Courtesy, The Lookout Group
The second rendering, presented at the March 15 Leander City Council meeting, shows a park and enlarged pond.
A pending development agreement is all that remains before Leander officially becomes the next home of a Randalls grocery store.
Leander City Council will review the agreement between the city and the grocery store chain at its Oct. 4 meeting. The contract calls on the Randalls to open no more than two years after completion of the Lakeline Boulevard extension.
City Manager Kent Cagle said previously that roadwork will last until January 2014, conceivably giving Randalls until early 2016 to open.
In exchange, the city would waive all building permit and site development fees, or roughly $100,000–$125,000, Development Services Director Jim Bechtol said. The money should be recouped in sales tax Leander accumulates from the new development, he said.
"They're coming—they want to be here, and we want them here," Bechtol said. "It's just a matter of finding out how to make it work in a way that makes sense for both sides."
Under the agreement, the grocery store chain would also purchase land where a detention pond presently rests near the Lakeline Boulevard and Crystal Falls Parkway intersection. The contract places the cost at $3.90 per square foot on the roughly 12,000-square-foot pond, Bechtol said, resulting in a nearly $50,000 reimbursement.
"The pond is located on the frontage [facing North Lakeline Boulevard], so it makes sense to move it," he said.
The detention pond will be relocated to the back portion of the property, where it will be included as a water feature for a new heavily landscaped park, which will serve as a buffer between the grocery store and nearby residents, Bechtol said. Developers The Lookout Group agreed to include the area after residents voiced concerns during a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in early March.
Leander City Council meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 4 at the Pat Bryson Municipal Hall, 201 N. Brushy St.
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