The future of the proposed apartment building on Johnson Creek was put on hold again Tuesday night as the Arlington City Council delayed the decision for two weeks.

At the Feb. 14 council meeting, the Plano development company Madison Communities asked for another two-week extension on the Johnson Creek Crossing apartment complex vote. The apartments received prior approval from the Planning and Zoning Committee but faces opposition by area residents due to its possible impact on the creek’s water level.

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck refused to delay the process indefinitely.

“We will continue this for another two weeks, but in two weeks, we will ask the applicant to make a presentation, and the council will take action on it,” he said.

Cluck has said that he is inclined to vote against the proposal, and after the meeting, council members Joe Bruner and Sheri Capehart also expressed their opposition.

At the previous meeting, most of the residents at the meeting spoke in opposition to the plan.

In addition to the speakers, seven nonspeakers were recognized in opposition to the plan. No one at the meeting spoke in support.

Arlington resident Leslie Willis said she feels betrayed by the city representatives who allowed the plan to come before the council.

“I can’t understand for the life of me why Planning and Zoning approved this,” she said. “To build in the floodplain when we’ve spent everyone’s tax dollars on this — what was Planning and Zoning thinking?”

In the 1990s, the city invoked eminent domain to clear out houses on the portion of Johnson Creek’s floodplain most likely to flood, declaring that area a safety hazard.

Arlington resident Howard Carley expressed the view held by some of the other dissenters that it would be unjust for the city to now allow a business to build on the area.

“I implore you to not turn your back on those people who unwillingly turned over those homes along the Johnson Creek zone,” he said.

Carley, who also spoke in opposition to the project at the Feb. 14 council meeting, said the developers have since tried to appease his neighborhood, accusing them of “trying to schmooze it past the public.”

Despite the attempts to put a good face on the project, Carley said he still views it as a bad idea.

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” he said.

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