CASE STUDY 16 — Dairy Queen FM 518, Pearland, TX | Restaurant Site Civil Engineering

PROJECT OVERVIEW

JRH Engineering provided complete civil engineering design for a Dairy Queen restaurant on FM 518 in Pearland, Texas. The site featured a large protected oak tree that could not be removed — a constraint that most developers treat as a problem. JRH turned it into an advantage, incorporating the tree as a signature landscape feature that reduced additional landscaping requirements and accelerated the landscape plan approval. A retaining wall detention pond preserved the maximum buildable footprint for the restaurant and parking.

AT A GLANCE

Site Civil Design

● Full site civil design including building pad, parking layout, drive-through configuration, and access design

● Protected oak tree incorporated as a signature landscape feature — reducing additional landscaping requirements and accelerating landscape plan approval

● Retaining wall detention pond designed to maximize buildable footprint — compact pond footprint preserved restaurant pad and parking area

● Dual-agency coordination with City of Pearland and TxDOT managed concurrently

Utility Infrastructure

● Water and sanitary tied into City of Pearland and TxDOT infrastructure

● Dual-agency utility coordination completed in parallel with site plan review

Stormwater & Drainage

● Retaining wall detention pond designed at the perimeter of the site — compact footprint preserving maximum area for restaurant and parking

● Pond walls used as a design element rather than a simple drainage feature — retaining wall configuration allowed the pond to fit within the constrained site geometry

● City of Pearland and TxDOT drainage approvals completed concurrently

Permitting & Agency Coordination

● City of Pearland and TxDOT approvals pursued simultaneously — no sequential review delays

● Protected tree incorporated into the landscape plan proactively — city landscape review accelerated because the tree satisfied a significant portion of the landscaping requirement

● Complete dual-agency submission package on first submittal

THE CHALLENGE
A large protected oak tree in the middle of a constrained restaurant pad site is the kind of constraint that sends developers back to the drawing board. Removing it was not an option. Working around it awkwardly would have produced a suboptimal site layout and a landscape plan that still needed significant additional plantings to satisfy city requirements.

JRH's Approach
JRH reframed the tree as the landscape plan's anchor feature. By designing the site layout to incorporate the oak as a signature element, the tree satisfied a significant portion of the City of Pearland's landscaping requirement — reducing the additional plantings needed and accelerating the landscape plan approval. A retaining wall detention pond was used at the site perimeter to keep the pond footprint as small as possible, preserving every square foot of the buildable area for the restaurant pad and parking.

The Result
A fully permitted Dairy Queen restaurant on a constrained pad site — with a protected tree that became a landscaping asset and a detention solution that protected the buildable footprint.

RESULTS

● Protected oak tree converted from constraint to landscape plan asset — reduced additional planting requirements and accelerated city approval

● Maximum buildable footprint preserved through retaining wall detention pond — compact pond configuration protected restaurant pad and parking

● City of Pearland and TxDOT approvals completed simultaneously — no sequential review delays