What we reported: A significant, decade-long development project that aimed to complete build-out of Lakeway’s core area was publicly presented to City Council in August. Developer Legend Communities, the same group behind Tuscan Village on Lohmans Crossing Road, pitched an 80-acre, multi-use retail and residential community.

Legend CEO Haythem Dawlett told Lakeway City Council in August the City Center concept will include a full-service hotel with a conference component, a variety of homes, a community venue, a village green space, retail and office space. He also said the proposal includes a performing arts center or, in the event the center is not approved by City Council, an alternative concept, such as a movie theater with dining.

Legend Chief Operations Officer Bill Hayes said in August that planned single-family homes will feature porches, be closer to the streets and have small side yards—a design aimed at fostering a “community feel.”

A separate plan for an age-restricted -- or 55-plus -- rental complex, housing and retail off the east side of Lohmans Crossing Road by the proposed police station on a separate Legend-owned parcel is also being tied into the City Center plan, Hayes said.

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.