Reatta Meadows · College Station, Texas
Our park sits on a dead end. The City's plan makes it a shortcut.
Kids in Reatta Meadows walk and bike to the park off Southern Plantation Drive with no through traffic. The City's road plan extends Southern Plantation past the park and out to Victoria Avenue, beside College Station High School.
At the same time, the City wants to rezone the land that road would cross, 1.73 acres it calls Area 31, from rural to Middle Housing. That zoning allows townhouses, duplexes, and buildings of up to 12 units, right against our back fences.
Both can be stopped. Pebble Creek got its planned road removed this April. Here is the record, the timeline, and what to do this week.
One piece of land. Keep it Rural, with no road through it.
- Keep Area 31 Rural.Decided by the Housing Plan Advisory Committee this fall, based on comments collected now.
- Take the road off the plan.Only City Council can remove the Southern Plantation extension.
Drawn from the City's own maps
Here is exactly what they plan.
Every shape below comes from City of College Station GIS: parcel lines, zoning, and the Thoroughfare Plan. The dashed red line is the planned road. The blue hatched shapes are Area 31, the proposed rezoning.
The record
Small parcel. Long reach.
Area 31 is not a stray lot. It is the piece of a larger tract that touches our neighborhood, and it carries the planned road.
Fight one
The road past our park
The City's Thoroughfare Plan extends Southern Plantation Drive from its current end at the Reatta Meadows park, through Area 31, to Victoria Avenue beside the high school. A quiet dead end becomes a shortcut, with new teen drivers in school traffic running past where our kids play.
Ask: remove the extension from the Thoroughfare Plan.
Fight two
The rezoning behind Barchetta
Area 31 shares lot lines with four Barchetta Drive back yards and with our park. Middle Housing allows buildings of up to 12 units. Our own covenants hold every Reatta Meadows lot to one single family home. Every owner paid for that promise. Buildings of up to 12 units at our edge and a through road at our entrance put the value of all 161 homes at risk, whether you live on Barchetta or not.
Ask: remove Area 31 from the initiative and keep its Rural zoning.
Southern Plantation Drive is our neighborhood's entrance. From there it already runs east through Shenandoah, past its clubhouse and Southern Oaks Park, all the way to the Highway 6 frontage road. The extension would join it to Victoria Avenue at the high school.
The result is one continuous route from the high school to Highway 6, running through two neighborhoods and past two parks. Every family along Southern Plantation has a stake in keeping it a dead end. A Shenandoah resident already asked Council on August 13 to remove the connection.
How it was done
They promised us a buffer. Now they want to rezone it.
This all happened in the last three months, and most of us never heard about it. Every line below comes from the City's own records.
July 2026
The notice that skipped us
The owner of the 54 acre tract behind us applies to rezone 35 acres for The Lariat, a project of about 600 apartments and townhomes. The application stops short of our lot lines.
Reatta Meadows homes inside the 200 foot notice area. The City mails 23 notices. One person objects. Our HOA gets a courtesy letter.
July 16 to August 13
The promise
To win approval, the applicant tells the City the new housing will be
"adequately buffered" from our homes "by parkland and preserved floodplain."
Staff present the townhomes as the step down to the single family homes at the rear. Planning & Zoning approves 7 to 0. Council approves August 13 and leaves the land behind our fences Rural.
October 5, 2026
The reversal
Seven weeks later, City letters arrive. The City now proposes Middle Housing, up to 12 unit buildings, on Area 31: land between that preserved floodplain and our back fences, with a planned road through it.
Reatta Meadows homes inside the notice area this time. In July, City staff had pulled this area from their list while the private rezoning was pending.
Why is the buffer Council relied on in August now up for rezoning?
We are not alleging coordination. Two processes, run by different City staff, produced this result. Council can fix it by keeping Area 31 Rural, as it left it in August. Read the August 13 packet, Item 8.4.
The paper trail
How we got here, and what comes next.
Every date below is in the public record.
1995
Area 31 is zoned Rural
The land behind what would become Reatta Meadows is zoned R Rural under Ordinance 2132. It still is.
1998
The road is drawn, for a map that no longer exists
Planning & Zoning amends the Thoroughfare Plan to run Southern Plantation west to a future Victoria Avenue, as part of the Estates at Spring Creek master plan. At the time, Victoria did not exist south of Barron Road, State Highway 40 was a future road, and the school district was still deciding whether to build a high school here.
