Updated plans expected for Lakeway's city center in 2018

The latest: Lakeway Mayor Joe Bain said at a Nov. 20 town hall meeting that Dawlett gave him a verbal promise he would build a four-lane extension of Main Street. He told Bain he would link it with an extension of Lohmans Spur Road from the site of the planned police station at Lohmans Crossing Road.

“If we got all this done, that would be a significant improvement to the traffic in Lakeway,” Bain said.

A key piece of the development puzzle is the 37-acre tract Stratus Properties owns behind the Oaks at Lakeway shopping center. It is one of several connected parcels residents told Bain they would like to see develop under a shared vision. Bain agrees.

“I think [the September 2017 Stratus proposal to give the city 25 acres for parkland in exchange for a 350-unit apartment complex on the remaining land] is a dead issue although [council] has not voted it down,” Bain told the November meeting attendees.

The city of Lakeway is doing an appraisal on the Stratus property to see what it could cost to buy. The mayor’s estimate for the entire parcel is between $4.5 million to $5.5 million. Voters would have to approve a land purchase in a May bond election.

Added to the cost is the price of extending four lanes of Main Street from the Oaks to Dawlett's parcel–a job that would run $1 million - $2 million, City Manager Steve Jones said at the November meeting.

What’s next? There is little movement publicly on the future of other nearby parcels that belong to a church, the local school district and other private developers including Lakeway Plaza Partners which developed the Lakeway Town Center shopping center west of H-E-B on RM 620.

Dawlett is expected to present Legend Communities' updated plan for City Center in the first half of 2018, Hayes told Community Impact Newspaper. That presentation will be aimed at securing a Planned Unit Development designation for the parcels from City Council.