Council approves apartments, Celina Record

Celina city council approves funding resolutions for multifamily dwellings Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Feb 10, 2016 City officials on Tuesday approved three Commitment for Development Funding resolutions presented by developers that have proposed building in Celina a pair of senior-living communities and a multifamily apartment complex. All three projects would be built using state tax-credit development funding. The three resolutions were met by numerous questions from council members regarding the amount of stress such projects could place on the city’s infrastructure, school district and public safety departments. The first proposal was presented by a representative of Palladium USA, developer of the proposed Palladium Celina Senior Living, a 180-unit structure that could be built on an 11-acre parcel near South Oklahoma Drive and Business 289. On the land it has under contract in Celina, the company proposed devoting 9 acres to housing and zoning the remaining 2 acres for medical-office use. The council approved the resolution with a 4-2 vote. The other developer, Gardner Capital, proposed building the Gala Senior Residences, an age-restricted multifamily community on 6 acres near West Louisiana Drive and Business 289. On an adjacent 8.5 acres, the company wants to build a multifamily apartment complex. While the resolution for the company’s age-restricted project was approved 4-2 by the council, a split 3-3 decision on the multifamily apartment project forced Mayor Sean Terry to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the resolution. Both sites that Gardner Capital is interested in developing are situated outside of city limits, in Celina’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Therefore, the company must also gain the county’s approval for the projects. Following the meeting, Terry explained that “the City Council committed to nothing” with the developers when it approved the resolutions, other than “we agree with you that we need senior housing. We’ll let you come look (at the area), so to speak, and we agree that we’re not telling you no.” On the other hand, Terry said he is “not crazy about the multifamily piece.” He does think the city “can dictate kind of what goes there through zoning, through conceptual plans,” he said, and will work closely with Celina ISD to understand how such a development could impact the district. Follow the Celina Record on Twitter @celinarecord.