Posted: 5-6-2020
by Adolfo Pesquera
New Braunfels (Comal County) — A detailed revision of the 98-acre, mixed-use detailed site plan for Solms Landing was approved Tuesday by the Planning Commission.
The original detailed site plan was approved in 2017. However, the scale of the project changed over time. What was once presented as a $200 million development has since ballooned to about $500 million.
City senior planner Holly Mullins explained to the commission May 5 that the developer, New Braunfels-based South Texas Capital, has proposed a realignment of the streets and some reconfiguration of land uses.
“They have aligned the collector street a little bit to the south,” Mullins said of the changes. “And rather than an area of individual (Phase 1 residential) lots, the applicant states the area south of the collector will now be multiple units on a single lot.
“Commercial buildings in Phase 2 are being moved closer to the street with parking spread around the lot. Some of the public streets are now proposed to be private streets, and the street connection to the undeveloped lot was removed. Staff recommends approval of the revised detailed plan, except for the removal of the public street connection to the lot on Creekside Crossing.”
The commissioners voted in favor, with all staff stipulations. In addition to keeping the aforementioned public street connection to Creekside Crossing, staff said:
- If only multifamily use is proposed on the section of Phase 1 south of the collector corresponding to the Unit 1B plat, remove the commercial use from the detail plan.
- Update the Solms Landing Overall Landscape Plan to match proposed revisions.
- Update platted lot information for the adjacent West Village at Creekside.
South Texas Capital created Solms Landing LLC, the affiliate that owns the development. Site work and utilities commenced on the project the summer of 2019. Meanwhile, the developer has been signing contracts for some of the lots.
Nicholas Reynolds of KFW Engineers+Surveying told the commission the revisions were done to accommodate the needs and preferences of the end users as they come under contract for the future facilities.
VBX will follow Solms Landing developments on Project ID 2020-3950.
From its inception, Solms Landing was envisioned to become a high-end, mixed-use development with a high-density residential district adjacent to a commercial district with fine dining, retail and some 875,000 square feet of Class-A office. The residential section will have at least 1,000 apartment units and some townhouses.
The property has frontage on Creekside Crossing and Kowald Lane, and 60 feet of frontage on the Interstate 35 access road. The exact details of the I-35 connection in relation to existing frontage road access points are still under discussion with TxDOT, but will be resolved prior to developing Phase 3 of the project when traffic impacts dictate a connection be made.
CREO Architecture of San Antonio is the project designer.
The detailed list of revisions submitted by the developer’s engineer are as follows:
- Realignment of the collector street to match approved final plats.
- Access to Unit 1A was moved from Kowald Lane to the collector (Sophie Lane) to match approved final plat.
- The drainage right-of-way adjacent to Unit 1A was updated to match approved plat.
- Within the southeastern portion of the Mixed Use (Commercial/High Density Residential) section of Phase 1, a proposed public street has been replaced with internal private streets and alleys, while maintaining internal circulation. The inclusion of the private street ensures continued compliance with the block length approved with the original concept plan and detail plan. Commercial use has also been removed from this area and is intended for the development of multiple single-family dwelling units on one lot for sale in a condominium regime. This is considered multifamily per the City’s Zoning Ordinance as there will be multiple dwelling units on one lot. The dwelling units can be attached or detached.
- A public street connection to the 2.7-acre Creekside Fire Station lot was removed.
- The Land Use table was updated to show total residential density as a gross density across the development. Mixed use buildings may have flexible combinations of commercial and residential uses but the number of dwelling units has not changed.
adolfo@virtualbx.com
