The city is sectioning off 1500 acres of land near the airport for a special district, aimed at future growth with Samsung Austin Semiconductor’s needs in mind. The new designation required an amendment to the city’s Envision Taylor comprehensive plan. Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis presented the proposal during a public hearing at the July 25 City Council meeting.
“We designated the majority of this area a special employment district. The reason is twofold. One, we were going through a process to reconsider some of our growth sector designations in this area based on some landowner input. And then the other reason was because we wanted to ensure we had locations for Samsung suppliers and others like that to locate and that we didn’t lose a bunch of that land to residential development which is normally the thing that comes first,” Yantis said.
In fact, residential development has already begun in the area now referred to as as Small Area Plan – Special Employment District North. The new Turner Springs, Megatel and Silicon Vistas subdivisions are building in the northern section of the district.
Yantis said the designation for residential areas came about after the architect began looking at the shape of the land.
“The western area and a lot of the southern area is really flat. So those flat properties are really good for those big industrial buildings,” he said. “We really looked at using this flood plain from Mustang Creek waterway and using that as the dividing line between the industrial land uses to the south and west and more residential to the north ... because of the topography and natural features.”
Yantis and his staff have been working with Michael Watkins Architects since August 2023 to develop the future land use guide. Before Samsung announced their investment in Taylor, the land was designated for regional employment center use, and the city was hoping to attract larger industrial businesses to the Texas 79 corridor.
The area covers a large swath of highway frontage west of the airport and north of Texas 79. The assistant city manager said they are anticipating needing two additional traffic signals on Texas 79 to accommodate expected industrial growth in this section.
The plan also calls for the highway-fronting portions of land to be set aside for auto-oriented commercial such as grocery stores, restaurants or banks. That was a concern to the owners of Floyd’s Glass, whose 48,000 square foot facility is in the area deemed for commercial.
Yantis said he was unsure whether the glass company would be considered commercial or industrial, but in the end it would not matter.
“Either way they are not directly affected by any of what this plan would do because they are an existing use. This is a future land use designation,” he said.
Attorney Jeff Howard, representing Floyd’s Glass, asked if the area where his client’s factory is located could be re-designated as commercial or industrial, rather than just commercial, in case the business needs to expand in the future.
Yantis said city staff would work with anyone who had concerns about how the plan would affect their existing property and usage.
“This is not zoning. This guides zoning decisions in the future. Ultimately that decision is up to the City Council,” Yantis said. “This is not the Ten Commandments. It’s just a guide.”
