Southlake balks at plan to clear cut hill for hotel project

When bulldozers cut the path for Texas 114 through Southlake decades ago, much of the excess dirt was piled up on the sides, leaving artificial hills and mounds.

Today, large trees have grown up on the hill near Kirkwood Boulevard and the highway, creating a dilemma for developers, who want to build a hotel and restaurants on the site and Southlake leaders, who want to preserve as many trees as possible.

Wilks Southlake Development proposes to build a 134-room Hilton Garden Inn with a parking garage and three sit-down restaurants with outdoor patios. The hotel would be able to capitalize on business travelers coming to T.D. Ameritrade’s sprawling new campus less than a mile away, in addition to the Deloitte and Fidelity facilities in Westlake.

But the Southlake City Council balked at the plan to clear cut most of the trees on the site to build the sea of parking and buildings.

“That was disappointing to see that we have zero percent tree preservation,” said councilman Shawn McKaskill. “This site is relatively small but there’s a lot of building going on. It’s a prominent, great piece of property, I get it. But perhaps there’s too much trying to be squeezed on to this property.”

Charles Hodges, partner and founder of Hodges Architecture, who represented the developer, said the plan already requires retaining walls to deal with the slope. They have to clear most of the site to so it’s level enough to build on, he said. Saving existing trees would require even larger retaining walls.

After an hour of discussion, the council directed Hodges to meet with the 2035 Southlake Corridor Planning Committee in August to walk the site and come up with a better plan. The council tabled its vote on the zoning change until the Sept. 4 meeting.

Council members want a less intense development plan that blends into the landscape because the project sits on the western border and is a gateway into Southlake. They also want more control over the type of allowable uses. While Hodges said they plan to build chef-driven restaurants, the zoning change included a wide variety of retail uses, some of which the council wasn’t comfortable with.

Hodges said they wanted to keep their options open but the preference is to build restaurants.

“We don’t know what retail is evolving into at this point,” Hodges said.

The council acknowledged that it’s a tough property to develop but they agreed when they hold the line on development, they end up getting a better project.

T.D. Ameritrade’s sprawling campus, which opened in December, set the standard for how to build with the topography.

Councilman John Huffman said that building looks like a Hill Country resort.

“[This plan] is going to be a really stark and unattractive contrast to the T.D. Ameritrade building,” Huffman said.

Southlake has become a hotel magnet in recent years, with the 253-room Southlake Westin Hotel starting construction in April and the 175-room Cambria Hotel & Suites Southlake, which opened in late 2016.

Two more hotels, one big and one boutique, are planned in the Carillon Parc project at Texas 114 and White Chapel Boulevard.

This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 9:45 AM.