P&Z minutes, October 15, 1998 ↗2008
Reatta Meadows Phase 2 is platted
The Barchetta Drive lots and the neighborhood park, dedicated to the City, are recorded. The park sits at the end of Southern Plantation Drive.
October 27, 2022
Council creates Middle Housing zoning
A new district allowing small lot homes, townhouses, duplexes, and multiplexes of up to 12 units. The first City initiated rezonings follow in 2023 and 2024, mostly near campus.
City Middle Housing page ↗April 9, 2026
Proof it can be done: Pebble Creek
A separate fight across town, unrelated to Area 31. Pebble Creek residents organized against a planned road through their neighborhood, and Council voted 4 to 3 to remove it from the Thoroughfare Plan, over staff and Planning & Zoning recommendations, after more than 35 residents spoke.
Live from City Hall, April 9 ↗April 22, 2026
The committee asks for a deeper dive
City staff show the Housing Plan Advisory Committee their criteria: Mixed Residential future land use, not a downzoning, not a school or church, not already Middle Housing. That leaves 204 acres and about 1,356 possible homes citywide. Members agree to a deeper look.
April 22 minutes ↗July 9, 2026
Council talks density
A workshop on incentives to increase housing density. No action, but Council leans toward a townhome pilot.
Live from City Hall, July 9 ↗July 22, 2026
Four of seven members say go
Staff tell the committee they removed an area labeled Reatta Meadows from the list because a private rezoning on it was still pending. With three members absent, the four present express general support for public outreach. No vote is recorded.
July 22 minutes ↗August 13, 2026
The parent tract is rezoned
Ordinance 4704 rezones about 35 acres of a 54 acre tract at Victoria and William D. Fitch from Rural to about 21 acres Multifamily, 4.6 acres Middle Housing, and 9.5 acres Natural Areas Protected. The rest stays Rural, including Area 31. No Reatta Meadows home is inside the 200 foot notice area.
WTAW council recap ↗October 5, 2026
Letters go out. The high school reopens two entrances.
The City mails notice to owners within 200 feet of Area 31. The same day, College Station High School opens the last of its Phase 2 expansion and reopens two building entrances.
- You are here
October 19 and 20, 2026
Everything comes down to this week.
Every step above led here, and every step below depends on it. The comments collected now decide whether Area 31 moves forward at all. Virtual meeting Monday the 19th, in person Tuesday the 20th, and the online survey any time before then. Name Area 31 and the road.
After October 20
A committee picks the list
Staff present the comments to the Housing Plan Advisory Committee, which decides which areas go forward. An area dropped here never gets a hearing.
Early 2027
Formal hearings
Areas that survive go to Planning & Zoning and then Council. Owners within 200 feet get a separate notice.
Any day
A plat is filed, and the road comes with it
When the owner subdivides the parent tract, City rules require the planned road to be built. As of October 15, no application has been filed.
How the road actually happens
No vote. No hearing. Just a plat.
The road does not wait for the rezoning. It rides on development of the parent tract, which the August rezoning already set up.
It is on the plan
The Thoroughfare Plan shows Southern Plantation extended as a two lane collector to Victoria Avenue.
The developer must build it
UDO Section 8.3 requires any subdivision containing a planned thoroughfare to build it in place. The City relies on developers to build collectors this way.
Staff sign off
Since January 2024, City staff approve plats that meet minimum requirements. A plat that follows the plan gets no public hearing.
A Council vote amending the Thoroughfare Plan, before a plat is filed. That is how Pebble Creek did it.
There was no high school at the end of this road when it was drawn.
The new road would meet the school driveway head on.
A College Station High School driveway into the school's parking lots meets Victoria Avenue directly across from where the planned road would connect. That makes a four way crossing at the school's doorstep.
At arrival and dismissal, the school's lots fill and empty onto Victoria all at once, many of them with new teen drivers. The extension would aim cut through traffic straight at that driveway.
When the City drew this road, Victoria Avenue stopped at Barron Road, State Highway 40 was a line on a map, and the high school site was undecided. Southern Plantation was meant to be a way west through empty land.
