More housing space being added
Shenandoah Development Group’s Gateway Square project got the go-ahead for a long list of changes including adding more units during a recent City Council meeting.
The developer wants to increase workforce housing as Taylor’s population is poised to expand, especially with Samsung Austin Semiconductor poised to go online this year and the pending construction of a University of Texas campus in Taylor, officials said.
The amendment to the planned development agreement increases the number of multifamily residences from 256 to 326, fitting 70 more families into the 38-acre lot than originally approved.
The amendment was recommended for approval during the Feb. 10 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. A public hearing was held during the Feb. 26 council session and it was approved on the consent agenda March 12.
“Our proposed amendment includes modifications to the approved planned development, primarily aimed at enhancing site functionality, improving design efficiency and ensuring compliance with evolving market conditions and regulatory requirements,” Shenandoah Development Group Principal Venu Reddy said in a letter to city planning staff.
The project was originally announced in 2023, but after the original development agreement was approved, progress stopped. Now, the developer has signaled an intention to proceed and presented a plan to match current market conditions, principally the need to house incoming workers and students.
“I love that we’ll have many units for folks to walk to school and walk to UT once that’s built. It is a good location for connectivity,” said P&Z Commission Chairwoman Amy Everhart.
The mixed-use development will sit at the southeast corner of Southwest Carlos G. Parker Boulevard and FM 973. The plot has frontage on both 973 and Parker.
The area forms a triangle that will hold retail and restaurant spaces and a hotel/convention center. The southern portion is dedicated to residential use and nestles up against the Taylor High School sports fields.
Developers plan to build 58 townhouses, 326 multifamily units, a clubhouse, more than 100,000 square feet dedicated to retail and restaurants and 165 hotel rooms.
The new plan decreased the original large central park and pocket-park areas and expanded the public square area.
A long, narrow ponding area separates residential and retail areas. The development is dedicating 8.4% of the site to open space.
“Throughout both of these plans there is a detention feature that makes a good buffer in-between but also provides for a shared amenity between both sides of the development. They’re still maintaining that ‘amenitized’ area between the two halves of the project,” Development Services Director Martin Griggs told the council during the public- hearing presentation.
The development will have two entrances from 973 and one entrance from Parker.
Griggs said a trafficimpact analysis would be required later.
At the Feb. 10 P&Z meeting, the developer’s consultant Cliff Kendall of Wantman Group Inc. told commissioners the entrances have been coordinated with Texas Department of Transportation and a traffic signal will be placed at the southern entrance to the retail area on 973.
Kendall also said the number of residential units mainly was being increased through adding stories to the apartment buildings, but will not exceed the fourstory limit allowed by city zoning.
