GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
A 712 acre development with nearly 3,000 planned lots called Sedona is coming to the eastside of San Marcos and will roll out in several phases, the first of which will begin in the next couple of weeks. Sedona developer John Lloyd said the “vast majority” of the development, which will be near Cottonwood Creek and divided by Lovelady Lane, will be single- family residential, but the land is zoned mixeduse commercial; 100 acres on the southwest corner of the development along Highway 123 will either be commercial and could “conceivably be some multi-family,” according to Lloyd.
Lloyd said the majority of Sedona will be composed of 50 foot wide, single-family lots, and the entire development will be broken down into three pieces — Sedona North, Sedona South and a commercial portion near SH 123. The first phase of the development, Sedona North, is ready to break ground, which will happen as soon as Lloyd gets back from his vacation in Hawaii in the next couple of weeks.
“The first piece, called Sedona North, shockingly, because it's on the north end, is 280 lots. That's the piece that's contiguous to the Cottonwood Creek side, and it's ready to go. It's in the city of San Marcos and has city sewer [and] Crystal Clear Water. Plans are approved. Plats [are] approved,” Lloyd said. “Those are 280, 50x120foot lots. Rattler Road swings around just right down the east side of this first phase, and it'll then go all the way through Sedona South, which is all the rest of the property.”
Lloyd said Sedona South will be slightly less than 2,500 lots.
“We're building Lovelady Lane that comes from [SH] 123 right between Sedona North and Sedona South,” Lloyd said. “Sedona South will be under construction sometime in 2025. It [will] have full amenities, trails and a swimming pool.”
Sedona South will operate under a Municipal Utility District, if approved. A MUD is a special district that functions as a taxing entity to provide utility infrastructure to a specific area. The purpose of a MUD is to provide a developer an alternate way to finance infrastructure, such as water, sewer, drainage and road facilities. The San Marcos City Council approved the MUD on the first of two readings last week.
“We're also doing a deal with the city of San Marcos where they're going to be building a regional wastewater treatment plant on the very southeast corner of our property. So we will deed the property, then they build it. We pay the fees and all that,” Lloyd said. “They collect the wastewater, and the city of San Marcos has a discharge permit. … They treat the wastewater, obviously, and I don't know if they're going to provide greywater for irrigation or not. …The city’s operating the plant. It's up to them however they propose to do it.”
The city of San Marcos said the city will contribute “$20 million toward the wastewater treatment facility.”
Lloyd said the taxes when living in a home operating under a MUD will be “virtually the same” as for a home operating under city taxes.
“You've got the ability to do more amenities… such as the swimming pool, trails, a dog park and landscaping, that sort of thing,” Lloyd said. “If it's not a MUD, it just makes it much more difficult to provide any of that stuff.”
Lloyd said as for the price per home, it is difficult to give an exact number at this point because “development costs change hourly.” He said in the past the price of a home would be five times the lot price, which is $100,000 to $120,000.
“They're going to be in the several-hundred-thousands- and-up neck of the woods, because you can't build them anymore for less than that,” Lloyd said. “Mortgage rates took a little bit of a drop that might help things [as far as decreasing the cost of a house in the development].”
Lloyd said San Marcans can expect many other future developments in the area — not necessarily by him but generally. He said the demand for lots in the I-35 corridor is high, but the supply of lots to the north and south of San Marcos is scant.
“The builders are gung ho for San Marcos… with all the job growth going on right now in Kyle to the north of San Marcos and from New Braunfels [to the] south,” Lloyd said. “San Marcos is right smack in the middle of a tremendous amount of development.”