Today Victoria runs to William D. Fitch Parkway, Fitch connects to Highway 6, the high school has been open since 2012, and 161 homes and a park sit at the end of Southern Plantation. The network the road was meant to create already exists, on roads with signals. Building it now would add a completely new route through two residential neighborhoods with no need, only more risk.
What you will hear, and what is true
Bring these to the podium.
"Nobody has to sell or redevelop."
True for today's owner. Zoning outlasts owners. The next buyer gets every option Middle Housing allows, up to 12 unit buildings, on land that shares a back fence with four homes and a children's park.
"It is under two acres. It is small."
Small is the point. Area 31 is the piece of the August tract closest to our homes. Council set that tract's density two months ago and left this piece Rural. Rezoning it now adds density at the most sensitive edge without any new reason.
"Nothing is scheduled. The road is just a line on a map."
Nothing has to be scheduled. When the parent tract is subdivided, City rules require the developer to build the road, and staff approve conforming plats without a hearing. The line on the map is the decision.
"The high school needs another way for traffic to get out."
It already has them, on roads built for it. Victoria Avenue reaches Barron Road and William D. Fitch Parkway, and both have interchanges at Highway 6. The Victoria and Fitch intersection has new traffic and pedestrian signals. The extension would add a completely new route through two residential neighborhoods, past two parks, with no signals. No need, only more risk.
"Connectivity improves emergency response."
Fire Station 3 is already on our side, at 1900 Barron Road, just north of Reatta Meadows. By road it is about a mile from the high school by way of Barron and Victoria, and about half a mile from our park and from Southern Oaks Park in Shenandoah. It does not need this road to reach the school or our two neighborhoods. Staff and the fire chief argued response times for Pebble Creek Parkway too, and Council removed it anyway.
"Middle Housing has buffers next to neighborhoods."
The City says added buffering and height protection apply on edges next to areas designated for neighborhood conservation. Ask whether Reatta Meadows carries that designation. If it does not, those protections may not apply at our back fences.
"Comments do not matter until the hearing."
The Housing Plan Advisory Committee picks which areas get a hearing, using the comments collected now. By the hearing, the list is set.
"This is just opposition to housing."
The August rezoning already added about 21 acres of multifamily and 4.6 acres of Middle Housing next door. We are not fighting that. We are asking the City not to add more where it touches single family back yards, and not to run a shortcut past a park.
It already happened here
Pebble Creek got its road removed. So can we.
Different neighborhood, different road, no connection to Area 31. The lesson is the method: neighbors got the word out, showed up, and Council listened.
Council vote, April 9, 2026, removing the Pebble Creek Parkway extension from the Thoroughfare Plan.
- The extension had been planned since 1991.
- City staff recommended keeping it. Planning & Zoning voted 6 to 1 to keep it. The fire chief testified for it.
- More than 35 residents spoke for removal: child safety, traffic, neighborhood integrity.
- It started when residents raised it at Council in September 2025 and Council directed staff to bring back an amendment.
- Four council members put neighborhood integrity ahead of connectivity.
The plan
Three things. Do them this week.
You do not need to live next to Area 31 to comment. The road affects every family who uses that park.
Comment online, prefilled
Tap the button that fits you. The City survey opens with Area 31, your relationship, "No, I have concerns," a comment, and a question for staff already filled in. Each click writes a different comment and question. Add your email so staff can answer, read it over, then press Submit. Please submit once per person.
I got the City letterI did not get a letterShow up
The City posted notice that members of the Housing Plan Advisory Committee and the City Council may attend both meetings. The people who decide may be in the room. A full room is what moved Council on Pebble Creek. Come to the in person meeting on the 20th, or join the virtual one on the 19th. Bring one neighbor.
Meeting detailsEmail Council
Only Council can take the road off the plan. Email all seven members in one click. Council members quote these messages out loud.
Email the CouncilTue, Oct 20 · 6 PM
In person. College Station City Hall, 1101 Texas Avenue, Bush 4141 Community Room. Open house with staff, 6 to 8 PM.
Mon, Oct 19 · 6 PM
Virtual on Microsoft Teams, 6 to 8 PM. Join the meeting.
