By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News

The Lower Colorado River Authority owns nearly 16 acres of land near Mansfield Dam. A year ago, LCRA was under contract to sell the undeveloped land pending approvals but the deal never went through, and now LCRA is keeping the land.

A 269-unit apartment project called The Bridge at Lake Travis was proposed to be built at RM 620 near the Mansfield Dam pending rezoning and sale approval in September 2020.

But that didn’t happen and the LCRA property was not sold.

“The contract was not finalized. LCRA has decided to keep the property and it is not on the market,” said Clara Tuma, public information officer at LCRA. 

According to Tuma, LCRA does not have a plan for the property at this point.

A year ago, Tuma confirmed that the property was under contract with a prospective buyer.

The Bridge at Lake Travis project was to include two tracts of land located at 4504  RM 620 N., which is located in the city of Austin. 

According to the application which was filed on August 17, 2020, the applicant applied to rezone the sites through the city of Austin. The applicant wanted to have both the 12.72-acre parcel and the 3.51-acre parcel rezoned from development reserve (DR) to multifamily — moderate density (MF-4).

The larger Tract 1 site was to be for the apartments and proposed to have 21 units per acre, said Mark Graham, a project manager for the zoning case with the city of Austin. The smaller Tract 2 site was to be a recreational/amenity area for residents, giving access to Lake Travis, Graham shared last fall.

A year ago, the application stated there were to be 245 units that are one-bedroom and 24 units to be two-bedroom, and that the estimated rental rates for the units were between $1,100 to $1,600. The traffic impact analysis shared that the project was estimated to add 1,464 trips per day.  

Residents within 500 feet of the proposed project were notified by the city about the two applications for rezoning. The letters were dated August 21 and 25, 2020 

The letter from the city of Austin in part stated:

“The City of Austin has sent this letter to inform you that we have received an application for rezoning of a property that requires approval by a Land Use Commission and final approval by the City Council… The Commission may not take action on this application until a public hearing is held.” 

That did not happen.

When asked recently if LCRA has plans for the property or if it plans to sell the land at another point, Tuma said, “No.” 

Like all LCRA real estate sales, transactions require approval from the Lower Colorado River Authority Board of Directors.