Earlier this month, North Texas real estate developer Hillwood announced it had finalized plans for a 6,000-home development on 3,200 acres in Denton. The company plans to break ground in September with 700 homes in a residential mixed-use development called Landmark.
“The Landmark project represents progress in our commitment to sustainable growth, which will bring vibrant living and recreational spaces to the City of Denton,” Mayor Gerard Hudspeth said in a July 18 news release from Hillwood. “I look forward to seeing this dynamic community come to life, driving economic development and creating a thriving environment.”
What people probably don’t realize is that several senior-level executives from Hillwood — its president, four senior vice presidents and five vice presidents — have donated between $500 and $1,000 to Hudspeth’s campaigns since 2020 for a total of $7,500, according to campaign filings.
“When it comes to Hillwood, it is a large corporation, and I would ask you NOT to assume and arbitrarily link an individual donor with a corporation just to fit a narrative (they are NOT a union or organized organization),” Hudspeth wrote in a Thursday afternoon email to the Denton Record-Chronicle. “Individuals are just that and can support who they want without it being made something it is not.”
Hudspeth isn’t the only Denton City Council candidate to receive donations from those connected to companies with active development projects in the area. Such donations also recently appeared in council member Brandon Chase McGee’s 2024 campaign reports.
The city’s Board of Ethics tried to address the issue two years ago, when board members discussed tweaking the conflict of interest definition to include recipients who received $500 or more in campaign contributions because of undermining public trust. However, the ethics board is now focused on broadening the definition and removing the percentages of ownership and $600 minimum — as well as the pending matter and burden of proof, which requires an ethics complainant to act as a prosecutor.
“You raise the exact issue/reason why our current code is unworkable and, yes, unethical,” David Zoltner, an ethics board member, wrote in a Wednesday morning email to the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Though the Board of Ethics hasn’t been successful in addressing it, a “solicitation ban” via an ordinance passed by council would help address the issue.
A solicitation ban keeps elected officials from accepting or soliciting donations from those developers or their “principals” (i.e., executives and those who represent the development interests) with active business at the city or the council.
Dozens of state legislatures and several cities have implemented the ban, including Cincinnati and Los Angeles, as Steve Goodin, a former interim council member in Cincinnati, told public radio station WVXU in 2021.
Passed in 2019, Los Angeles’ solicitation ban took effect in June 2022. It prohibits a developer or principal from making campaign contributions to the city attorney, council members or the mayor. It also prohibits them from donating to candidates for one of those offices or a city committee controlled by one of those individuals.
Los Angeles’ ordinance defines “principal” as the developer’s board chair, president, chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief operating officer or someone who owns 20% interest or is authorized to represent a restricted developer before the planning department for a significant planning entitlement, such as a zoning change or a specific-use permit.
Goodin was behind the solicitation ban that was passed by the Cincinnati City Council in 2021. Three council members were indicted on federal charges, and investigators said all three had asked developers for money.
Three council members were indicted on federal charges, and investigators said all three asked developers for money.
In an email Wednesday, Goodin said that while they couldn’t legally ban developers from giving money to council members outright, they were on firm ground banning council members from soliciting campaign funds from “active developers” with projects currently before the city.
“The central idea is that an ‘active developer’ is seeking either zoning relief or some other incentive, and that campaign solicitations during this period present a higher risk of appearing to be (or actually being) an illegal quid pro quo transaction,” Goodin said in his email.
“The ordinance appears to have accomplished what was intended — to discourage the sort of campaign solicitations which undermine public trust.”
A wish
McGee, who won his second term in May, didn’t start accepting contributions from developers or those with active projects in the city until the 2024 campaign season, according to campaign filings.
“I don’t accept the premise that it is bad to accept campaign contributions from people with whom I have a personal relationship or folks who share a similar vision for Denton,” McGee wrote in a Feb. 10 email. “In this country, we believe in running elections and those elections cost money to run in. Unfortunately, I’m not wealthy enough to self finance my campaign. Believe me, I wish I was.