Meeting ID 294 953 650 421 759
Passcode cx9h36WE
Dial 979.431.4880 or 833.240.7855
Conference ID 800632422#
I oppose rezoning Area 31 to MH Middle Housing, and I oppose the planned extension of Southern Plantation Drive to Victoria Avenue. Area 31 shares lot lines with Reatta Meadows back yards and with our neighborhood park. Council rezoned the rest of this tract in August and left this piece Rural. Rezoning it now adds density at the edge that touches single family homes. Today the park sits at a dead end, and children walk and bike there with no through traffic. The planned extension would run a shortcut to College Station High School past the park. Please keep Area 31 Rural and ask Council to remove the extension, as it did for Pebble Creek Parkway in April.
Contact your Council
Email all seven. Today.
The button opens your mail app with the message written. Add your name and street, then send. Copy Ashley Klein, the City's project manager, so the comment is filed with the initiative.
Dear Mayor and Council Members, I live in College Station, in or near Reatta Meadows. I am asking you to do two things. First, remove the planned extension of Southern Plantation Drive between the Reatta Meadows park and Victoria Avenue from the Thoroughfare Plan. Today the park sits at a dead end, and children walk and bike there with no through traffic. The extension would turn it into a shortcut to College Station High School. You removed the Pebble Creek Parkway extension in April for the same reasons: child safety, cut through traffic, and neighborhood integrity. Second, direct that Area 31 on Map D of the Middle Housing initiative not move forward. Council rezoned the rest of this tract on August 13 and left Area 31 Rural. It shares lot lines with Reatta Meadows homes and our park, and rezoning it now adds density at the most sensitive edge. Thank you, Name: Street:
To speak at a Council meeting, register at least two hours ahead through the City Council Comment Form at cstx.gov or by calling 979.764.3500. Council meets the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 6 PM.
Force the paper trail into the open
File the records requests.
Two requests under the Texas Public Information Act. The first shows when and how Area 31 was picked. The second shows what the City knows about the road. Paste each into the City portal and keep the confirmation.
Public Information Request: Housing Plan Advisory Committee Records on City Initiated Middle Housing Rezonings Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 552, please provide electronic copies of the following existing records concerning the Fall 2026 City initiated rezoning initiative to MH Middle Housing: 1. Agendas, minutes, recordings, presentations, and staff memoranda for every meeting of the Housing Plan Advisory Committee at which the Committee discussed, directed, or reviewed City initiated rezonings to MH Middle Housing, from January 1, 2026 through the date this request is processed. 2. Records showing the date and substance of the direction given to City staff to begin this initiative, including any vote or consensus of the Committee and any City Council direction or support. 3. The current membership roster of the Housing Plan Advisory Committee, including each member's appointment date and term. 4. The selection criteria, screening analysis, maps, spreadsheets, and staff notes used to identify the proposed areas, including Area 31 on Map D (approximately 1.73 acres near Southern Plantation Drive). 5. Any analysis of Area 31's size, configuration, access, utilities, or potential development capacity under MH Middle Housing. 6. Records showing whether staff considered, when selecting Area 31, that Council rezoned the surrounding tract under Ordinance 4704 on August 13, 2026. Please provide records electronically in native format when reasonably available and produce them on a rolling basis. If any portion is withheld, please release all reasonably segregable portions and cite the specific statutory exception. Before incurring any charges, please provide an itemized written cost estimate and wait for my written agreement. Name: Address: Email: Phone:
Public Information Request: Southern Plantation Drive Extension and Parent Tract Development Records Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 552, please provide electronic copies of the following existing records: 1. Records showing when the future extension of Southern Plantation Drive between its current terminus near the Reatta Meadows park and Victoria Avenue was added to the Thoroughfare Plan, and any amendment to it since. 2. Traffic studies, connectivity analyses, or emergency response analyses concerning that extension. 3. Records identifying the planned right of way width and classification of the extension. 4. Any preliminary plan, concept plan, master plan, pre application meeting notes, or development inquiry concerning the tract described as R. Stevenson Survey, Tract 48 (approximately 54 acres, Brazos County property ID 13889), from January 1, 2025 through the date this request is processed. 5. The staff report, concept plan, and applicant submittals for rezoning case REZ2026-000006 (Ordinance 4704), including any reference to Southern Plantation Drive. 6. Communications between City staff and the owner, applicant, or agents for that tract concerning access, street connections, or the Southern Plantation Drive extension. Please provide records electronically in native format when reasonably available and produce them on a rolling basis. If any portion is withheld, please release all reasonably segregable portions and cite the specific statutory exception. Before incurring any charges, please provide an itemized written cost estimate and wait for my written agreement. Name: Address: Email: Phone:
Emailed requests count only when sent to pubrequest@cstx.gov. Texas law requires a written itemized estimate before any charge over $40.
