Richardson residents fight to stop HVAC testing facility near homes

RICHARDSON, Texas - Residents are trying to stop an HVAC research facility from being built in a Richardson neighborhood.

What we know:

Lennox, a company that produces air conditioners and heaters, has headquarters in Richardson near Campbell Road and Waterview Parkway.

Although the area is zoned for office use, it has homes to the north, west, and east.

And it’s those people who live next door who are not happy about a proposed zoning change from office use to research and development.

If approved, the change would allow Lennox to build a 34-foot-tall building to test large commercial HVAC systems.

What they're saying:

Neighbors have signed a petition in hopes of stopping the zoning change.

"It’s totally inappropriate for this dense residential neighborhood. We are surrounded on every side," said Allen Baskind, who owns the nearby Parkside Townhomes. "It’s an unwelcome intrusion into a dense residential neighborhood."

Anil Misra talked about the area being beautiful and having a lot of walkers. He doesn’t want to see that changed.

The proposed building would be directly behind Tomer Lankri’s backyard. 

"If I even knew about it when I had the desire to purchase our lot and move forward… we spent our life savings," he said. "View-wise, tranquility, our livelihood are definitely going to be damaged."

The other side:

A representative from Lennox said the equipment being tested won’t be heard outside the building.

"The equipment goes into one of these, There's an engineer or technician sitting out here at a computer screen looking at how the equipment is behaving under certain conditions," John Hurst said.

The company said it added plans for landscape screening and enclosed the recycling dumpster.

"If somebody throws metal scrap into recycling bin, it is now garaged. We anticipate those doors to be closed. There’s no reason for the doors to be open unless somebody is coming to pick up scrap metal," Hurst said.

As for the loading and unloading of the HVAC systems, Hurst said the trailer may make some noise backing in, but that’s about it.

"Once it's inside the facility, we anticipate the truck unhitching from the trailer, leaving the trailer in the bay and then the crane does its thing," Hurst said.

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What's next:

Last month, Richardson’s planning and zoning commission voted three to one to change the zoning.

Nate Roberts cast the lone vote against the plan. He said he’s worried about property values taking a hit.

But Chairman Bryan Marsh argued that Lennox moved into the area long before most of the homes. He said not approving it would financially impact the HVAC company.

The Richardson City Council will have the final say on the matter during its meeting on Feb. 10.