ROWLETT — On the shores of Lake Ray Hubbard, the once shared vision of city officials and their development partner are increasingly adrift.

In a special meeting Thursday, the Rowlett City Council was updated on plans for the billion-dollar Bayside project — and were upset those plans no longer contained parts of a grand vision, including an eight-acre crystal lagoon and other features that gained national attention when first announced in 2016.

Mayor Tammy Dana-Bashian lamented that the "the whole destination has changed into something much safer." And she wanted bold, not safe. So did the council, which has long desired the grand vision for the peninsula it wanted developed for the past two decades.

The developer, Tom D'Alesandro, told the council that lagoons work for resorts and as neighborhood amenities, such as one planned in Prosper. But to make Bayside and Rowlett a draw as an office destination and fill 1.7 million square feet with business tenants, he said, creating an artificial lagoon wasn't the best idea.

D'Alesandro hinted at a different approach to a lagoon in an interview with The Dallas Morning News two months ago. But Thursday was the first time the council officially heard it would be a smaller landscape feature and not a giant vinyl-lined pool-like amenity that he said didn't make sense in that context.

"(Crystal) lagoons are very attractive and they have a use," D'Alesandro said. "We were putting them to a completely new use that had never been demonstrated."

D'Alesandro, who took over the ambitious project in February, said he's still planning a billion-dollar development, but has to make the changes to meet the realities of the market.

The revised plans also include a proposed build-out of 15 years, a revelation that caused an audible gasp from residents in attendance. The previous developer had a four-year goal — and the lagoon's construction was supposed to begin this year.

Construction continues on the Bayside development on the former Robertson Park in Rowlett. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)

The developers still plan a resort hotel and convention center at the southernmost point of the development, where the crystal lagoon was to be included. While not naming the potential operator, D'Alesandro said after the meeting that the resort partner Bayside is working with did not see the crystal lagoon as a necessity.

He also scrapped plans for a one-acre fountain, which he said would merely soak the area because of year-round winds. A beach, meadow and cafe are now planned between the resort and the lake instead of the fountain.

A public park space between the retail boulevard and the lake would host up to 5,000 people for concerts and other events. The park would include a smaller, more natural lagoon and other water features in a natural setting that developers said would augment — but not block — the lake.

"We believe in creating authentic places," landscape architect Christie Ten Eyck told the council. "Places that speak to the region. That make you unique to everywhere else in the world."

D'Alesandro hopes first to build amenities that will stimulate the later addition of high-end townhomes on the lake and business space closest to Interstate 30.

"We have to create a market there," D'Alesandro said. "How do we take a place that is not on the map for office and make it a place that has office demand?"

A development that features Texas landscapes, trees and walking trails is the answer, he said. The developer's team believes a natural lagoon fits that picture, but a crystal lagoon does not. Its a formula that D'Alesandro and other team members said has worked for them, long-term, in developing The Woodlands Town Center and other sites.

But the three-hour meeting was a shock to the city leaders.

1 / 2Construction continues on the Bayside development on the former Robertson Park in Rowlett(Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 2 / 2Construction continues on the Bayside development on the former Robertson Park in Rowlett, Texas, photographed on Thursday, July 26, 2018. (Photo pool/Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)(Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)

The city had spent about 15 years eyeing the 257-acre property before finally working out a deal in 2015 with the city of Dallas to buy the land with $31.8 million of the original developer's money. They have annexed the land, extended utilities and created a tax reinvestment zone to help spur development.

The crystal lagoon, one-acre fountain and trolleys were among eight specific amenities the city promoted in a March press release announcing a series of development agreements with Bayside Land Partners.

And while council members liked some parts of the new plan — including the new idea of a boulevard feature with retail at the center — they didn't care for the proposal for a third less overall retail.

"It's a self-fulfilling prophecy," Dana-Bashian said. "We're not going to put the crystal lagoon in. We're not going to put the show fountain in. We're not going to put the trolleys in. Therefore we can't attract the retail. And now we're not going to have that destination retail because it's not going to be successful. Because we don't have the amenities that were originally planned for Bayside to make it that regional draw."

The mayor added Friday in a news release that any changes to the vision will require city approval — and that the revised plan doesn't match the parameters of the public-private partnership.

Mayor Pro Tem Martha Brown said the land has been cleared and it will take years to establish the natural amenities featured in the revised plan. She said Bayside was "perhaps our only opportunity to put Rowlett on the map and distinguish it as a destination."

Matt Grubisich, another council member, told D'Alesandro that he knew the vision would change, but didn't believe the developer had effectively communicated with the city.

"We want to have a partnership with you, but we don't feel like that has been reciprocated," he said.