City council approves new campus apartment zoning

By: Brittany Bevis

Posted: 2/20/08

At Tuesday evening's City Council meeting, council members unanimously passed an ordinance designating approximately 26.12 acres of land on McKinney Street as the site for development of a new campus apartment complex.

The site, which is located on the south side of McKinney Street, east of Mack Park, is currently undeveloped but is designated as the new location of the Cypress Campus Apartments.

In a letter requesting rezoning for the site, Larry Reichhart of the Spring Brook Planning Group said the new complex is designed with NT and Texas Woman's University students in mind. Reichhart said the student housing project would consist of 15 apartment buildings, a clubhouse, a gym and on-site outdoor recreation.

The director of planning and development for Denton, Mark Cunningham, said the Cypress Campus Apartments are designed to "address and eliminate the [student's] commute back and forth out of the city."

Reichhart said the Parkland Development Corp. in charge of the complex's creation would build 369 units with the residential buildings reaching a height of three stories. Amenities planned for the project include a controlled and gated entryway, a dawn to dusk on-site security system, volleyball courts and a treed park.

Project specifications designate all structures be constructed of 100 percent masonry with stoned stucco, which adds to the project's description of being a "high end student housing project … a grade A development," Reichhart said.

In response to a public notice posted about the intended complex, the city had a neighborhood meeting Nov. 15, where 16 people attended to voice concerns.

Reservations from neighborhood residents were primarily related to increased traffic, the timing of Texas Department of Transportation improvements to McKinney Street, timing of the construction, occupancy of apartments, and the location of trees to be preserved.

City council member Charlye Heggins recognized the need for additional student housing when she said, "listening to students commuting back and forth into Denton, anything coming into the area will be a plus."