Feature Illustration: Proposed exterior building designs for the proposed PUD by JHP Architecture.
Posted: 8-2-2021
by Art Benavidez
Round Rock (Williamson County) – An Indiana-based developer’s request for a Planned Unit Development (PUD) for a mixed use project was recently endorsed by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The property will convert from BP (Business Park) zoning district to a PUD for a project identified as the Kenney Fort North PUD.
The 110.54-acre PUD is currently vacant and located southwest of the East Palm Valley Boulevard and South Kenney Fort Boulevard intersection, near the Dell Diamond minor league baseball stadium.
Rebecca Leonard with the design, planning and landscape architecture firm Lion Heart, out of Austin, said there would be 25 acres on the southern edge that is within a floodplain that would serve as parks and open space.
“There are a lot of constraints to the site,” she said. “We have 96% of the (southern) edge in constraint in some way either by a floodplain, by a fence, by a drop off, by a railroad track, so we have very few portals into the site which makes delivering on the mixed use vision challenging, but we think there is still great potential to do so.
Project goals of the PUD would be to create the highest quality mixed-use community in the northeast metro region. Kenney Fort North would be a balanced mix of residential and commercial uses, creating a true walkable community with quality outdoor spaces, Leonard added.
The property would only have two access points, with both street stub outs from Kenney Fort Boulevard.
The northernmost stub out aligns with Kalahari Boulevard and the southernmost aligns with a driveway to the Kalahari complex. Both stub outs must be extended across an adjacent property that exists between the subject tract and Kenney Fort Boulevard, however, the right-of-way for these roadways has been arranged.
The project site will have no frontage along Palm Valley Boulevard (US 79) due to the Missouri-Pacific railroad tracks and there are no current plans for negotiating a crossing of the railroad to provide the site with access to Palm Valley Boulevard.
The project will have four private roadways and one public roadway. The public street will provide the two connection points to Kenney Fort Boulevard and form a loop through the site that will be constructed to city standards and dedicated as a public right-of-way.
The four private roadways include the designated ‘Main Street’ and an internal drive, which will connect between the two parallel segments of the public street loop. These roadways, along with a pedestrian access way crossing the ‘Main Street’, form the block layout specified in the MU-G district. Other private roadways will serve the remainder of the site.
The permitted uses of the PUD are as follows:
- Retail/Office/Hotel (includes maker space, food trucks and outdoor entertainment) 10%-50%
- Urban style multifamily (with ground floor retail) 20%-60%
- Mixed residential (common lot townhouse and multifamily cottages, senior living) 0%-30%
- Single family and townhomes (alley-served small lots) 20%-40%
Indianapolis-based developer Milhaus partnered with multifamily property developers Archco Residential, out of Atlanta, Georgia to develop Kenney Fort North PUD.
The project team is rounded out by Costa Mesa, California consulting services firm Meyers Research, the environmental services firm Terracon, out of Austin, along with Kimley-Horn and JHP Architecture.
Amanda Swor with the Drenner Group represented the project to the commission.
art@virtualbx.com
