The council opted to rezone 8.93 acres at 910 Quest Parkway—which sits across from the Cedar Park police station and close to the post office and city library—during a May 25 meeting. The property has been zoned general retail since 1997, according to city staff.
The council opted to rezone 8.93 acres at 910 Quest Parkway, which sits across from the Cedar Park police station and close to the post office and city library, during a May 25 meeting.[/caption]Richard Suttle, who represents the owners of the Quest property, said he originally began working with the city about a year ago to request a rezoning ordinance that would allow for a multi-family apartment complex.
“When we started this process, we came to Cedar Park with an idea of doing a multi-family site, and we found out pretty quickly in talking to council members and city staff that we had pretty much lost our mind if we thought we would be able to do that, just another standard apartment complex,” he said.
Suttle said the property owners considered building a standard strip mall or shopping center on the site, but those options felt like the wrong project to sit across from the Heritage Oak Park.
During the May 25 meeting, Suttle presented the council with a four-story mixed-use project that would have a minimum of 11,000 square feet of non-residential uses on the ground floor and residential apartments on the upper floors. The proposed building includes 263 residential units with a mixture of one- and two-bedroom options.
The development would also have 1.13 acres of park land, a concrete stage with tiered seating to hold 750 attendees and would dedicate 26 parking spaces for the park and trail amenities.
Council Member Heather Jefts said she was concerned about the height of the building compared to structures surrounding it, and she said the project would not preserve enough green space.
“I do love the idea of the mixed-use and the higher density, I do appreciate that, but I think we’re trying to develop a character and flavor to Cedar Park, and I don’t know If this is in keeping with that,” she said.
Other council members said if the project were to be developed as general retail, which is how it was initially zoned, the developed property would not preserve any green space.
Cedar Park Mayor Matt Powell said the project was ultimately a compromise on both sides.
“We’ve talked about vertical mixed use for a long time. We have a term that we use-unicorns,” he said. “It’s something that we’d really like to see but it doesn’t always happen. It seems the market has finally gotten here, because this is one of multiple vertical mixed-use projects that’s going through the consideration process.”
City Council voted 5-2 to approve the land use change and the rezoning for the mixed-use project, with council members Jefts and Anne Duffy voting against.
