Mulroy fears backlash on tree rules

Council member says consultant’s plan would ‘extort’ from landowner s

A consultant’s plan to stiffen Den­ton’s tree protections could open the city to legal challenges, a City Council member said Monday.

The plan would re­quire developers to preserve 40 percent of a property’s tree can­opy. That would essentially ban clear-cutting, but developers could still remove some trees if they planted or preserved trees elsewhere or paid into a special city fund.

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Joe Mulroy called the plan “embryonic” and urged swift changes. He said the 40 percent canopy requirement would conflict with existing zoning categories that allow development to cover most of a site.

“You’re basically ex­torting from people that already have in­vestments in Denton or already have their land legally zoned,” Mulroy said during a meeting of the council’s Committee on the Environment.

The meeting marked the first public discussion of changes proposed by Burditt Consultants, a Conroe-based urban forestry firm the city hired last year to revamp the tree code.

Police: Clerk wasn't aware of family's plan to rob shop

3 suspects are Pizza Patron employee’s husband and parents

Denton police say they believe a clerk at the Pizza Patron when she says she didn’t know her husband and parents planned to rob her workplace Friday night.

“The man came in and said, ‘Give me the money,’ and I was getting it,” said Stephanie Martinez in a telephone interview Monday. “And then [the other clerk] hit him and knocked him out and knocked off his wig and I dropped the money. I said, ‘Don’t hit him again! That’s my dad!’ And he said ‘What’s he doing here?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know!’”

According to police, the suspect ran out of the pizza restaurant in the 100 block of East University Drive, but witnesses followed the getaway pickup — with Stephanie Martinez’s husband at the wheel and her mother in the passenger seat — until officers caught up with them.

“We believe her and will not be filing charges against her,” said police Sgt. James Brett. “Her husband told us she didn’t know. He knew they were going to rob someplace, but he thought it was going to be a convenience store.”

A man came into the restaurant about 10:25 p.m. pointing a silver pistol that turned out to be a toy gun, according to the police report. He demanded money from the male clerk, who refused. The robber slapped the clerk several times, and the clerk hit him with his fist, knocking him out briefly and knocking a wig and a pair of sunglasses from his face.

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