City leaders hoping to bring a convention center to Denton are facing an obstacle in their own development code.
Convention centers aren't a permitted use in the code, meaning city leaders must pass a code amendment if negotiations to bring a 120,000-square-foot convention center to the University of North Texas campus are successful.
City planners discussed the problem last week with the Planning and Zoning Commission. To accommodate the project, they're proposing a zoning change for the development site and related amendments to the development code and comprehensive plan.
Commissioners raised no initial objections to the changes, which will face a public hearing and vote as early as Feb. 22 before heading to the City Council for final action.
UNT confirmed this month it had received an unsolicited proposal from Springfield, Mo.-based O'Reilly Hospitality Management LLC about reviving a dormant project for a full-service hotel and convention center at Interstate 35E and North Texas Boulevard.
Three-way talks involving the company, city and university are ongoing, and no agreement has been reached, officials said Friday.
"We're just starting discussions," UNT spokesman Buddy Price said. "So nothing's been worked out."
Scott Tarwater, an O'Reilly executive involved with the project, did not return a call seeking comment.
The proposal included a 250-room, full-service hotel - either a Hilton Embassy Suites or a Marriott - and a second 100-room hotel on university property near where a Radisson Hotel once stood, officials have said. The project could also include a city-owned conference and exhibition center, but details about its funding and management must be worked out, said Linda Ratliff, the city's economic development director.
"We don't have a design; we don't know the cost," Ratliff said. "All of that will have an impact on … what the agreement looks like, how things are funded and who funds what."
The project has no firm timetable, although city officials say they want to move as quickly as possible. To that end, city planners are working on the needed zoning and land-use changes.
A staff proposal would add convention centers as a permitted use in certain zoning districts. Also, the 11.5-acre project site would get a new zoning and future land-use classification, bringing it in line with the rest of the UNT campus north of the interstate.
Although they didn't object, some commissioners questioned why the changes were needed given that UNT, as an arm of the state, isn't bound by city codes. Chuck Russell, a city planning supervisor, said staff members believe the city should follow its own rules as a partner in the project.
"We don't know for sure what the relationship is going to be" among the parties, Russell said. "Even if the dirt is owned by UNT, the city's going to have a role in this facility."
The city and UNT announced in March 2009 they had begun talks with Springfield, Mo.-based John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts to build a full-service hotel and conference center at the former Radisson site.
At the time, Hammons planned to run the hotel and conference center, and the city was expected to offer hotel-motel occupancy taxes to supplement private funding for the conference center. City officials also considered selling bonds for the project.
The arrangement could differ this time because the city is dealing with a bigger project and a different developer, Ratliff said.
City administrators met with leaders of the Denia Area Community Group this month and said any contract would protect the city from financial losses, said John Weber, the group's president. Still, some neighborhood leaders worry about how the city would make out in the long run, he said.
"Unfortunately, in dealing with the university, it's not an even keel," said Weber, whose group has clashed with UNT over multiple issues including the development of Apogee Stadium. "We usually come out on the losing end."
The group isn't worried about traffic from a convention center spilling over to the neighborhood, since access would be off the interstate, Weber said.
LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com .
 
