HUTTO — A 113-room hotel got a boost from City Council Thursday when members approved the developers’ request for taller walls and fewer parking spaces than required by local development codes.
A Residence Inn by Marriott has been in the works for a 3-acre tract behind Home Depot since 2024. The developer needed special approval for the variances.
In other business, the city continues to oppose disannexation efforts and council members are exploring the development of a new fire station.
In the matter of the planned hotel, Chris Nichols, attorney for the developer, said in the beginning they were told they needed to have a “planned unit development” to get the variance requests approved, but current city staff suggested an alternative.
“We’ve been going through that (PUD) process. We’ve never been told to stop. It’s only been as we’ve gotten toward the end and in front of Planning and Zoning (Commission) and in front of council that it’s being suggested that we should scrap all the work that we’ve done, start over and go a different route,” Nichols said. “We’re really trying to maximize the size of this parcel with the very best project that can go on it.”
The four-story building at 328 Ed Schmidt Blvd. in the Hanson’s Corner expansion would be about 10 feet taller than allowed by the Unified Development Code, coming in at 55-feet high instead of 45.
While council members took no issues with the proposed building height, they were divided about the request to reduce the number of parking spaces.
City code would require about 44 more spaces than the hotel has designed. Hotel developer Navid Karedia of SITX Capital said his company has worked on many properties and the trend is hotels no longer need as many parking spaces because people are using alternative transportation such as ride sharing and public transit.
Twenty-four of the spaces the city requires are due to the hotel’s conference room. Karedia said the small conference room is intended only for hotel guests, so no additional space is needed.
“We’re restricted to this site to build a hotel that fits our pro forma and our budget. We understand that there is a parking variance and also a height variance. If we were to scale back, the pro forma doesn’t work, the numbers don’t work,” Karedia said.
Councilwoman Corina Zepeda said the shortage of meeting spaces in Hutto could mean the hotel’s conference room will be in demand, necessitating more parking.
“If there is an opportunity to have a hotel come in that does have a banquet meeting space, it would be an attractive addition to the city. It would be something people would want to use...so then they would need more space for parking,” she said.
Mayor Mike Snyder countered that in his experience when he attends conferences, the hotel guests have already left for the day and there is plenty of parking.
He said the amount of parking is a business issue, not a government issue.
“If you don’t have enough parking spots, you’re going to limit your business. That’s for you guys to figure out,” Snyder said.
City continues to fight disannexation Council members went into a closed-door session for legal advice regarding another state Senate Bill 2038 petition, which allows properties in a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction to ask for removal. After returning to open session, they voted to deny the request from owners of 150 Mustang Drive, and to direct the city clerk to deny all such petitions based on the belief they are unconstitutional.
Removal from the ETJ gives developers freedom from following most city development standards.
Hutto has continually denied SB 2038 petitions. Earlier this year, owners of 420 Hyview Lane and 460 Hyview Lane requested and were denied disannexation. The city then reversed its decision and allowed the disannexation because Hutto’s infrastructure would not be ready to serve the developments within an acceptable time frame.
SB 2038 went into effect in September 2023. In October of that year, Grand Prairie filed a lawsuit against it. Hutto was among many other cities that joined Grand Prairie in the legal action.
Two properties in Taylor that fought annexation have received favorable judgments, but there may still be challenges.
Hutto Fire Department progress
A Hutto Fire Safety subcommittee including Snyder and council members Jim Morris and Evan Porterfield met with representatives from Samsung Austin Semiconductor in Taylor last week to discuss how the development of city-owned Hutto Fire Station No. 1 would be able to serve the fabrication plant.
Although the city of Hutto would own the fire station, it is close to the Taylor facility.
Snyder said Samsung representatives told the group specialized training is important, including knowledge about the semiconductor industry and other high-tech firms coming to the area.
Hutto Fire Station No. 1 will be built in the Hutto Megasite, an area near Samsung and other planned industrial developments as well as the Cottonwood Properties.
Meanwhile, Snyder asked the city clerk to add an executivesession item to a future council meeting for legal advice regarding the release all legal memos related to Emergency Services District No. 3, an area first-response entity that is supported by property taxes.
The mayor wants to make public “everything from the money owed, the sales tax owed, to chapter 775 legal memos, all of it. The people want the truth.”
