By LESLEE BASSMAN, Four Points News
By consent agenda and unanimous vote, the city of Austin’s Zoning and Platting Commission approved a resubdivision of the Steiner Ranch Lake Club, 12300 River Bend, Austin, on June 18 that paves the way for residential development on one of two lots comprising 5.22 total acres. The property falls within Austin’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, an area whose residents don’t pay city taxes but also aren’t serviced by the city.
Behind the action is the Steiner Ranch Master Association along with Steiner Ranch, Ltd., Taylor Woodrow Communities and 239 Rio Vista, entities that filed the resubdivision application, agenda documents state.
Upon hearing the news, Steiner Ranch residents took to social media to voice their concerns that the property, including the community’s common area, may have been sold. SRMA attorney Clinton Brown, a shareholder with local law firm Roberts Markel Weinberg Butler Hailey PC, set the record straight: the neighborhood’s beloved Lake Club wasn’t sold and isn’t going to change as a result of this action.
“First and foremost, there’s been no sale of property,” Brown told the Four Points News.
The Lake Club property was not owned by the SRMA prior to 2015, but instead owned by the developer, now-branded Taylor Woodrow Communities, with the association having only “use rights” to it, he said. In 2015, SRMA negotiated with Taylor to own Lot 1, or what is now the Steiner Ranch Lake Club, he said.
“What (Taylor) did do (in 2015) is they kept a little sliver of original Lake Club property at the very, very north end of the Lake Club lot,” Brown said of the Lake Club grant to SRMA. “They kept this sliver but they did not do a replat.”
The “sliver” Brown referred to constitutes a small portion (.2827 acres) of Lot 2 of the June 18 resubdivision. Lot 2 is some 3 acres total and that provides Taylor with the opportunity to build a maximum of 17 homes on the site, the resubdivision plat documents state. Lot 1, owned by the SRMA and constituting the Lake Club, is about two acres in size.
“Prior to this resubdivision, the (SRMA) owned 90 percent of the Lake Club tract and the original developer, Taylor Morrison, owned 10 percent of the Lake Club tract,” Brown said. “So, we were actually joint tenants of one lot.”
He said the resubdivision cleaned up the property’s plat by an agreement of both tenants to the tract — SRMA and Taylor.
“The association (Steiner HOA) has no control over what is going to be developed (on the Taylor lot),” Brown said. “So we don’t know. They’ve designated it as residential currently.”
Approval for Taylor’s residential plans belongs to Travis County since the property is not within the borders of any municipality.
“No decision has been made,” said Eurus Capital Partners Vice President Chad Schroeder, representing 239 Rio Vista, the ownership group of Lot 2, about the number of homes slated for the property.
He said 239 Rio Vista has been working with Travis County and the city of Austin officials for the past two years to complete the resubdivision. He said the status of the site’s public boat ramp won’t change.
According to Schroeder, the company has no hard plans for their tract and must still go through the permitting phase before the project can move forward.
“Just because it says (17 homes) on the plat, doesn’t mean (that’s) going there,” Schroeder said.
The resubdivision was the subject of the SRMA’s June 28 meeting during which its board of directors signed off on the filing.
“The (Steiner Ranch Homeowners Association) never owned this piece of property and has no input into its development,” said Christopher Langevin, vice president of SRMA’s board of directors, in an email. “The Steiner Ranch HOA board would like everyone to know that no change of ownership or change in zoning for any part of the Lake Club property owned by the HOA is happening or being planned. I(n) fact, we have made substantial investment in upgrading the bathrooms of that facility.”
“We would like all residents of the HOA to use the facility now and in the future.”
According to City of Austin Planning Officer David Wahlgren, the June 18 ZAP decision is final and cannot be appealed.
