Lakeway City Council rejects condominium plan for Lakeway Heights

Lakeway City Council has denied a developer’s request to convert the planned Lakeway Heights project into a condominium community, voting 6-1 against the change at its Aug. 18 meeting. Council member Christopher Forton was the lone vote opposing the denial.

Lakeway Heights, located at 15115 Kollmeyer Drive next to Lake Travis Elementary, was rezoned in January as a planned unit development (PUD) in a 5-2 vote. The project called for 82 single-family homes on 13.4 acres.

Since its introduction, the proposal has faced consistent community opposition. Concerns have included traffic impacts, neighborhood density, and whether the project fits the area’s character. Before the January rezoning vote, more than 30 residents submitted comments urging council to reject the development.

At the Aug. 18 meeting, developers sought to modify the PUD by shifting from individual lots to a condominium regime, consolidating the site into one lot under condo ownership.

“We’d like to build condos, we don’t want to build single-family houses,” Bruce Rainey of Blackland Capital Group LLC told council. “We can control the property differently when it’s a condo regime.” He said the layout would remain unchanged and promised compliance with city codes.

Several residents spoke against the request, calling the plans vague and inconsistent with earlier approvals.

Council members strongly objected to the shift. “The idea that [the developer] is open-minded to changing these from single family residences to literal condos is not OK with me. That, to me, blows up the whole thing,” Mayor Pro Tem Louis Mastrangelo said.

Mayor Thomas Kilgore added, “I asked the developer tonight why we were making this change, is this a you problem or a [Lakeway] problem? And the city of Lakeway doesn’t have a problem with the current PUD.”

The vote leaves the condominium plan rejected, but the original PUD approved in January remains valid.