Denton residents fighting apartment developer

by Chris Speight of North Texas Daily

Residents living along Bell Avenue in Denton are pushing back against the development of an apartment complex they said they feel will cause too much traffic in their area.

Real estate developer Rod Taylor is encountering several obstacles with a 12-townhome development at Bell and University Drive from tenants who are against it because they do not want more college students living there or more cars driving by.

Taylor, who is the owner of Point Services Limited Liability Company, is on the brink of his latest apartment complex, Lux at Bell Avenue, which would be on the now-vacant lot at the corner of the two streets.

"Primarily they're pushing back based on density, the number of units there, which is pretty absurd," Taylor said. "I haven't actually done a traffic study, but … you can easily see that there are hundreds of cars that pass Bell Avenue in just an hour."

Taylor said he doesn't think that about 36 more cars in the complex will mean a significant traffic impact on Bell Avenue.

Deborah Conte, a psychologist and resident of the Bell Avenue Historic Conservation District that Taylor wants to develop in, said she has seen about 22 cars on a given day waiting at the stoplight.

"I might suggest that you go try standing on that corner yourself sometime during rush hour and perhaps interview one of the neighbors who is trying to get out of their driveway and onto the street with the existing density of traffic," Conte said. "I think they might have a different point of view on that."

Conte said she knows her neighbors have done a lot of complaining about the fact that they can't even get out of their driveways at times.

"I think the numbers Mr. Taylor is proposing would actually be underestimating the amount of traffic that would be on the street," she said.

If Taylor is granted the right to build in the district, the city will require him to widen the street, as well as the alleyway, he said.

"They're requiring me to widen the alley that goes back to University so that a fire truck could get through there."

In order to widen the alleyway, Taylor said he would either have to reduce an apartment unit, which would be difficult for him because his costs are rising, or remove a tree that's more than 100-years-old, which he does not want to do.

"I'm a tree hugger," he said. "I designed the development for the specific purpose of keeping those trees, but it's just a minor hurdle."

Taylor said he is still trying to work out the number of parking spaces, which will be between 24 and 32 spaces.

"The meeting is being planned, tentatively, for the end of next week, possibly next Saturday," Taylor said.

The Bell Avenue Historical Conservation District will remain open to changes Taylor can make to the project, Conte said.

"I do believe that there are ways that compromises can be made for responsible infill that benefits everyone, the neighborhood, the developer and whoever they are trying to develop the property for," she said.