Legend Communities Inc. is the developer behind what is now termed as The Square at Lohmans, which is planned for 69 acres of open land that Bill Hayes, chief operating officer of Legend Communities, said will now become a town center.
“It becomes a gathering place, and a place the city of Lakeway doesn’t have right now,” Hayes said during remarks to city council.
Now, under the planned unit development, or PUD, Legend Communities will move toward building four-story commercial and rental housing structures around a 2.5-acre green space that can function as an amphitheater. Other housing built within the project will include a mixture of about 100 townhomes and 60 single-family homes.
As part of the agreement, Lakeway City Council set a stipulation that Legend Communities complete a new segment of Main Street within two years. Main Street as planned would contain four lanes and include a traffic roundabout connecting the roadway with an extension of Lohmans’s Spur, according to a presentation Hayes made to council members.
Before voting to approve the PUD, council members discussed how Main Street will have competing uses as both a city thoroughfare and a place to bring people to a new commercial shopping center.
Several council members, including Mayor Pro Tem Louis Mastrangelo, said motorists looking for a more direct connection to the Oaks at Lakeway shopping center would eventually be able to travel Lohmans Spur to Main Street to avoid the commercial area that Legend Communities intends to build.
“To me this is very different,” Mastrangelo said. “The fact that we have Lohmans Spur for people who just want to go to H-E-B, I think that is great.”
As proposed, the Main Street segment would connect to Lohmans Crossing across from Wingreen Loop as well as extend Lohman’s Spur north past the Lakeway police station.
Main Street currently ends at Medical Drive. The extension of Main Street from Medical Drive to Lohmans Crossing requires two developments on undeveloped land to the west of the Oaks at Lakeway shopping center. The other parcel of land is owned by Stratus Properties Inc.
Council member Sanjeev Kumar said that under current zoning the city does not have the ability to dictate to a developer the extension of Main Street, Approval of the PUD for The Square at Lohmans, gives the city that ability.
“It provides us a very fixed timeline for when Main Street gets built,” Kumar said. “In my opinion, it solves the problem.”
