An Acre, a Creek, and a Stand of Pecan Trees — Minutes from Firewheel

What “country” means here

It isn’t a marketing adjective. It’s a list of things you can walk out and see.

A running creek along the property, and mature pecan trees — the kind that take fifty years to get that size and can’t be bought or installed. From the covered deck, there are no visible neighbors. On a one-acre lot with that much mature growth, the tree line does the work a fence never quite manages.

The property is on septic rather than city sewer, which tells you something about when and how this parcel was developed. And there’s a heated and cooled workshop with electricity, separate from the oversized two-car garage and storage room. Between the garage and a newly added carport, there are four covered parking spaces — enough for the truck, the trailer, and whatever project is currently in pieces.

The zoning is the sleeper feature

The parcel carries an Agricultural zoning designation — unusual for a property this close to a regional shopping center. Garland’s agricultural district generally contemplates uses well beyond a standard residential lot, which is where the flexibility comes in.

I’d rather you hear this from the source than from a listing description: if you have a specific use in mind — livestock, an equestrian setup, an ag exemption, a detached structure, a home-based operation — confirm it directly with the City of Garland’s planning department before you write an offer. Zoning allowances, setbacks, and permit requirements change, and what’s permitted in the district isn’t always permitted on a given parcel. What I can tell you is that the designation gives you a wider set of options to ask about than a typical Garland residential lot would.

And the “in the city” half

Firewheel Town Center sits at President George Bush Turnpike and Highway 78 — an open-air center of roughly a million square feet with Dillard’s, Macy’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Barnes & Noble, and an AMC theater, plus a restaurant district. It opened in 2005 and effectively became the commercial anchor for this whole side of Garland.

That’s the trade this property doesn’t ask you to make. PGBT puts you on the tollway system in minutes, which opens up Plano, Richardson, and the rest of the northern job corridor. Assigned schools are Garland ISD — John W. Armstrong Elementary about four-tenths of a mile out, B.G. Hudson Middle around a mile and a half, and Sachse High roughly a mile away.