Photo by Community Impact photo by Kyle G. Horst

The fate of a proposed hotel on SH 121 was put on hold for a second time at the first Colleyville City Council meeting of 2015.

The proposed hotel, Hampton Inn & Suites, a member of the Hilton Worldwide brand, is planned to be built at 5200 SH 121 on a piece of undeveloped, unplatted land next to La Hacienda Ranch.

The hotel is the first to explore moving into Colleyville.

Icon Lodging, the company who will run the hotel, and the developer originally asked the council to rezone 1.94 acres of property from CC-2 Commercial District to a Planned Unit Development-Commercial zoning in order to build a five-story, 96-room hotel.

In addition the developer asked the city for a number of building code waivers. Most notably the developer asked the city to waive the height limit so the hotel could be five stories, construct 97 parking spaces instead of the required 98 spaces, reduce the required amount of landscaped area to 18 percent and to waive the requirement that a hotel must include a restaurant.

At the request of the developer, the council moved to table the item at the Dec. 16 meeting so that the developer could address some of the issues brought up by the public and bring back a revised site plan at the Jan. 6 meeting.

The developer made many changes to the site plan and the site since the Dec. 16 meeting.

Most notably the total number of rooms was reduced to 91, down from 96, in order to comply with municipal parking requirements.

Due to the reduction in rooms, ordinance only requires 93 full-size parking spaces, a requirement that the developer was able to meet.

The height of the building has also been reduced to 66 feet, down from 77 feet. However, the building is still five-stories tall.

Current code only allows for a 35 foot structure with two stories.

Three different fences have also been proposed by the developer. A solid masonry wall will be installed on the property line it shares with Colleyville Heritage High School, a rod-iron fence will be installed on the property line shared with La Hacienda Ranch and a chain link fence will also be installed on the north side of the property which is undeveloped.

During the public hearing, many residents spoke against the proposal — most echoed the same sentiments heard at the Dec.16 meeting: the proximity to the high school, increased crime and traffic, and the fact it does not conform with current building codes.

"Colleyville is the best place to live, and I think that we should make it the best place to stay," Aaron Siddique said, a lifelong resident of Colleyville. "You go on the Colleyville website and you see a visitors guide. What you don't see is a hotel; it goes as far as listing gas stations."

"This hotel has high standards, the same standards that this city sets for its citizens and businesses."

While Siddique mentioned a few issues he has with the height of the building, he worries more about what not granting the variances may lead to.

"What I see now is a group of well-financed dedicated people who are willing to spend a year of their time and come in front of this council to make every change requested of them to get the job done. That's the kind of business I want to see Colleyville attract."

Alexis Georgiadis, the vice president and chief financial officer of La Hacienda Ranch, spoke to the council in opposition of the project.

"There is a need for a hotel, I'm not disagreeing with that," Georgiadis said. "But this is not the right space with this size hotel. If a different size hotel want to come in, that's their right, we wouldn't need to be here it just doesn't fit."

After the public hearing was closed, the council moved to table the item until the Jan. 20 meeting.

Because of the opposition to the project, a super-majority vote of the council must be earned in order to approve it; if more than one council member votes against the project, it will fail.

All documents related to the project, including letters sent to the council in support and against the project, are available for free online at https://colleyvilletx.suiteonemedia.com/Web/Home.aspx.