A proposal to set up zoning for a workforce housing complex on about 8 acres at the intersection of Nightingale Lane and RM 620 is headed to the Lakeway Zoning and Planning Commission on Aug. 9.

The Nightingale at Lakeway project calls for 248 apartment units at reduced rent in a three-story apartment complex that will be offered to residents earning on average 60% of the area median income. For a family of four, that would equal about $59,340 in annual income, according to information presented during an informal update hosted Aug. 3 by the project’s developers, Kent and Meg Conine of Conine Residential Group Inc.

Kent and Meg Conine met with nearby residents ahead of the upcoming meeting of the Lakeway planning commission to offer updates about the proposed residential complex.

“We are not going to build, sell and disappear,” Meg Conine said to the small group of residents who attended the meeting. “We live here.”

A main issue brought up during the meeting concerned the amount and flow of traffic that the housing complex would create in the surrounding area.

Opposition from nearby residents has formed not because the development represents workforce housing but the fact that Conine Residential proposes a high-density project with an entrance to the property off a residential street rather than working with the Texas Department of Transportation to build access off RM 620, said Brian Chavez, who is president of nearby The Canyons at Cardinal Hills homeowners association.

“The main point is the entrance and the density,” Chavez said after attending the meeting held at the La Quinta hotel in the Oaks at Lakeway shopping center. “If they got that right, I think they may not have had this backlash.”

Nearby residents will oppose the development as proposed at the upcoming zoning meeting, he said. The Canyons at Cardinal Hills represents about 88 homeowners. However, additional homes exist around the area along with Lake Travis Elementary School. An earlier proposal for the project brought to the Lakeway planning commission in May saw large opposition from nearby residents.

To address traffic concerns, Conine Residential proposes to add a right-hand turn lane to Nightingale and build a traffic light at the street’s intersection with RM 620, according to information presented at the meeting. Other details include the construction of a multistory parking garage at the center of the property and a 1-acre park.

Other topics discussed by residents included the height of the structures, how moving vehicles access the property, timing of the traffic signal construction and eventual operation by TxDOT and whether area residents would even use the on-site public park.

Kent Conine said to the group gathered for the meeting that the project requires about 250 units to be financially feasible and that Conine Residential would work with the city to expand Nightingale at the start of the project, which would not be expected to be complete before 2025.

If approved and constructed, the Nightingale at Lakeway project will be the second area workforce housing complex. Currently under construction at RM 620 and Storm Drive is the Villas at Cardinal Hills. That project is under the direction of Rise Residential, which is also a development partner of Conine Residential on the Lakeway proposal, Meg Conine said.