It may be back to the drawing board for one developer interested in a Port Arthur property.

The Port Arthur Planning & Zoning Committee met this week at city hall. On the agenda was to develop 2 acres off Rice Farm Road behind Landsdowne Apartments off Jimmy Johnson Boulevard.

P&Z turned down the request due to not wanting to change the single-family status and drainage issues.

Morris Albright III, former Port Arthur city councilman, attended the Monday meeting and said that area of the city is zoned for single-family dwellings. The request was to change the zoning for two-family rental units.

The developer is Valerie Dinh.

Albright lives in the area and some neighbors invited him to attend the meeting.

Developers also wanted to put in a private street that doesn’t have to be built according to city code. It would increase traffic flow in an already crowded section of town, Albright said.

Another issue along Rice Farm Road, Albright said, is drainage. He said the area has been having problems with more concrete being laid down that would displace the water and exacerbate flooding.

Some nearby residents originally thought the development would be for low- or moderate-income housing. But Albright doesn’t believe they would be low-to-moderate-income dwellings since the rent would had been from $1,000 to $1,200 a month.

Albright said a supermajority of the city council, seven of nine members, would have to overturn the P&Z committee’s decision which is “next to impossible.”

Ron Burton, city planning director, said the decision was unanimous to reject the plans. If it had passed, it would go before the Port Arthur City Council for consideration.

Dinh, however, withdrew her application. Burton said the area has had issues with flooding the past 15 years.

“It’s a dead matter,” he said. “She would have to wait a year if the city council had rejected it. But since she withdrew it she can come back with another plan but it has to be different.”