I spoke to a variety of diverse residents who overwhelmingly stated that they simply didn’t want it. This meant that if I, as a council member, were going to support it, I needed to be able to justify why it would be good for Farmers Branch. That was a hard hill to climb for many reasons.

The city of Dallas is in current litigation with one of their own boards regarding card houses. In my humble opinion, it is in our city’s best interest to await the outcome of that before delving into uncharted territory.

I also believe we must weigh the pros and cons of any new business wanting to come to our city. In this scenario, I was uncertain of the drain on our city resources versus the tax revenue they would provide. Please note that not all businesses bring substantial tax revenue independently, but they do provide a service to our residents, which is valuable; gyms, daycares, churches, healthcare, etc. Other businesses do provide more revenue (grocery stores, liquor sales, etc.), but the question was: will this specific type of business create a larger burden on our resources, outweighing what they contribute? Specific financial records were requested but not satisfactorily provided; thus, the numbers that had been made available at the time of the vote didn’t cover the utilization of our first responders. When looking at a map for possible income from hotel/motel tax, the majority would have been across the tollway; therefore, Dallas would receive that revenue source.