A developer’s plans to remake Denton’s Fry Street area with a multistory apartment complex and street-level retail shops got an early green light Tuesday.

An official with Houston-based Dinerstein Cos. presented the latest plans for the mostly vacant block during a work session of the Denton City Council. Council members questioned some details of the project, including its effect on traffic, but raised no major objections. They also praised the developer for amending the plans based on feedback from two public meetings.

“We need to give you a signal whether we have any great objections to the path that you’re on and what you presented today — a signal to you and to [city] staff both — and I certainly don’t have any objection,” council member Joe Mulroy told Josh Vasbinder, a partner with the development company. “I’m pretty enthusiastic to see the concept so far, and the height and the density really are not problematic when it’s plugged in here to what you’ve shown us today.”

The meeting was the council’s first look at the project, which would sit on a roughly 4.5-acre block bordered by Fry, Hickory, Welch and Oak streets. The outcome means the project will continue to work its way through the city’s development review process, Denton planning director Mark Cunningham said.

Council members asked city staff members to study the best process for approving the project, since its height would conflict with the existing Fry Street-area zoning district. Company officials hope to secure city approval by December and break ground next year in hopes of opening the development by summer 2012, Vasbinder said.

The meeting also brought news that the developer has the entire block under contract except for the Cool Beans lot, which isn’t part of the project.

“At our last community meeting, we only had the United Equities property under contract,” Vasbinder said, referring to the Houston-area company that bought most of the block several years ago in a failed attempt to redevelop it. “We were in dialogue with both the [Gene] Hartman property as well as the [Joe] Normile. I can tell you today we have all three properties under contract.”

Company officials have said the project would cost more than $30 million to build and generate at least $600,000 a year in city taxes.

City planners and some residents criticized the developer’s initial plans, filed with the city in December, which showed a four-story apartment complex and multistory parking garage but no retail shops, despite the area’s history as a hub for independent shops and restaurants.

The latest plans are largely the same as those presented at the last public meeting Feb. 17. They show more than 10,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, an outdoor patio and some wider sidewalks along with the 194-unit apartment complex and 700-space parking garage.

Recent changes include the addition of a new facade on the parking garage facing Oak Street and bay windows and pitched roofs on the apartments facing Welch Street, Vasbinder said.

Company officials are sticking by their plans for four-story buildings, even though structures in the Fry Street district can’t exceed three stories under city code.

The developer is asking to build four stories measuring up to 55 feet. The code currently allows up to three stories for a maximum of 45 feet.

City officials have said the proposed building heights would need a code amendment, requiring public hearings and votes before the council and Planning and Zoning Commission.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.