San Marcos City Council Denies Development Agreement Amendment For La Cima

By Terra Rivers | Managing Editor

Last week, the San Marcos City Council voted 5-2 to deny a request from Lazy Oaks Ranch, LP, (La Cima) to amend the company’s development agreement to add an additional 122.305 acres.

The amendment request was to allow for an increase in overall acreage, an additional 150 dwelling units and a slight increase in the required parkland dedication amount.

According to staff, the additional acreage is the combination of property commonly referred to as the Wills Tract.

In 2011, TxDOT and the City of San Marcos split the Wills’ tract to construct the Wonder World extension to Ranch Road 12.

Shannon Mattingly, Director of Planning and Development Services, said the additional 150 dwelling units would not increase the density of the development, which was reduced to 1.16 units per acre after an amendment to the development agreement in 2018.

During the meeting, the developer for La Cima offered to reduce the additional units to 122 in order to line up with the 122 acres and remove council’s concerns on increased density in the area.

Under their 2018 Amended Development Agreement, La Cima is allowed up to 30 acres of multifamily; the development is slated to have 2,800 dwelling units, which includes a maximum of 720 multifamily units.  

In addition, the La Cima development agreed to dedicate an additional 2.06 acres in parkland.

Councilwoman Melissa Derrick made the motion to deny, and Councilmember Lisa Prewitt seconded. 

Derrick said she knows a lot of San Marcos residents did not feel the development was the best use of land with it being located over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone.

Eric Willis, Project Development Manager for La Cima, said the new acreage would be subject to the 2018 Land Development Codes environmental restrictions; in addition, it would also be subject to the 20 percent impervious cover limitation established by the original development agreement.

Mattingly said the roads throughout the development are included under its 20 percent impervious cover limit.

Willis said the additional units would not be “stand-alone” on the new acreage and would be spread out to ensure the density and impervious cover ratios remained the same.

“We don’t have those areas of land planned at this time,” Willis said. “So for me to tell you what the density would be…I can’t.” 

According to Willis, the additional acreage would not increase the number of multifamily units that could be in the development.

The Wills tract is adjacent to the portion of La Cima’s property, which is zoned Commercial.

Willis said his request was simply to add the property and allow the land to be developed under commercial zoning without increasing the overall density as per the previous agreement.

Read more on La Cima and the Wills Tract family land

• San Marcos Getting Another Bite Of The La Cima Apple Worth $7M Plus Golden-Cheeked Warbler Breeding Grounds

• Lazy Oaks Ranch, Version 2.0 – La Cima