Shawn has a consistent voting record against high density developments in Southlake, including voting against both the Parkview multi-family residences in Town Square (August 22, 2013) and the Super Kroger store (November 20, 2014) while serving on the Planning and Zoning Commission. While serving on City Council, Shawn made the motion to deny, and voted to deny, both the Town Square apartment application on February 18, 2020 (cases ZA20-0001 and 0002) and the Creekside Point hotel application on April 6, 2021 which only proposed to preserve 14% of the trees on its site at State Highway 114 and Kirkwood Blvd. During Shawn's time on City Council, Southlake had the lowest residential density of any city in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and City Council made multi-million dollar investments to acquire multiple tracts of vacant land for preservation as open/green space and possible city parks.
Shawn's record on City Council includes implementing the maximum residential homestead property tax exemption allowed under Texas state law, and 3 consecutive years of property tax rate cuts in 2019, 2020, and 2021, to the lowest property tax rate in Southlake since the 1980s. In addition, during Shawn's 6 years on City Council, Southlake paid down its debt from $76 million in 2015 to $29 million in 2021, with City Council mandating (1) refinancing of debt at lower interest rates, (2) accelerating the repayment of debt each year, and (3) cash funding for capital improvement projects such as roads, sidewalks, and underground infrastructure.
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