A guest room at a Mainstreet facility.[/caption]The facility would have been located at 2540 E. SH 114 and included 120 private rooms to house guests that are in need of a short-stay rehabilitation and therapy facility until they are ready to transition to their homes.
A representative from Mainstreet said the facility would employ around 90 people.
At the meeting, some of the residents of the Shady Lane neighborhood spoke in opposition of the project stating it would "alter the essential character of the neighborhood" and increase traffic. Some residents were also concerned about tree preservation.
Those in attendance that were in support of the project spoke of the need for a post-acute care facility in the area.
"I am a foot and ankle physician who has been practicing in this area for 18 years and a lot of my patients use these types of facilities," Dr. Marybeth Crane, a Southlake resident, said. "We don’t have any facilities like this in the area. So if grandma gets an infection then we have to send her to Bedford, Euless or sometimes even Dallas to find a facility that she can get IBM antibiotics for three or four weeks. This is perfect facility for that.
"A 100 beds right here in Southlake... so that is easy for families and friends to visit would be an excellent use for this property," she said. "And we all know this property has been sitting here forever."
Council member Brandon Bledsoe said he agrees that the project use is needed, but was not in favor of how much space the project would take up on the proposed lot.
"Sometimes a fit is not a fit," he said. "I think the use is great and it’s a quiet, low intensity project, and the Planning and the Zoning has pointed out what other projects could be here and quite honestly its probably a lot of them we don’t want. I would hope the applicant would not give up on this project and find a way to scale down."
The applicant, Mainstreet, has not yet decided if they want to pursue the project again.
