A nonprofit that uses horses and other animals in counseling wants to turn its one-acre property on Fort Worth Drive into a group home for adult men recovering from trauma, and the request now needs more than a simple majority of the Denton City Council to pass.
The council takes up Ranch Hands Rescue's specific use permit at its Tuesday, Nov. 17, meeting after postponing it Oct. 27. Two owners within 200 feet filed written opposition, and together their land makes up nearly 57% of the area inside that notice zone that sits in the city, which triggers the supermajority requirement.
The agenda also lists a closed-door session in which council members will get legal advice on the permit and staff's proposed conditions.
What the group wants to do
The property is on the east side of Fort Worth Drive (US 377), about 750 feet south of Johnson Lane. Roughly 85% of it is inside the city limits; the rest, including the livestock barn, is in Denton's extraterritorial jurisdiction.
According to the staff report, residents would be men 18 and older who are not disabled but have been through significant trauma. They could not have a criminal record or be registered sex offenders. They would work off site or go to school, pay affordable rent and practice life skills before moving to independent living.
Two or three staff members would be on site regularly for counseling, case management and animal-assisted therapy, but no one would supervise the home around the clock. The applicant told planners that common areas are monitored remotely. The group is not seeking a state license.
Objections and history
At the Sept. 9 Planning and Zoning Commission hearing, two residents spoke against the home. They questioned the lack of 24-hour supervision, the capacity of the septic system, the number of people who would live there and whether the organization had followed city rules in the past.
The staff report lays out that history. Ranch Hands Rescue won a permit in 2015 for an equestrian counseling facility on the site. In 2020 the city agreed it could be used as an ordinary residence if counseling stopped there, but staff now say counseling appears to have continued.
A 2021 complaint led to a stop-work order over a building and fence put up without permits; the group later obtained permits. In 2022 it bought 40 acres elsewhere in Denton County and tried to sell this site, but it did not sell.
