Cedar Park City Council gave initial approval to begin the process to plan a medium-density residential and commercial development next to the city-owned Lime Creek Quarry during a Thursday meeting.

The city’s future land-use map, which recommends how properties should be zoned in the future, suggests uses of regional office, retail and commercial for the 13.12-acre tract at the corner of Lakeline Boulevard and West Park Street. The property is currently zoned as general business and conditional overlay.

According to city documents, Gehan Homes submitted a future land-use petition to City Council to change 10.7 acres of the tract to medium density residential. Peter Verdicchio, a principal with SEC Planning LLC who is representing Gehan, said the company hopes to create a condominium-type townhouse development within the 10.7 acres, and the remaining 2.6 acres along Lakeline and West Park would be built as neighborhood-type commercial.

“We’re really excited to be able to bring this product to the marketplace,” he said. “We really feel this is a type of product that is really needed in the greater Austin area, especially suburban areas that are continuing to mature and evolve such as Cedar Park.”

He said the residential project would hold a maximum of 94 units, and Gehan would design a landscape buffer adjacent to the existing quarry.

Council members Heather Jefts and Dorian Chavez said they were concerned about the townhome development located next to the quarry, though they recognized the city plans to eventually end blasting on the site and turn it into a future development.

“…Heavy industrial right next to residential, and residential right next to the heavy industrial and heavy commercial—they don’t mix very well,” Jefts said.

Audrey Wernecke, who holds the Place 4 seat on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, spoke before the council and said she was against the development because the city changed the future land-use status of the same property from residential to commercial in the past. She also said the development could create traffic on West Park.

“I feel like this is a gateway into that potential development, and to just to put a bunch of houses and townhomes there, I don’t think that’s the best use of the property,” she said.

City Council approved the petition at a vote of 5-2 with council members Mike Guevara and Chavez voting against. The petition’s approval starts the process for the city to consider the future land use map change, which requires the applicant to submit documents to P&Z and City Council in the future.