A Lakeway City Council zoning change will pave the way for a three-story Holiday Inn Express at RR 620 and Oak Grove Boulevard to the dismay of several neighboring residents.

After hearing from Bella Strada subdivision residents, a homebuilder and a hotel representative and weighing in on both sides of the discussion, council members unanimously voted in favor of the change from office/retail use to hotel/motel zoning at their regular meeting Jan. 19.
Residents said they feared morning and afternoon traffic delays, potential security threats, a severe drop in home values and views from several guest rooms that would overlook some of their backyards and windows.
Property owner Adan Lassiter said his appraiser estimated a drop of up to $400,000 in the appraised value of his $1 million house, which is immediately adjacent to the site of the proposed hotel.
Lassiter also told council members that a tenant in the house was considering buying the home but recently informed him that should the hotel project begin he would no longer be interested.
Resident Randall Hill said that before he bought his home in 2007 he researched the zoning of undeveloped land and felt comfortable that Lakeway would not veer significantly from existing zoning trends near the intersection. He also expressed displeasure with the hotel’s aesthetics.
“To many of us it is, indeed, quite an eyesore. Who wants to drive by this every day?” Hill said.
Citing 2009 occupancy rates at Hampton Inn & Suites Austin-Lakeway of 50 percent to 60 percent and Lakeway Resort & Spa of 45 percent to 50 percent, he also questioned the need for another hotel in the city.
Developer Russell Eppwright, who has built homes in Lakeway for 10 years, said he felt confident in starting a subdivision next to the site because of its zoning.
“We bought Bella Strada [because] we knew what the zoning was,” Eppwright said. “I never dreamed that it would be this easy just to change zoning when we had basically hung our hat financially on what we did there.”
He beseeched the council for a continuance because, given enough time, he thought his company could reach a compromise on outstanding issues with the hotel developer.
The opposition was nothing new to hotel representatives who faced heated words from residents in previous Zoning and Planning Commission meetings and resistance from commissioners who on Oct. 22, 2009 denied the hotel’s height variance request for 10 extra feet.
Holiday Inn architects redesigned the hotel site plan with a greater cut into the slope to meet the city’s height limitations and re-oriented the buildings position so all guest rooms would face away from adjoining neighborhoods with a few backyards visible from a limited number of rooms.
“I think it’s a better project as a result of that opposition,” Willow Springs Development developer representative Sarah Crocker said.
Based on Zoning and Planning Commission recommendations, the city placed seven conditions on the site plan that include a building setback of 135 feet from the property line bordering the adjacent neighborhood and a parking buffer of 80 feet from the border. Further, only hotel employees may park between the hotel and neighborhood, screening must be installed to block headlights from projecting toward the neighborhood, the hotel pool must close by 9 p.m. and the developer must make improvements to Oak Grove Boulevard if required by a traffic study and authorized by the city and Texas Department of Transportation.
Shannon Burke, Lakeway Building and Development Services director, said city staff members believed the hotel would be less of a nuisance than at other businesses that could have opened under the office/retail zoning.
“These conditions represent benefits to the neighborhood that could not be required of any retail, restaurant or office project that could be developed … under current [office/retail] zoning,” Burke said.
He sympathized with homeowners’ concerns over the views into their backyards.
“I think the question of privacy is still legitimate,” Burke said, noting that although a three-story office would enable the same views it would be less likely to be used at night and on weekends.
Council member Alan Tye said he hoped that negotiations would continue after the council’s decision.
“I’d like to see the council be able to proceed knowing that the good faith discussions will continue,” Tye said.
Several council members said they were pleased with how the developer had responded to requests from residents and city staff members through revisions to its site plan.
“When this project first came to the building commission, it was not a good project. It has moved, I think, in the right direction,” Mayor Dave DeOme added.
“We have a process and the applicant has gone through one end of the process to the other. Rarely, if ever, do we do anything of any magnitude where all parties, across the board, are happy,” council member Dennis Wallace said.
The council members unanimously passed an ordinance regulating their use, having hashed out their differences in council meetings in fall 2009. Those sessions included tresidents’ complaints of unlicensed and unsupervised children and youth driving golf carts in the city.
The new ordinance requires licensed drivers to operate golf carts, prohibits their use on roads with speed limits greater than 30 mph and requires drivers to use recreational lanes or paths where available.
Additionally, drivers may only use golf carts during daylight hours and to travel directly to and from a golf course.
Violators will face fines up to $500, but Lakeway Police Chief Todd Radford said officers will observe a grace period to allow residents time to learn of the new ordinance.
Lakeway resident Bob Weest said he supported the ordinance because it averted potential accidents involving young drivers.
“The main focus that I had in bringing this before you was the safety factor. While we haven’t had a child be injured or die as the result of an accident, it is only a matter of time that it would probably come to that. So I applaud this council and staff for their support in trying to get this ordinance drafted and put into effect so as to keep that from happening down the line,” Weest said.
Resident Bob Duplantis said that under the new ordinance some of Lakeway’s communities, such as Yaupon Creek and the future Tuscan Village development, will not have access to golf courses because they connect to roads with speed limits above 30 mph.
“I’m getting the feeling that people believe golf carts are unsafe. I disagree with that,” Duplantis said. “I don’t support this particular ordinance. I think it needs to be broader. I think we need to have the ability to use golf carts at will on streets.”
City officials said other options such as driving on wider sidewalks or traveling on other golf courses’ greens would provide these residents access.