Zipline executives Benoit Miquel and Conor French bring a “droid” drone delivery unit for city councilmembers to see.

Remediation and repairs on the Princeton Luxury Apartments was progressing on schedule, according to reports from city inspectors and a third-party engineering firm.

“City staff is satisfied that the owners have met all the conditions of the agreed order required of them to date,” said Craig Fisher, director of development services.

Three of the 13 buildings (No. 5, No. 6 and No. 8) have been demolished and removed from the site, Professional Engineer Tony Childress told the Monday, Oct. 28, special meeting of the Princeton Housing Standards Commission.

Framing remediation has begun on Building No. 9 and mold remediation has been completed on Buildings 1, 2, 3 and 4, he said. Meanwhile, mold remediation has begun on Buildings 9-12.

The commission, consisting of Princeton City Council members, had issued an order and timeline at a Monday, Aug. 22, meeting.

The apartments, on U.S. 380 just east of Walmart, were approved in 2015 as the city rezoned nearly 17 acres for the construction of 300 apartments.

Work did not begin until February 2022 and ceased in May 2023 because of contractor disputes. Since the buildings were unfinished, HP EnviroVision was contracted by the owner to remove widespread mold.

Inspector Robert Lauer said the work involved the removal, cleaning or decontamination of 25,000 square feet of wood framing, roof decking and flooring, and the removal of 2,000 square feet of “water damaged and fungal impacted gypsum board building materials.”

However, licensed mold remediation contractor Matt Heidrick said, “This mold remediation project involves less than 25 contiguous square feet of mold and does not require a mold notification to be submitted to TDLR (Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation).”

Childress first inspected the site in July of this year and has been monitoring compliance with the commission’s timeline calling for the project to be completed and ready for occupancy by February 2026.

The Housing Standards Commission meeting was the first of three meetings in a row by councilmembers.

Convening as the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) Board, directors approved a resolution amending the project and financing plans of TIRZ Subzone 6-2 for the 245-acre Southridge Public Improvement District (PID).

“The crux of the TIRZ 6 overlay is to use the incremental TIRZ tax revenue to reduce the PID assessments in Phase 2,” said Bond Counsel Jeff Gulbas.

Phase 2 will have 109 50-foot lots and 147 40-foot lots, Gulbas said.

The resolution was later approved in the regular council meeting. The meeting began shortly after at 6:30 p.m. and members adjourned into an executive session at 6:50 p.m. to discuss three items identified only as “Project Harvard,” Project Blue Suede Shoes” and “Project Hound Dog.”

The executive session agenda classified them as possibly dealing with pending or contemplated litigation or a settlement offer.

“Blue Suede Shoes” was previously discussed at council’s special work session Tuesday, Oct. 15.

“Harvard” and “Hound Dog” were also classified as involving potential economic development negotiations or incentive offers.”

Resuming the regular session at 8:10 p.m., council held a public hearing and approved zoning ordinances expanding the allowed locations of convenience stores with gas pumps, public and parochial schools, hotels and motels and childcare facilities or licensed child care homes.

Councilmembers also OK’d initial zoning for the 179-acre Serenity project on the northeast corner of FM 75 and CR 831, approved as a development agreement in July, and amended zoning for a portion of the Windmore development west of South Beauchamp Boulevard and south of CR 398.

Serenity would include 700 Lennar Homes on 50-foot-wide lots with the homes 10 feet apart.

Windmore proposes 130 single-family homes with 40-foot-wide lots. The previous zoning would have allowed up to 225 build-to-rent multi-family homes.

Council also gave final plat approval for Southridge Phase 2B, 173 single-family lots on 45 acres east of FM 75 and north of CR 408.

The projects were in the pipeline before council enacted a moratorium on residential construction within the city limits.

Council also amended city zoning to allow drone delivery hubs and staging areas for the local aerial delivery of products from stores such as Walmart.

Assistant City Attorney Grant Lowry outlined the proposal, endorsed a week earlier by the Planning & Zoning Commission. The ordinance would prohibit zone hubs or staging areas in residential areas and would require them to have a specific use permit and go through the normal approval process for construction.

Walmart is heavily invested in drone delivery technology and brought in Ivan Jaime, director of government and public affairs from San Antonio to pitch the idea to council. He was accompanied by the manager and assistant manager of the Princeton Walmart.

“We’re trying to keep up with the shopping habits of our customers,” Jaime said.

He described how retail delivery options evolved from four to six weeks to two days, then overnight.

“Now, with Walmart Plus, which is our subscription service, you can get your groceries delivered in as little as two hours,” he said.

Drone delivery would be the next iteration of that, with an eight-pound package delivered within 30 minutes, he said. Pricing for the service was still being worked out.

Walmart contracts with three different drone delivery vendors and would use Zipline for Princeton.

Benoit Miquel, director of real estate for Zipline, said the California company was the world’s largest drone delivery service with a global network making 1,700 deliveries daily.

He said the first hub was in Rwanda, Africa, delivering blood to outlying areas around the capital.

Miquel explained the customer’s package would be placed into a lightweight delivery vehicle called a droid, which was then loaded aboard the actual drone called a Zip.

The Zip, with an eight-foot wingspan, can travel 70 mph with a range of 10 miles, he said. An autonomous navigation program would direct it to the customer, where it would hover at 300 feet and lower the droid on a long tether like a kite string.

When it reached the ground, the droid would release the package and ascend back to the Zip mother ship for return to the store. Deliveries could be made in winds up to 30 mph and would initially be made only during daylight hours.

Princeton residents raised objections at the start of the meeting, saying the system would cost delivery drivers their jobs, could be noisy, dangerous or intrude on privacy.

Councilmembers repeated those concerns to Miquel, who said the system was creating jobs and the Zip was as loud as car traffic at 300 feet. He also said the FlightIQ autonomy and perception software helped the drone avoid accidents and was unable to capture visual images.

“To date, we’ve flown more than 80 million autonomous miles without serious safety incident,” he said.

Councilmember Ryan Gerfers asked what would happen if the Walmart store lost power, saying, “How does that affect the drone delivery at that point?”

Miquel said the store would be unable to process new orders, but the Zip would return safely to the dock.

Now that the city ordinance was in place, the next step would be for Walmart to submit a site plan for two loading stations and nine double-dock charging towers to be built in the store’s parking lot.

Miquel said the exact size of the Zip fleet would depend on demand.

Council later approved the bond counsel’s proposal to sell two Series 2024 Special Assessment Revenue Bonds, $4.5 million for Windmore Public Improvement Area No. 1 and $9.8 million for Southridge Public Improvement District Area No. 2.

Without discussion, councilmembers approved a new city policy prohibiting all municipal employees, contractors and affiliated personnel from using the TikTok application on city-owned devices and by city employees in their official capacity.

Gov. Greg Abbott banned the application on state devices in December 2022 the 88th Texas Legislature last year extended the ban to all governmental entities in the state.

The next meeting of the Princeton City Council will be a special meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12, postponed one day from the Monday Veterans Day holiday.

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