Construction within the first phase of a 1,850 home subdivision located on 670-plus acres outside of Mountain City is expected to begin later this year.
Clark Wilson, president of Clark Wilson Builders, said Feb. 2 during a public meeting on the development that a second quarter groundbreaking is anticipated for the Anthem subdivision.
Wilson, the developer of Anthem, said residents would begin moving into the new subdivision by the end of 2017.
Total build out of Anthem, which is located in Mountain City’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, is expected to span three phases and should be completed within a decade, Wilson said.
Anthem is expected to have 1,850 total homes, with 20 percent of the 672 total acres left as “open space.” The development is expected to have ten miles of trails and three community parks and “lots of neighborhood pocket parks,” said Stephen Pharis, principal landscape architect with Pharis Design.
Phase one of Anthem, which will be split into two parts, will hold 219 lots that will be 60x120 feet and 50x100 feet. Wilson said the homes are considered “move-up” homes and he expects them to be priced at $300,000 and above.
Pharis said the design team developed “street sections appropriate for the development,” which includes bike lanes and wide sidewalks. Pharis said the design team also worked on matching the development with the regional character of the area.
“We don’t want to force something that doesn’t belong and doesn’t match the character of the area,” Pharis said.
Along with a small mixed-use area near one of the development’s parks, Pharis said developers are “already working” with Hays CISD to lock down a site for a potential elementary school campus.
Residents who attended the meeting, however, were concerned about water and wastewater service for the development, along with drainage issues and buffers to Mountain City.
Wilson said the development has an agreement with Kyle to extend water and wastewater services to the subdivision.
Within the agreement, Mountain City 150, LP would build at its own expense infrastructure to connect to Kyle’s water and wastewater lines. It will also pay an advanced fee of approximately $2 million that Kyle will use for improvements to the city’s wastewater plant.
Utilities will be managed by a Municipal Utility District (MUD), which was approved after property owners who voted within a special election for the district entered into a settlement following a voting issue during the Nov. 8 election.
Wilson said the two property owners voted in favor of the MUD but he was “not sure” what had occurred in the voting. He added the property owners signed affidavits to state they voted in favor of the district.
The development will have proposed detention ponds that are designed to detain 25- and 100-year storms, per Hays County requirements.
Wilson said drainage was a concern and that engineers followed rules where downstream property owners cannot be inundated with dirty water during the pre-development phase.
“There was a concern there could be flooding with more houses and roads,” Wilson said. “Our engineers are aware of where the drainage is and what the rules are.”
Anthem will also harbor a 200-foot and 100-foot natural buffer, which was part of a development agreement Wilson entered with Mountain City.
Mountain City Mayor Phillip Taylor said Anthem is “consistent” on what was seen during the preliminary design phase, which includes the buffers. He added the neighborhood was “smaller than originally planned.”
“The buffer zone between us and them was negotiated out and they are sticking with that,” Taylor said. “They are sticking with that.”
Taylor said he was happy to see the development is taking green space into consideration.
Lionel Cardoza, who lives across from Anthem in the Arroyo Ranch, was leery of an influx of traffic to FM 150 as a result of the population growth.
“Since we’ve been here, traffic on (FM) 150 has gotten worse and worse,” Cardoza said. “My concern with Anthem is there’s going to be more people in this area and traffic is going to get worse.”
