Leander residents can see exactly where city leaders will promote future commercial development after City Council voted to approve the city's first future land-use plan Aug. 7.

The plan envisions specific types of commercial development at the intersections of major highways and local roads. By mapping the anticipated growth areas, members of the Leander Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council created an official guide for making future zoning decisions that encourage construction of successful retail centers in Leander, said Tom Yantis, Leander director of Development Services.

"Previously we didn't have this tool in place to help us determine: Is this the right location for the requested zoning of this piece of property?" Yantis said. "What we hope is that [the future land-use plan] achieves, over time, concentrations of commercial and high-density residential and office districts at these key intersections."

Mapping Leander's future

In 2007, P&Z appointed citizen volunteers to a Comprehensive Plan Update Committee. They helped assemble the city's 2009 Comprehensive Plan that included an early and informal version of the land-use map.

City Council joined P&Z on March 18 to review the 2009 map and modify the development nodes before officially adopting the land-use plan. After council's vote the plan went into effect immediately.

"This will be a help with the [2014] comprehensive plan," Place 2 Councilwoman Kirsten Lynch said.

Without a land-use plan, the city may unintentionally invite scattershot development along arterial roadways, Yantis said.

"It's not good for the commercial developments themselves to be so spread out because there's a lot of synergy that you get when you have compatible uses close to each other," he said. "It helps the shopping center thrive if it has a concentration of traffic generators."

Council members can amend the plan, and existing areas that overlap with the map's commercial junctions can keep their zoning unless City Council approves an area redevelopment plan, P&Z Vice Chairwoman Michelle Stephenson said.

"If it's currently zoned residential, it will stay," she said. "It doesn't have to change."

Yantis said the map aids smart growth.

"We'll end up having fewer [retail] locations but more successful projects," he said. "A plan like this helps to create better, more vibrant places."