Now that it has secured water for its master-planned residential community on the outskirts of Mountain City, Clark Wilson Builder’s Anthem project can move forward. Clark Wilson, owner of the company developing the neighborhood, said the funding structure for the Anthem project will be to establish the community as a municipal utility district, or MUD, which would sell bonds and tax residents in order to pay off the construction of utility infrastructure, such as for water, wastewater and electricity. Wilson said he aims to begin construction of the community in the fourth quarter of 2016, and an Anthem grand opening is likely about 15 to 18 months away. Wilson began the process of creating a MUD in December 2014. The developer had then worked out a development agreement with Mountain City. Because Anthem is in Mountain City’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, it would have the right to initiate proceedings to annex the property. After a contract with water supplier Electro Purification fell through, Clark Wilson Builder began looking toward the city of Kyle, which then initiated talks with Mountain City on an interlocal agreement to transfer the Anthem property to Kyle so that the city could provide water services to the community. Anthem would have sought to become a public improvement district, or PID, similar to a MUD but typically incorporated within a municipality. In order to annex the property the Kyle city limits would have had to have been contiguous with Anthem, but part of Dripping Springs’ unincorporated area and the Dahlstrom Ranch stood in that path. Wilson said that even though there was a strong effort to come to an agreement with all the involved parties, they were unable to get all the signatures needed. On Feb. 2, Kyle City Council rescinded the offer of an interlocal agreement with Mountain City and then approved a letter of intent to provide water and wastewater services to Anthem, which will remain in Mountain City’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Anthem will contain 1,800-2,200 homes when it is built out, and the cost of a home will range from about $300,000 to $500,000, Wilson said. He said a tree survey is being conducted to preserve as many oak trees as possible. Wilson said he intends to donate land for a possible Hays CISD elementary school within the community. As the Kyle area grows and attracts more local employment more professionals will choose to stay or relocate to the area, he said. “You’ve got hospitals, lots of retail and all these professionals that want to be close to the jobs that are continually coming to the area,” he said. “There is a lot coming to the area to serve the growing needs of the area.”