City OKs concept for Lake Pflugerville

"When you talk about your dream home, you have to know how much it costs and what you want it to look like," Sattler said regarding the lake plan.

The master plan calls for numerous improvements around Lake Pflugerville including several large concepts and numerous smaller additions. Major potential additions on the north end of the lake include an above-water boardwalk that would wind through a natural interpretive area, which would be a wetland with native plants.

"Folks can get into that area and view habitat, whether it be birds, turtles or different grasses and things like that," said James Hemenes, Pflugerville Parks and Recreation director, who briefed the council on the master plan.

Potential features for the northeastern side of the 180-acre lake include a beach and pavilion area with canopy sunshades and a 12-foot-wide concrete boardwalk.

The plan also calls for improved parking, bathrooms, and a hard embankment and lakeside promenade for walking on the southern edge of the lake where erosion has broken down the grassy bank.

On the lake's southeast side, the plan envisions an amphitheater with a sail-like canopy. The venue could potentially hold 1,500 to 2,000 people, Hemenes said.

Pflugerville Mayor Jeff Coleman said the amphitheater would probably be the lowest priority on his list of major projects. Coleman favored projects that could be used on a daily basis, such as the boardwalk and natural wetland area, over a venue that would be used sporadically.

"The boardwalk idea is a great idea," Coleman said. "Maybe you [could] put a little jut-out [there] for somebody to go out and fish."

The parks department solicited Pflugerville residents' opinions on what to include in the master plan. Suggestions ranged from creating a scuba diving area and adding a wakeboard park to building a decorative fountain. The most popular suggestions were enhanced fishing piers, overlooks with seating, improved wildflower and natural areas, and sustainable landscape enhancement.

The cost for some features in an earlier version of the master plan struck City Council members as too high and were cut out, such as an elevated pedestrian bridge and a new parking lot south of Pflugerville Parkway that would have cost more than $9 million.

"[The pedestrian bridge is] probably a big-ticket item that we are not going to get a lot of use out of," Councilman Wayne Cooper said.

Coleman said parking could present another possible problem.

"Even with the new parking that we continue to put in, we are drastically underserved," Coleman said. "People are coming, and [the lake] is just kind of OK now. If it's awesome, a lot of people are going to come."

The master plan includes fewer than 900 paved parking spaces, Hemenes said. The city intends to work with future developments south of Pflugerville Parkway to share more parking spaces.