“Truth is, I’m a regular working man like the majority of Dentonites.”
In his 2024 campaign filings, McGee didn’t report donations from development political action committees but did show nearly $20,000 in donations from individual developers and their principals, some of whom are connected to T. Wilson & Associates. The real estate consulting firm has a zoning change request on Corbin Road tentatively slated for the Aug. 14 meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Those donations totaled $5,861, according to campaign filings.
The consultant is seeking a zoning change from rural residential R2 to multifamily on two plats, one 26 acres and the other 166 acres, mostly in a floodplain in a rural residential neighborhood.
In southwest Denton, Corbin Road goes from Bonnie Brae Street to the industrial area on Denton’s west side, but is closed to vehicle traffic underneath Interstate 35E.
Kirk Wilson, the president of T. Wilson & Associates and a former Denton County judge and commissioner, has been attending the Denia Area Community Group’s neighborhood meetings about the potential multifamily project.
T. Wilson’s website reads: “...Both our senior partners have served in public office and has an intimate understanding of how government works and what motivates them to get deals done. We have strong relationships with mayors, council members, city managers and senior level staff, as well as consultants in many Texas cities and towns.”
Wilson also has other active projects, such as in the Hartlee Field area. He couldn’t be reached for comment by the Friday afternoon print deadline.
For Corbin Road, the rezoning will need a supermajority vote from the City Council because it has received opposition from the owners of at least 20% of the land area within 200 feet of the project.
“As of today, the opposition for PD23-0001 [the multifamily project] looks to be 38.76%,” Angie Manglaris, the city’s development review manger, wrote in an early July email to Kyle Eaton, who attends the Denia group’s meetings and lives directly across the street from the property.
Eaton said that Scott McDonald from Development Services told him at a recent neighborhood meeting that the city is overwhelmed with development projects.
“We don’t know what is going on behind the scenes,” Eaton said. “Personally, I would prefer that council members don’t take those campaign contributions, and if you are talking with constituents and you take money from them, then be up front and let people know. That is always on the back of their minds.”
Former Mayor Chris Watts, who lives near Corbin Road, questioned how many meetings McGee had with the developer prior to accepting the donations in November 2023 and how many were had after the donations.
“I hope in the spirit of full transparency, Council member McGee will fully disclose the relationship he has with anyone associated with the Corbin Road project,” Watts wrote in a Thursday afternoon email. “The optics of Council member McGee receiving approximately half of his 2024 campaign contributions from those with a direct interest or are associated with those who do, for [the Corbin Road] project that has been working through the city for a year or so are not good.”
Friends in high places
Some of McGee’s contributors have also appeared in Hudspeth’s campaign fillings over the years. Those contributors include Roy Magno ($1,000) with T. Wilson & Associates.
“Roy Magno is a friend and a former Mayor (of Aubrey),” Hudspeth wrote in a Thursday afternoon email. “He works with Kirk Wilson … but I object to you aligning employees with ownership.”
Wilson’s name also appears on Hudspeth’s campaign filings for $6,000 in donations over the past few years.
Wilson works with North Texas housing industry giants such as Rex Glendenning and Mehrdad Moayedi, both of whom have projects in the area and donated $2,500 and $3,000, respectively, according to Hudspeth’s campaign filings.
In Hudspeth’s 2024 filings, seven executives from Hillwood donated $4,000 total. One of those executives, Andrew Pieper, is also the former president of the Dallas Builders Association, according to representative from Hillwood.
“Hillwood has been a committed landowner in Denton County for over 30 years,” James Fuller from Hillwood wrote in a Friday afternoon email. “Our employees actively engage in civic and philanthropic activities throughout the communities we serve, including supporting local leaders and candidates for political office. Hillwood also has a long history of providing philanthropic support in Denton County, including donating land and resources to the Denton Independent School District and other worthy causes.”
