The ever-changing and complicated development on the 344-acre lot at 418 Ammann Road has changed names yet again, but the newest owner is making some efforts to work with Fair Oaks Ranch city officials and residents to get the property built out.
However, with a new proposal for the site that reduces the lot count from 635 single-family units to 435 now includes a 20-acre multi-family residential site and an expansion to 10 acres of commercial use, it’s unclear whether FOR city officials are any more pleased.
The presentation Thursday to the FOR City Council was met with some pushback from residents and councilmembers alike, but it was noted this was the first step in an attempt to open the line of communication between the developer and the city, something that was missing in several previous attempts to develop the property.
“We want to be good citizens,” Craig Lutijen said, representing the development. “We want to do something that works for everybody, but we’ve got a lot of money tied up in this. And we rely on the spirit of the transaction back from eight years ago. Now, we’re willing to work it. If y’all think something like this may work, here’s what we’ve got in mind.”
While this was a first step in turning over a new leaf, with the developer seemingly willing to work with the city to find a compromise, Lutijen did warn that he has lenders looking to him to turn a profit. He warned that while they are willing to work on a compromise, there is a lot quota that must be met to turn a profit, and he and his team are willing to go to court to push the city to adhere to its standing development agreement if a compromise can’t be reached.
The developer of what was known as Boerne Ranch Estates, the third iteration of the development now known as Fair Oaks Meadows, filed its third lawsuit against a local municipality – its second lawsuit against the city of Fair Oaks Ranch – last month. The arguments in this lawsuit mirror those in previous attempts, citing the city’s disapproval of the developer attempting to bring in offsite water.
“The development agreement only requires that the developer provide ‘a water source,’ that it be ‘groundwater,’ that the developer provide the water availability study and the contribution in aid of construction,” reads the Boerne Ranch Estates petition against the city of Fair Oaks Ranch.
Lutijen addressed what he called everyone’s one true concern: water. Without naming the source, he said the developers are prepared to bring in off-site water from a “solid group” from the eastside of Comal County. Additionally, Lutijen said the developers are planning to seek a Planned Unit Development, allowing a homeowner community or association to require dues from its residents to pay for road and amenity maintenance and upkeep.
One issue with the new development plan, addressed by both Place 1 Councilmember Emily Stroup and Place 4 Councilmember Laura Koerner, was the introduction of a 20-acre multifamily development. While Stroup favored an age-restricted, potentially assisted living, facility, Lutijen said it was unclear what would be built on that site at the time. He said a senior-living center was ideal, but he couldn’t make any guarantees that day.
Koerner questioned Lutijen’s selling point to the council of reducing the number of lots by 200, pointing out there would still be 755 living units when the multifamily units are added in, increasing the impact on traffic in the area and the number of residents moving through the semirural city. In all, the developers are eyeing a total of about 320 units for the multifamily development.
Despite the reduction in single-family residents, the lot sizes will on average remain at less than half an acre per lot due to the increased commercial use and the multifamily residential lot dedication.
Another key change in the new plan included improvements to Ammann Road, something city officials have been eyeing for some time now. The proposed development included a recommendation for a new police station, EMS service location or other public facility where Ammann Road takes a 90-degree turn in front of the lot. Then, Lutijen said they could turn Ammann Road into a “lazy ‘S’” through the development rather than having a “death turn.”
In the end, no final decisions were made nor any concrete plans for moving forward, but city officials and Lutijen acknowledged this was a jumping off point to discuss plans.
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