An age-restricted rental complex and housing off the east side of Lohmans Crossing by the new police station is now included in Lakeway’s City Center plan, according to Community Impact Newspaper. In August, Legend Communities, the same developer who built Tuscan Village, proposed a decade-long project for an 80-acre, multi-use retail and residential community to be built in heart of Lakeway, about a 30-minute commute to Downtown Austin.

The plan, which was presented to Lakeway City Council, includes a full-service hotel with a conference space, a variety of homes, a community venue, a village green space, retail and office space, and a performing arts center or movie theater. The new single-family home designs are meant to create a “community feel” with porches and small side yards.

Now, more visions of the city center are forming. The 37-acre Stratus Development-owned lot is one of 11 linked parcels in the area that Lakeway Mayor Joe Bain said will be developed eventually as a part of the City Center project. “If we got all this done, that would be a significant improvement to the traffic in Lakeway,” the mayor said in November.

“I think [the September Stratus proposal to give the city 25 acres for parkland in exchange for a 350-unit apartment complex on the remaining land] is a dead issue although [council] has not voted it down,” Bain said. The mayor estimates the entire parcel to be worth between $4.5 and $5.5 million. He says voters would need to confirm the land purchase, likely in a May bond election.

Currently, there is little movement on the development of other nearby parcels that belong to a church, the local school district, and other developers. At the November meeting, the mayor and many Lakeway residents expressed a desire for landholders to work toward a shared vision. 

Legend Communities is expected to propose an updated plan for Lakeway’s core area in early 2018. This new plan will strive to gain a Planned Unit Development classification for the land from City Council.