Texas legislators have introduced a bill that could make zoning changes easier. That’s after Las Vegas Sands proposed rezoning a mixed-use development in Irving that would have included casino gaming in its destination resort, pending legalization in Texas.
The proposal led to considerable blowback from Irving residents and others opposed to casino gambling.
Senate Bill 844 was filed on Jan. 17 by Senator Bryan Hughes. During the Senate Committee on Local Government hearing on Monday, Hughes said the bill was about property rights, the democratic process, and would address obstacles that can come up when a city is making changes to an area’s zoning.
“Right now, changes in zoning can be quickly and significantly disrupted by a small number of property owners, even if some don’t even own the land that would be affected by the change,” Hughes said.
The companion to Hughes’ senate bill, House Bill 24, was filed on March 4 by Rep. Angelia Orr and has four joint authors and eight co-authors. Many of the representatives, including Orr, have received campaign contributions from the Texas Sands PAC, which is connected to Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Las Vegas Sands has lobbied to legalize gambling in Texas for years and formed the Texas Sands PAC in 2022.
HB 24, backed by the Texas Conservative Coalition, would address a housing shortage in Texas, lower homeownership costs, and increase private property rights, Orr said in a statement.
“Corporate entities were not consulted in the drafting of this bill, nor was this bill intended to help them,” Rep. Orr said in the statement.
Sen. Hughes has also been supported by the Texas Sands PAC, according to campaign finance report filings.
KERA reached out to Las Vegas Sands and other state representatives connected to the bill, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. was recently involved in a rezoning case in Irving for a high-intensity, mixed use development which would have included a destination resort with a casino gaming element. Las Vegas Sands would have been poised to quickly begin casino operations if Texas legalized casino gambling.
HB 24 was filed the same day the planning and zoning commission held a work session over the development.
Following strong pushback from Irving residents, Sands took out the casino-related portion of the development plans.
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Mark Boekenheide, senior vice president of global real estate development at Las Vegas Sands, defended the proposed destination resort as a “valuable product” during the March 20 City Council meeting.
“In previous meetings we’ve committed to working with the residents of this city, and I again make that commitment,” Boekenheide told council members during the work session prior to the meeting. “How that is best structured to accomplish, I would look to this group for guidance.”
Currently it takes 20% of property owners to protest a rezoning adjacent to their land which would then require a three-fourths super majority vote of the city council to approve the change.
If the bill becomes law, it would change the protest threshold from 20 to 60% of property owners within 200 feet of the adjacent proposed rezoning.
This could impact the University of Dallas, the private Catholic university that is a significant landowner of property in and adjacent to the Planned Unit Development, also known as PUD 6.
University of Dallas President Jonathan J. Sanford said in a statement that they were opposed to any legislation that “weakens the rights of adjacent property owners.” He added that Texas is a state built on strong communities and recognizing the fundamental importance of property rights.
“Efforts to make it easier for developers to ignore neighbors’ concerns erode property rights and undermine the principle of neighborliness; this is not the Texas way,” he said in the statement. “As a significant landowner in the City of Irving, we are very concerned.”
Casino gaming in Irving
The “high intensity mixed-use” development will sit on 1,001 acres, including the site of the former Texas Stadium, around State Highway 183, Loop 12, and Spur 482. There are about 452 acres of buildable land on the site.
Las Vegas Sands entered into an agreement to buy the land in 2022 and finalized the purchase in 2023, months before primary Las Vegas Sands shareholder Miriam Adelson acquired a controlling stake in the Dallas Mavericks. Plans for the development also include an arena, but Las Vegas Sands have not said whether it would be for an athletic team.
While plans for the land have been in the works since 2022, the Irving City Council had not heard details on the development until January of this year. Within two months council members were set to approve the rezoning, but residents pushed back.
The first and only town hall about the project was held less than a week before council met to finalize the rezoning.
Days later the city’s planning and zoning commission heard seven hours of public comment from a majority of people opposed to the rezoning and its casino element, including lifelong Irving resident Deborah Malain.