FAQ
Straight answers.
I did not get a letter. Can I still comment?
Yes. The letter went to owners within 200 feet of Area 31. The survey accepts comments from anyone, and you can select "interested in the area." The road affects everyone who uses the park and our streets.
Does the City need the rezoning to build the road?
No. The road is on the Thoroughfare Plan, and City rules require it to be built when the parent tract is subdivided. The August rezoning already set that tract up for development. That is why the road needs its own fight, with Council.
Is this already decided?
No. The rezoning is in public engagement. Formal hearings come in early 2027, and only for areas the committee sends forward. The road stays on the plan until Council votes to remove it, which Council did for Pebble Creek in April.
What is the HOA asking for, exactly?
Two things. Remove Area 31 from the Middle Housing initiative and keep its Rural zoning. Remove the Southern Plantation Drive extension from the Thoroughfare Plan entirely.
Does this affect Shenandoah too?
Yes. Southern Plantation Drive runs from our park through Shenandoah, past its clubhouse and Southern Oaks Park, to the Highway 6 frontage road. The extension would connect that whole street to Victoria Avenue at the high school. Shenandoah residents can comment on the survey and email Council the same way.
When was this road first planned?
1998. Planning & Zoning approved the current alignment on October 15, 1998, and Council approved the Estates at Spring Creek concept plan carrying it on December 10, 1998. Reatta Meadows was later built as part of that same master plan. In 1998 there was no Victoria Avenue south of Barron Road, no William D. Fitch Parkway, no high school, and no Reatta Meadows. Every one of those now exists, and the traffic job this road was drawn to do is handled by signalized roads built since.
I cannot make a meeting. Does anything else count?
Yes. The City says online survey comments count the same as meeting comments, and Council reads its email. Do both.
Receipts
Every claim, sourced.
- City of College Station, Middle Housing initiative project site, Fall 2026 (proposed areas, survey, meeting details, selection criteria) ↗
- City of College Station, Proposed Areas story map and survey (Area 31: 1.73 acres, zoned R Rural) ↗
- City of College Station, Middle Housing zoning district (housing types, edge buffers, UDO sections) ↗
- City of College Station GIS: parcels, zoning, land use, Thoroughfare Plan, HOA boundaries (source of the map and acreage figures) ↗
- WTAW, College Station City Council recap, August 13, 2026 (Rural to Multifamily, Middle Housing, Natural Areas Protected at Victoria and Fitch) ↗
- College Station UDO Section 8.3: thoroughfares must be built with subdivision plats ↗
- City of College Station, UDO amendments (Ordinance 2024 4496, staff plat approval; Ordinance 2022 4399, Middle Housing) ↗
- City of College Station, Transportation Planning (developers build two lane collectors) ↗
- City of College Station blog, Council meeting, April 9, 2026 (Pebble Creek Parkway extension removed 4 to 3) ↗
- WTAW, Council votes 4 to 3 to remove the Pebble Creek Parkway extension ↗
- KBTX, Council moves to scale back Pebble Creek Parkway plan, September 2025 (emergency access only direction) ↗
- City of College Station blog, Council meeting, July 9, 2026 (housing density workshop) ↗
- City of College Station blog, Council meeting, October 8, 2026 (residents speak against Middle Housing districts) ↗
- CSISD 2023 bond, High School Additions and Renovations (College Station High School Phase 2) ↗
- City of College Station, Speak Before Council (how to register to comment) ↗
- City of College Station notice letter to owners within 200 feet, October 5, 2026, with Map D (mailed; copy held by the HOA Board)
- Planning & Zoning minutes, October 15, 1998 (Thoroughfare Plan amendment: Victoria extension and Southern Plantation extension to Victoria) ↗
- City Council minutes, December 10, 1998 (Estates at Spring Creek concept plan, future high school site) ↗
- City Council minutes, August 13, 2026 (resident asks Council to remove the Southern Plantation connection) ↗
- City Council packet, August 13, 2026, Item 8.4, Seaback Tract Rezoning ↗