Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Comprehensive Plan topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Leander commission approves comprehensive-plan text updates, adds guidance for Hero Way South employment center
Summary
The commission approved amendments to the comprehensive plan text to label employment centers, add guidance for the Hero Way South employment center, and update the Leander Central land-use category; staff said the guidance will be used by planners but not codified in the ordinance.
The City of Leander Planning and Zoning Commission voted to approve an amendment to the city's comprehensive plan text that updates the employment-center land-use category and revises the Leander Central land-use category at its meeting (date not specified).
"This request is the first step in the comprehensive plan amendment," Carina Castillo of the planning department said. Castillo presented a draft guidance sheet for the Hero Way South Employment Center — an approximately 620-acre area staff described as one of the city's largest employment opportunities — that would clarify preferred and prohibited uses, preferred land-use mixes, and potential incentives for planned-unit developments (PUDs).
Key elements of the proposed guidance include a minimum 25% nonresidential office component in developments within the center, a minimum 10% green-space requirement, and limits on certain uses and site types (for example, staff identified that pad-site retail, drive-throughs and automotive service uses would be discouraged or prohibited). The guidance also lists incentives such as increased density or height in exchange for higher design standards (for example, masonry requirements, structured parking, reduced setbacks and phasing that advances commercial development before residential).
Castillo said the guide is intended as a staff guidance document to assist in drafting PUDs and will not be codified as part of the ordinance. Commissioners asked clarifying questions about the intended mix of horizontal versus vertical mixed-use development in the center; Castillo said horizontal mixed-use would be allowed only as a secondary use in the Hero Way South center, while other employment centers would generally prioritize vertical mixed-use.
Vice Chair Colon flagged a wording inconsistency in the packet that could be read as excluding the Hero Way South recommendations; commissioners agreed to correct the language. "That implies that the 6 or 7 bullet points following that do not apply to Hero Way South," Vice Chair Colon said, and staff agreed to remove the problematic phrasing.
Vice Chair Colon moved to approve the comprehensive-plan text amendments as presented (with the agreed correction); the motion was seconded by Commissioner LeDay and the commission approved the amendment among those present. The guidance sheet will be used by staff in pre-application conversations and PUD drafting; it is not a change to the zoning ordinance and will not itself authorize development.