Malain called the proposal unprecedented and was not convinced the rezoning needed to be done while casino gaming was still illegal.
“If you pass this, what other illegal proposals will you be given?” she asked commissioners. “What other compromises will you be asked to make? If they are asking for a compromise and exception to the rule at the very beginning of this process, this will not be the end.”
Despite the large turnout, the rezoning passed the planning and zoning commission in a 5-4 vote.
Planning and Zoning Commissioner Daniel Denny was one of the four who voted against the rezoning. During the meeting he said he was skeptical about approving a project before casino gaming is legalized.
“If it doesn’t pass the state legislature this year, it’s going to be two years before it comes up again,” Denny said. “How much work could we expect on that site if it’s uncertain it’s going to get passed?”
In a letter the University of Dallas addressed to the Irving City Council on March 20, Sanford said they strongly opposed the inclusion of the casino gaming element in the destination resort plans.
The university — along with UD Land Holdings LLC and UD Land Corporation — own land on Tom Braniff Drive, Walton Walker Boulevard, Northgate Drive, E. John Carpenter Freeway, and Teleport Boulevard.
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Because the university owns significant acreage in Tracts E, F and H of PUD 6 along with additional adjacent properties, Sanford said they should have been given official notice from the city to confirm suitability of the proposed use for PUD 6.
“Casino gaming would threaten the wholesome and truth-seeking climate we have worked hard to cultivate over many years at the University of Dallas, and it would negatively impact the family friendly environment that the city of Irving has fostered so well over so many years,” Sanford said in his letter.
Casino issue on the campaign trail
While the Irving City Council approved an amended rezoning proposal on March 20 without the casino gaming element, some city council candidates say the casino issue is far from over.
Following the public backlash over the casino gaming, Place 2 candidate Sergio Porres updated his website to include an anti-casino message along with campaign flyers, paid for by the Anti-Predatory Gambling Association, telling residents to “stop the predatory casino.”
Even though casino gaming is illegal in the state, Porres said the May 3 election would determine whether it could have a future in Irving.
“[Las Vegas Sands] is just waiting to see if they get candidates that are going to give them what they want instead of being the tough negotiators that the city needs to make sure that we protect Irving and its character,” he said.
Las Vegas Sands previously said during the March 14 town hall that they were not financially involved in the May 3 election, which includes three city council seats on the ballot. Sands’ Senior Vice President Andrew Abboud said during the town hall that they would not directly nor indirectly influence the proposed zoning change through financial donations.
“No, no, no, we would never do that,” he said during the meeting.”
However, the Texas Sands PAC has not only supported authors of the bill in Austin, but it has also supported committee members that have overseen the bill.
On March 27, House Bill 24 was sent to the Committee on Land and Resource Management. Six of the nine members have been supported by the PAC. And out of the seven Senate Committee on Local Government members who heard the bill on Monday, three have received the PAC’s support.
PACs having influence on what legislation gets attention is nothing new in Texas.
Brandon Rottinghaus, University of Houston political science professor, said there’s an old adage that says there’s only one political party in Texas.
“That’s the party of money,” he said. “The reason is because money moves mountains in the legislature.”
The most consistent success story for legislation is one that has the financial backing to it. And a PAC like Texas Sands has that multimillion dollar contribution power.
When it comes to legalizing casino gaming in the state, Rottinghaus said that legislation has been met with a non-financial hurdle: moral opposition.
Legislators who are morally opposed or who see economic liabilities have been one of the stoppage points to getting it passed statewide. Another reason is the lack of buy-in from political leaders like Dan Patrick.
“The third reason is that major changes in how especially gaming operates in legislature, take many sessions to get passed, that’s common,” Rottinghaus said.
While the casino gaming issue has become a talking point on the Irving City Council campaign trail for some, Place 2 candidate David Pfaff said it is currently a state issue.
“This should go to vote of the Irving citizens at the appropriate time when we know if it’s even legal from the state Texas and what does that even entail,” Pfaff said. “So we’re kind of running blindly right now with it being illegal.”
Got a tip? Email Megan Cardona at mcardona@kera.org.
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