Allen residents raise concerns about proposed cricket stadium

Not everyone in Allen is excited about a proposed cricket stadium.

Some residents who live close to the planned stadium and surrounding development took their concerns to the city council.

The item wasn’t even on the agenda, but that didn’t stop dozens of residents from showing up to Tuesday’s council meeting. They want to be part of the planning process before council allows the project to move forward.

In 2015, Fawaz Bham bought what he thought would be his forever home. His young family lives in one of the dozens of pricy houses located in the Fall Creek Subdivision in the city of Allen.

A 12-foot privacy wall separates the two-story homes from Ridgeview Drive. Just across the street is where city leaders are considering a developer's plan to build the Allen Sports Village, a multi-million-dollar mixed-use development with a 15,000 seat open-air cricket stadium as its centerpiece. It will be located at the intersection of Alma Road and the 121 Corridor.

The developers told FOX 4 earlier this year 2,000 North Texans play cricket.

I think Cricket will do excellent here because we have seen the passionate people playing cricket,” said Poorvesh Takker with Takker Developers. “It is just like a religion, almost.”

Bham says the first time he and many of his neighbors heard about the plans was on the news when the mayor publicly announced his support for the project.

“It caught us all by surprise,” he said. “We thought with such a big development we would have early engagement with the city or maybe the developer.”

But that didn't happen. So Bham and several neighbors from surrounding communities took their concerns to Tuesday's city council meeting. It was standing room only. They're worried about noise, traffic and public safety.

Since the topic was not on the agenda, the mayor and council members were not able to discuss the issue. But several residents spoke. They wanted to make sure their voices are heard early in the planning process.

Residents are asking the council to require developers to conduct sound, light and traffic studies before preliminary approval is given. The developers plan to meet with subdivision leaders.