The Dallas Builders Association’s HOMEPAC of the HBA of Greater Dallas along with the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas (AAGD) and the Texas Association of Realtors’ political action committee (TREPAC) have donated $50,298 in total campaign contributions since 2020 when Hudspeth first sought the mayor seat, according to campaign filings.
Hudspeth told the Record-Chronicle in December 2020 that he had the “requisite balance of property versus public health versus growth, and I have shown the ability to balance those interests and not focus on my own ideology.”
TREPAC and AAGD also donated $8,000 total to Erica Garland’s campaign challenging McGee in May’s municipal election, according to campaign filings.
In a Wednesday email, Hudspeth questioned mentioning the PACs. For example, TREPAC and HB Greater Dallas “are interested in residential markets and typically support candidates who favor low taxes and pro-business mindset. They do not get involved in individual development deals,” Hudspeth wrote in a Wednesday email.
“Greater Apartments is an association of Apartment managers, not builders,” he said.
According to the association’s website, AAGD represents the multifamily industry in 11 counties, representing apartment properties, management companies, rental property owners and companies that supply the industry.
There are currently 28 multifamily projects in development in Denton, according to the city’s development tracker.
Public trust
For neighbors facing multifamily developments near floodplains along Corbin Road and the North Lakes neighborhood, avoiding what happened to those who opposed apartments near Hartlee Field area is what they desire. Their hope is that a council majority will actually hear their concerns and protect their neighborhoods.
Gayle Sulik and Keith Ketchersid from the North Lakes Preservation Group, which formed in June due to the threat of multifamily development, said they’re building their network and working to form a coalition with other neighborhood groups, including those Hartlee Field in northeast Denton and Corbin Road in south Denton.
“Our goal is to not only hold developers accountable but hold the city accountable,” Sulik said.
Holding the city accountable could also include implementing a requirement for developers to give at least a 10-day advance notice of a neighborhood meeting so that neighbors can actually attend.
Sulik said she didn’t get her mailed notice of a neighborhood meeting with the developer in North Lakes until an hour before the meeting on Monday.
They were still able to get 60 people to attend despite the short notice, though Sulik said people “were furious.”
That project’s specific-use permit will come before the Planning and Zoning Committee tentatively on Aug. 28.
“I argue that the property owner has the right to develop that is consistent with the goals of the border community,” Sulik said. “Individual property owners’ rights should not override the rights of the collection of individuals.”
Sulik said McGee has been transparent about receiving developer contributions.
“He said unequivocally to us that it wouldn’t affect his vote,” Sulik said.
Ketchersid reiterated Sulik’s claim.
“I’ve heard him say that several times, that campaigns cost money and you need money, but a developer shouldn’t be able to buy a vote,” Ketchersid said.
They didn’t realize McGee also gave direction for city staff to move forward with a plan that will eventually allow multifamily housing in the Hartlee Field area if the zoning change requests are approved.
Staff will look at the area plan to determine the future land-use designation and recommend the zoning change to planning and zoning, which, in turn, will recommend it to the council if it also meets the other requirements.
In a Wednesday email, McGee said he was proud of his voting record that he said shows he puts the “interests of regular working people first.”
“No donor has ever asked me to vote in any specific way,” McGee said in his email. “Based on my experience, people donate money because they believe in the candidate and/or they share a similar vision for the district or city. In my case, I personally know almost all of my donors and I’m thankful that they believe in regular working people being able to serve the community.”
Hudspeth reiterated McGee’s point in a Thursday afternoon email, pointing out that donors to his campaign agree with his positions such as lower taxes on residents and the need to attract high-quality businesses to lower the burden on homeowners.
“Some developers have supported me because I support excellent developments that improve the lives of the people of Denton,” Hudspeth wrote, reiterating that he has won election as mayor for three terms now.
“Last week, Kamala Harris raised $200 million over two days. On a per-resident basis, that is more than all three of my campaigns combined. And that was just two days of one campaign compared to my three campaigns over five years. Nobody is doubting that those donors gave the money because they agree with her positions.”