Medical facility gets another shot in Southlake

A 69,000-square-foot medical facility will get another shot at the City Council after an apparent mix-up with city ordinances.

The Council voted unanimously to deny Mainstreet Investment’s site plan for the Healthcare Resort of Southlake on Jan. 5. According to city council members, the main reason for the rejection was that the 102-bed facility would have chopped down too many trees on the 6-acre site at 2540 E. Highway 114 near Shady Lane.

The city’s current tree ordinance says developers must save 50 percent of the trees. The site plan proposed by Mainstreet would have cut down 68 percent of the trees.

But apparently, city officials were applying the wrong tree ordinance to the site.

Research by Kristen Bonola, who owns the site along with her husband Dr. Joe Bonola, discovered that the land had been platted prior to 2005, meaning Southlake should apply its older, less stringent tree ordinance for this case.

Joe Bonola met with city staff to discuss the oversight and won a chance at another hearing. The site plan will go back to council for consideration on Feb. 2, this time with no variances needed.

Bonola, who owns Next Century Dental just east of the site, said it’s an opportunity for Southlake to "get it right."

"The majority of the council members stated over and over that they wanted this project but were concerned that it knocked down too many trees that violated the ordinance," Joe Bonola said. "The council didn’t realize that staff provided the wrong ordinance to the engineers for the project."

Ken Baker, Southlake’s director of planning, explains in an email that the property was vested because of when it was platted and it will follow the older tree ordinance, 585-B. The city will advertise and notify residents near the project again for the Feb. 2 meeting.

Neighbors to the north opposed the project but Bonola argues that this stretch of highway frontage has been commercial for 12 years. He said the city has taxed him like it’s a commercial property during that time.

"It deserves to be built as a commercial venture," Bonola said. "They’re hiding behind a bunch of scrub trees to prevent it from being built.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 8:45 AM with the headline "Medical facility gets another shot in Southlake."