Taylor will soon be almost 150 acres larger, with two developers asking for their land to be voluntarily annexed from the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction into the city limits. The properties are a 99.99-acre parcel just off FM 973 near the high school and a 49.913-acre lot near the airport. Public hearings were held for the annexations at the Jan. 11 council meeting.
The 99.99-acre parcel is known as the Davis Tract Phase II. Located off FM 973 just west of the intersection at Wesley Miller, the developers have applied to be zoned as New Neighborhood and Employment Center.
“This is the second half of a previously approved new neighborhood plan for the Davis Tract,” said Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis. “This is in our controlled growth sector and the land use designation is two-fold, there is neighborhood greenfield and special employment zone.”
Yantis said the tract will attach to and extend existing infrastructure that was constructed for the Castlewood and Castlewood South neighborhoods.
The property sits between Taylor High School and Samsung Austin Semiconductor. A traffic impact study will be done as part of the later stages of development.
“The Special Employment District is an area that we designated as our first amendment to the comprehensive plan to identify areas for employment-related land uses to support the Samsung development,” Yantis explained.
Developer representative Luke Caraway, president of Viewpoint Engineering, gave more details on the plan in a letter of intent to the city.
“My team is proposing a mixture of 40-foot and 45-foot lots in (the greenfield area),” the engineer said. “Another portion of the tract is being proposed as a roughly 60-acre mixed use tract contemplating five acres of business district, 13.5 acres of multi-family, a 12-acre elementary school site, and 15 acres medium density single-family for rent. The single-family for rent would incorporate transitional medium-density residential options such as cottage housing or townhomes.”
The second piece of property considered for annexation is 49.9 acres located south of CR 395 and east of CR 101, in the area west of the airport. The property has a pre-existing annexation agreement with the city and the owner is now requesting annexation with the employment center place type.
“This whole area...is designated as Special Employment District on the land use plan. As they get further into the development process they will prepare an employment center plan for their property which will show the street layout and arrangement of uses on the property,” Yantis said.
No members of the public spoke against the annexations during the public hearing. Council will vote on approving the resolutions at a future meeting.
The yellow outline indicates the position of the new subdivision in relation to Taylor High School. Photo courtesy of the city of Taylor
