Leander City Council voted to postpone action on District 2243 and the proposed zoning change request at its July 16 meeting.
Council unanimously postponed the item to a workshop within 30 days after the applicant submits their final version to city staff and council. The applicant must submit the final version 14 days before the workshop.
Council Member Marci Cannon said postponing the zoning request after receiving continual reversions and new changes will allow the project to happen as it was presented.
City Manager Rick Beverlin said the city has been running a "skeleton crew," and the city wants to give justice to the project and other projects. He said city staff likes to receive something in enough time to review it as a matter of fairness, which was not feasible this time.
"Our goal is to get it to a product that is acceptable and beneficial to the city because it would be the third major activity center that the city would have on the books behind two others that are already approved in one form or the other," Beverlin said. "So we can't get it wrong."
Posted 1:15 p.m. July 15
The proposed 290-acre, mixed-use development, District 2243, will be discussed at the July 16 Leander City Council meeting.
District 2243, a proposed planned unit development was first presented to City Council at its July 2 meeting with a zoning request to change 23 land parcels from single-family rural zoning to planned unit development zoning with additional base zoning districts.
Mike Neu, the city spokesperson, said the project applicant requested postponement of the agenda item July 15, which is within 72 hours of the meeting time. City Council can decide to postpone the item during the meeting, but the zoning request item cannot be removed before the meeting, Neu said.
City council took no action at the last meeting because city staff needed to confirm if the project aligned with the city's comprehensive plan.
In the July 16 meeting agenda, city staff does not recommend approving the zoning request following updates from the zoning request applicant. The applicant made some recommended changes to its proposal but did not fulfill all requests, which included adding phasing requirements, reducing multifamily, clarifying land use percentages and an updated PUD to add the higher standards that were in the presentation.
"Staff does not currently recommend approval of this request with the updates. The modified PUD document does not address the concerns that were presented," according to recommendations in the July 16 agenda.
The proposal also does not include a cap on the number of mixed-use, multifamily units. There is a cap, however, on single-use, multifamily units. City staff recommended reducing the number of single-use units if there is no cap on mixed-use, multifamily units.
Council members had split views on the details of the proposed project. Some council members expressed excitement over what may be the city's largest mixed-use development.
The project would be located at the southwest corner of Hero Way and Ronald Reagan Boulevard, which is between the old and new RR 2243 to the north and south, respectively.
Four districts make up the proposed project, including an urban core, a neighborhood district, a highway district, and a health and wellness district, according to Barry Hand, a principal at Gensler Dallas who presented the project to council.
Note: This story has been updated with information about the applicant's request to postpone the zoning item.
