After years of legal battles, the Barisi Village project finally goes on.
Barisi Village is the planned 127-acre development for the former Pharaoh Valley Golf Course, which was closed in 2010.
Many residents of the Pharaoh Valley thought that the day the village of Barisi could move forward would never come. Now that he’s here, they can’t wait for the job to start.
“We have gone through three courts, all of which have now found themselves in favor of our Barisi village project,” said Chris Kuehn, president of the Pharaoh Valley Neighborhood Association.
The developer of the project wants teams to make up for lost time.
“There is a whole team working on this project as far as planning is concerned; what will be the first buildings; how it will turn out, ”said Jeff Blackard, who is also involved in development projects in North Beach.
Blackard now owns the Pharaoh Valley Golf Course and began cleaning it as soon as the appeals court ruling was passed. Blackard said construction crews will be in place this week and he hopes to have some buildings by the end of the year.
Pharaoh Valley residents said they intend to ask the city to create a new tax increase reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, to help pay for the $ 300 million project.
Blackard first announced this project in 2012; an Italian-inspired 127-acre development built on the Pharaoh’s Valley golf course.
“We are super excited, this is something that when I bought the property, we were hoping,” Prescott Williams said. “I’m optimistic about it.”
Williams bought his house in the Pharaoh Valley two and a half years ago. Since then, he said he and his family have had homeless problems on the field near his property.
“I think I can speak for most of the people involved that we are all very excited to start seeing the area clean,” he said.
The project has been blocked in court for more than five years. A small group of homeowners from the Pharaoh Valley tried to blockade the village of Barisi despite enormous support from the neighborhood.
In order for the development to continue, the restriction of the golf course act had to be changed. The opposition believed that a 2015 Texas law – which allows changes to deed restrictions as long as it is approved by 75 percent of affected property owners – was unconstitutional.
Last week, the Texas 13th Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the village of Barisi, upholding an earlier decision. Opposing homeowners have 30 days to appeal this decision to the Texas Supreme Court.
“We won’t be surprised if it doesn’t end now, but we are very confident that we are moving forward in the right direction,” said Kuehn.
