The Southlake Town & Country "episode" came to an official close at Tuesday's Southlake City Council meeting.
Cencor Realty, project developer for proposed shopping center Southlake Town & Country, sent a letter to Southlake's planning director stating intention to withdraw their applications from consideration.
Cencor's plans for Southlake Town & Country, consisted of a more than 100,000-square-foot Kroger as an anchor and six buildings planned for retail and restaurants.
"Approximately a week ago, we [were] contacted by a new perspective developer who was proposing to secure guidance from the staff on the development of a project to be planned for the site on which Town & Country had been proposed to be developed," said E. Allen Taylor, Jr., the Southlake city attorney. "When the document came in, Ken Baker, the director of planning and development services asked 'where exactly does this leave us?'"
Taylor suggested making contact with the owner of the property, not the developer, to better understand the situation.
After making contact with the landowner, Taylor was told that "the [landowner's] contract with Cencor Realty had come to a conclusion, and had not be renewed and would not be renewed."
In a written statement to the public, Taylor wrote:
The Southlake Municipal Zoning Ordinance requires that in order for a zoning application to be processed, it must be authorized by either the owner of the real property that is subject to the rezoning application or, in the alternative, it may be presented and prosecuted by the city as a portion of its master planning responsibilities. The city did not generate and is not presenting the application for this zoning action. The owner of the subject property has represented in writing that Cencor no longer has authority to prosecute the application and, therefore, the application fails to meet the requirements of the Municipal Zoning Ordinance and has expired due to a failure of sponsorship.
With the application pulled from future meetings, the appeal filed against the Planning and Zoning Board decision is now "moot" and all future meetings, such as the one scheduled for April 30, have been cancelled.
He continued:
I have directed the Department of Planning & Zoning Development Services to discontinue the preparation for and noticing of a zoning board of adjustment hearing on the appeal relating to [Town & Country].
The city staff has been advised by the property owner that a development site plan for an entirely different project may be submitted at some point in the future by a prospective purchaser of the property who will be authorized to submit such application by the underlying land owner.
"At this moment, there are no plans to go forward with a specific development on that site. Any new proposal will begin at the initial stages and will have to go back to the planning and zoning commission in the normal development regulatory process," Taylor said to the council. "The Town & Country episode has come to a complete conclusion."
The council did not ask Taylor any additional questions at the end of his statement. No vote was necessary on the item.
