Low Density Residential and Agricultural to Neighborhood Commercial (NC).