A decision on zoning and land use for a new Hurst Harbor Marina project, referred to as The Creek at Hurst Harbor, has been delayed by Lakeway City Council.
The development, which will be discussed again at an Oct. 20 City Council meeting, is proposing to construct a 6-story condominium facility at Hurst Harbor Marina, located at 16405 Clara Van Street, along with new retail and amenity spaces.
The background
On Sept. 15, over 10 individuals spoke out at a Lakeway City Council meeting against plans for The Creek at Hurst Harbor.
Prior to the Sept. 15 City Council meeting, Lakeway’s Zoning and Planning Commission heard from developers of The Creek at Hurst Harbor at a meeting held Sept. 11 regarding two separate requests.
One of these requests was a future land use map, or FLUM, amendment, which would designate the development as “mixed-use”—an update from its current commercial and residential classification.
The other request was a zoning change to take the marina from its current Marina and Single-Family Residential — Rural designation, to a planned unit development.
These changes would allow developers to move forward on plans to create new condominium housing, retail spaces and amenities, according to city documents.
Some context
The marina is located just off Clara Van Street and is surrounded by green space to the north, Lakeway City Park to the West and residential plots to the east and south, Assistant City Manager Ashby Grundman said at the Sep. 11 meeting.
A similar request for rezoning was made in Sept. 2023, Grundman said, with the proposed condominium at that time including 160 condo units and a proposed height of 90 feet, with eight stories. ZAPCO recommended denial at that time and the item was subsequently withdrawn before reaching City Council.
The developer’s request as of Sept. 11 now includes 146 condo units in a six-story building with a proposed height of 75 feet.
The Lakeway Resort and Spa, for comparison, is 98 feet tall at its maximum height, Grundman said.
Three stories of underground parking are also included in development plans, as well as restaurant and retail space, and developers are also seeking to add a 10-foot perimeter fence around the property, Grundman said.
What they’re saying
The city received 58 comments through the city’s online portal prior to the Sept. 11 ZAPCO meeting, all in opposition to approving developer requests.
Common themes in these comments were traffic, park view and impact, safety and emergency access, impact to the lake, and concerns about marina and boat traffic, Grundman said.
ZAPCO’s Sept. 11 meeting was shortly followed by a council meeting on Sept. 15. Several residents expressed that they believed the city pushed the development forward too quickly and that they were not provided with enough time to provide public comment on the development. Additionally, some residents said the FLUM change requested would not be appropriate.
“I am respectfully requesting for you to vote no on the change of this FLUM–the reason being that this FLUM is currently zoned for marina and single unit residential. It is being proposed for 140+ units, [a] gated community which is not what this surrounding land and the current FLUM would approve,” said Rachel Mills, a Lakeway resident and member of Lakeway’s Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee.
Mills also said the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee had not signed off on the future land use map shared by council at the meeting.
Another opponent, Michelle Hazen, said that residents surrounding the Hurst Harbor development had signed a written protest against the development which was received by the city Sep. 15. Physical copies of the protest were offered to council at the Sept. 15 meeting but were rejected by Mayor Kilgore, who said they were not submitted by the deadline for documentation.
Residents also expressed concern that the development would be visually unappealing due to its height, although developers claimed the scale of the development would fit the surrounding topography.
The response
“Our proposed development works in scale with the neighboring topography and is set into the basin, as opposed to being perched on a hill-top as all the other similarly storied facilities in Lakeway [are],” said Rip Miller, who purchased the marina with his wife in Feb. 2022.
Miller is also a member of the Lakeway Board of Adjustments, appointed on July 7. The Board of Adjustment’s role is to convene to “hear variance requests of the Zoning Code, and to hear appeals of decisions made by the Zoning and Planning Commission,” according to the city of Lakeway’s website.
Miller argued that the condominium development would benefit Lakeway by improving the existing property, and improving the view from Lakeway City Park.
“The development is a benefit to Lakeway and [is] the redevelopment of an unsightly, run-down, single-purpose marina operation with a world-class mixed use condominium facility, thereby drastically improving the view corridors from Lakeway City Park,” Miller said.
What’s next?
Ultimately, Lakeway City Council voted 5-2 to delay a decision on the development until its next regular meeting on Oct. 20.
“In all the time I’ve been on council, I have never seen something go to ZAPCO and then two business days later it’s in front of council,” Mayor Pro Tem Louis Mastrangelo said. “I don’t feel like I was given the time to study this as much as I wanted to.”
Council member Matt Sherman also argued that the city should not base its decision on the FLUM shared during the meeting, which was a draft.
Mayor Thomas Kilgore and council member Christopher Forton voted against delaying the decision, with Kilgore and Forton both saying that all legal requirements were met by the developer in their application for a zoning change.
Kilgore also said that public input on the subject through the city’s online portal was a courtesy afforded to residents by the city rather than a legal requirement.
