The commission unanimously approved the second phase of the project during their meeting Oct. 28. Now, the expansion will have to be approved by Town Council.
The details
Andrew Chapin, the developer of Watermere at Flower Mound, asked for the land near the project to be rezoned from office uses to high density residential uses to add 24 residential units. The units will be spread across nine single-story structures on the property south of Dixon Lane and west of Whyburn Drive. They will be restricted to people 55 and older.
The project was originally approved by council in 2019 as part of something called a senior overlay district, which was meant to incentivize developers to create housing for seniors. The senior overlay district ended that same year. Town staff said that the overlay district was ended because it achieved its goal of bringing age-restricted developments to Flower Mound.
Zooming in
Chapin said 85-90% of the units were pre-leased before the development even opened. The place was fully occupied within the first year. The average rent at the Watermere at Flower Mound is about $3,200, which covers water, sewage, expanded basic cable, door-to-door trash pickup and other amenities.
“We’d never seen demand quite like this,” Chapin told the commission. “Since then, we’ve just been building and building a waitlist.”
There are 36 people currently on the waitlist for the Watermere at Flower Mound, Chapin said. Some live in Flower Mound. Others are waiting out of state.
“We know that the demand, as we can see from our waitlist, far exceeds 24 villas,” Chapin said. “However, we do see this Phase 2 as a good start to meeting that demand in Flower Mound.”
Commissioners said they’d prefer the villas be built on the land instead of office space.
“I think this is a great use of the space,” Commissioner Scott Langley said at the meeting.
