McALLEN — The season is saved for Maddie’s Pumpkin Patch, the popular autumn attraction, after it received a full 12-month conditional use permit from the city to continue its operations.
McAllen city commissioners unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the pumpkin patch after the owners made adjustments to their operation that were based on complaints from neighbors.
Last year, city commissioners only granted a 9-month conditional use permit for the business on the condition that the owners would mitigate dust, erect fencing around the property and operate only between the hours of 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Those conditions were set after several of their neighbors submitted a petition opposing the permit over concerns of insufficient parking, traffic congestion, noise, lack of proper fencing, lack of privacy due to the high number of visitors and property devaluation.
The owners, Ricardo and Melinda Vega, circulated a petition of their own in favor of the permit, which garnered 2,703 online signatures.
This time around, the city’s planning department did not receive any opposition to the permit and staff reported the Vega family had complied with the conditions that were set last year by installing fencing and spraying water to mitigate dust.
City Commissioner Joaquin “J.J.” Zamora moved to approve the permit on the condition that they continue dust mitigation efforts. The commissioners unanimously approved it.
Ricardo Vega said they were pretty confident they had met all the requirements set by the city and weren’t surprised they finally obtained the permit. They were also not surprised by the lack of opposition.
“Three years is when we started minimizing all the growing pains that come with this, so three years ago we were already correcting everything … all the problems that they mentioned,” Vega said. “This only gave time for the neighbors to realize that everything was already working correctly.”
The pumpkin patch has already opened for the season, kicking off a little earlier this year at the beginning of September given that the conditional use permit allowed them to do so.
Before obtaining the 9-month permit last year, the pumpkin patch — located at 6712 N. Bentsen Road in McAllen — had been operating under a special events permit since it opened in 2016.
The 12-month permit they received on Monday now allows them to operate year-round.
“We just want to thank the public for responding to the petition that we put out,” Vega said. “The commissioners did hear from them — they did let us know that the public reached out to them in massive numbers, which they couldn’t believe — so that made all the difference.”
