A 230-acre stretch of land near Rockride Lane and County Road 110 is about to become one of the largest new residential developments on the Round Rock-Georgetown border. The Starling community will bring 900 single-family homes to the area, with construction slated to begin around September or October, according to a developer representative.
The project, first detailed by Community Impact, is being built by Risewell Homes, which is offering four distinct lot width options ranging from 45-foot to 70-foot homesites, according to Risewell Homes. Homes will range from 1,700 to 3,600 square feet, with three to five bedrooms, two to four bathrooms, and either a two-car or three-car garage, per the same account. No price ranges for the homes have been made available yet. The neighborhood will also include a dedicated community amenity center with gathering spaces and outdoor facilities.
The first completed homes are expected to be available for purchase in 2027, and total buildout of the roughly 230-acre site is estimated to take nearly a decade, according to reporting cited by the Austin Business Journal. Starling sits along a fast-growing corridor near several other major projects, including Patterson Ranch, Hillwood's Melina community, Dell Diamond, and Southwestern University's planned 560-acre mixed-use development.
City Approvals Paved the Way for the MUD
Getting Starling off the ground required a series of municipal moves. In June 2025, the Round Rock City Council approved multiple measures to annex the development as an in-city municipal utility district, creating Round Rock Municipal Utility District No. 3 and rezoning the property to SF-3 single-family zoning, according to Community Impact. That MUD structure allows residents to pay taxes to both the city and the utility district, letting the developer finance infrastructure through tax-exempt bonds.
Then in April, the Round Rock City Council approved transferring 76 acres of the Starling site into the city's municipal water service area, shifting it away from Jonah Water Special Utility District. Public works officials noted the transfer made sense because the development sits entirely inside Round Rock city limits, even though it borders Georgetown.
Georgetown ISD Schools, Round Rock City Services
Despite being built inside Round Rock, Starling's homes are zoned to Georgetown Independent School District, with students designated to attend Wolf Ranch Elementary School, James Tippit Middle School, and East View High School, per Risewell Homes. That jurisdictional split — Round Rock utilities and city services paired with Georgetown schools — reflects overlapping boundaries common across Central Texas's fastest-growing suburban corridors.
The arrangement comes at a complicated moment for the school district. Demographer projections indicate Georgetown ISD enrollment could climb from under 14,000 students to nearly 20,000 over the next decade, according to Community Impact. Yet in April, district leaders delayed opening two newly built schools until fall 2027 after a short-term enrollment slowdown of 600 to 900 students, as reported by KVUE. How the district squares that near-term dip with a decade of projected growth from communities like Starling remains an open question.
A Region Straining to Keep Up With Growth
Starling is landing in one of the fastest-growing corners of the country. U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates released in March ranked Williamson County ninth among all U.S. counties for net population growth between July 2024 and July 2025, adding 23,814 residents to reach a total population of 752,827. That surge has pushed home prices up sharply: according to Austin Board of Realtors data published in Williamson County economic reports, median home prices in the county rose 54% over six years, from $283,640 in April 2019 to $435,920 in April 2025.
Local governments have been racing to keep infrastructure ahead of that growth. Round Rock kicked off a $54.5 million road expansion for County Road 112 extending east to CR 110 last year to handle increasing traffic demands in the northeast part of the city — the same corridor where Starling is now taking shape. Between the new MUD, the water service transfer, and the road work, the project offers a clear look at how Central Texas suburbs are stitching together utilities, transportation, and school planning to absorb another wave of rooftops.
