Richardson clears way for 40-home Greenwood Park infill neighborhood

Richardson took another step toward turning an abandoned care facility site into housing Tuesday night, advancing a plan for 40 detached homes on 4.7 acres in the Cottonwood Creek area.

The City Plan Commission voted 6-1 to recommend approval of Greenwood Park, a planned development that would replace the former Cottonwood Creek Healthcare Community on the west side of West Shore Drive, south of Wisteria Way and north of Arapaho Road. The request, filed as Zoning File 26-02 by owner DJC Realco Richardson LLC, would rezone the property from LR-M(2) Local Retail to a planned development with a base R-1100-M residential district and amended standards.

Caldwell Residential, the developer, plans to demolish the decommissioned nursing home and build a compact neighborhood of single-family houses around a central park, with an additional open space area on the south end. All 40 homes would be two stories and capped at 40 feet in height. The layout calls for 22 front-facing-garage homes and 18 rear-entry-garage homes served by alleys.

The proposal gives Richardson more homes on land already inside the city, but it also underscored the tradeoffs that come with infill development. City staff described the lots and overall arrangement as more townhouse-like in density and feel, even though the houses would be detached. The minimum home size approved was 1,100 square feet, though Caldwell said the homes would likely be around 3,000 square feet and could sell in the $800,000 to $1 million range.

That price point puts Greenwood Park squarely at the upper end of Richardson’s housing market, making the project more of a redevelopment and land-reuse story than an affordability play. It also means nearby residents will likely see a very different neighborhood character from the one left behind by the old healthcare complex, which was decommissioned in December.

Ben Caldwell described the project as a “boutique infill residential community.” Commissioner Kristen Schascheck called it “a substantial improvement over a typical townhome” because each unit would be detached and still deliver higher density than a conventional single-family subdivision.

The vote came during the same meeting where commissioners also discussed possible updates to the city’s zoning ordinance tied to protest criteria and the definition of “Family,” a reminder that Greenwood Park landed inside a broader debate over how Richardson should grow and redevelop its older parcels. Caldwell Residential, meanwhile, is already a familiar name in the city, having developed Mimosa Place in Richardson and currently building Greenwood Square across the street from the proposed site.