Lantana development Project will bring hotel, homes, shopping to region
Annette Reynolds, Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News  
Published: May 18, 2000

The controversial Rayzor Ranch development, now named Lantana, is under way to bring the equivalent of a bustling city to the county just south of the city of Denton.

Made up of 1,532 unincorporated acres between Copper Canyon and Bartonville, the development will be home to three schools, a $50 million luxury Marriott hotel, a golf course, a clubhouse, swimming pools and tennis courts, parks, stores, restaurants and of course, homes - lots of them.

When Lantana is finished, in about 10 years, the development will have nearly 3,500 homes with approximately 11,000 people - larger than most cities in the county.

Denton County commissioners voted unanimously for the sale of $330 million in bonds Tuesday to the begin building of roads as well as sewer and water lines. Last year the commissioners approved a county development district (CDD) that set up a tax structure for Rayzor Ranch, which changed its name to Lantana. The people who buy homes or businesses in the development would pay a tax toward the cost of infrastructure inside Lantana, as well as services such as police and fire protection. CDDs were created by the Texas Legislature as a way for counties to boost economic development.

The homes will range in price from $180,000 to $1 million, with the average price $300,000, said developer Rick Strauss, with Dallas-based RCS Investments.

"This is a development that Denton County will be very proud of," said Mr. Strauss.

Jim Carter, the Denton County commissioner who represents the Lantana area, helped set up a task force of neighbors to the project in 1999 soon after the development was announced. At first, many neighbors were unhappy about Lantana, then called Rayzor Ranch.

"The developer has done almost everything they've been asked," Mr. Carter said. For example, Mr. Strauss dropped plans to build some apartments in Lantana, and has agreed to leave 400 acres as green space. These agreements will help lessen the traffic impact from the project, and help keep the rural atmosphere so important to residents of nearby Bartonville, Double Oak and Copper Canyon, Mr. Carter said.

Still some aren't pleased with the project.

Jan Cole of Bartonville told the commissioners Tuesday said she did not understand why the developers of Lantana needed the development district tax incentive when Denton County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the state.

County Commissioner Scott Armey said without the CDD, the land would have been developed piecemeal by various developers. That would most assuredly have meant fewer or no dedications of land for schools, less green space and less amenities, like the swimming pools and golf course, he said.

There also were many questions about whether the taxpayers would have to pay for the development's infrastructure if the developer went bankrupt.

County commissioners, as well as Austin lawyer Tom Leonard, who was the county's legal counsel in putting together the CDD, emphatically maintained that taxpayers under no circumstances would have to pay for Lantana's cost if the bottom fell out of the real estate market and the development failed. The risk would be with the buyers of the bonds, County Judge Kirk Wilson said.

"We want to make it clear to the public that we are not floating any debt on their behalf," Mr. Wilson said.

Mr. Strauss also outlined that with the development comes the Lantana Educational and Charitable Foundation. He explained that one-half of 1 percent of the purchase price of each home or plot of land in the development will be paid by the seller to the foundation. This money will be owed every time land or homes changes hands, and not just the first sale. The money will be used for educational and charitable purposes, and a board will be elected to oversee the distribution of funds, Mr. Strauss said.

The Denton school district board recently accepted the donation of land for an elementary school, which will be completed in 2002 or 2003. This 15-acre plot of land is in the western area of the tract, bordering FM 407. The other two lots for schools will be handed over to the district as the area around them develops.

John Mayall, who was elected mayor of Bartonville May 6, said residents are happy about the new school being built, as their children are now bused to Denton schools nearly an hour away.