Leander City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to approve a phasing plan for the 337-acre Oakwood Hills subdivision, clearing the way for construction of the first 183 homes across three phases north of the intersection of Nameless Road and Shady Mountain Road. Five additional lots in a fourth phase will have to wait until the city upgrades its water system.
A Big Subdivision Moves Forward, Piece By Piece
According to Community Impact Newspaper, the approved plan breaks ground into 16 lots in phase one, 71 in phase two and 96 in phase three — all part of a larger 188-lot buildout zoned single-family rural. The land was annexed by Leander in May 2025 to pave the way for exactly this kind of development, the outlet reported. Despite the council's sign-off, the phasing-plan approval does not authorize immediate construction; the project still has to clear preliminary-plat review and a handful of other city requirements before dirt actually moves.
Water capacity is the clearest bottleneck standing between the current plan and the full 188 lots. The city can currently provide water to only 184 of them, meaning the final five lots in phase four are on hold until system upgrades are complete, per the same Community Impact account. Those upgrades hinge on the Hero Way West storage tank and water line, which are expected to begin construction in fiscal year 2028. City planners are also weighing the broader impact of building 30 or more lots at once on water management, the report noted.
Lot Counts Have Shifted Since Annexation
The numbers attached to Oakwood Hills haven't stayed static. When Leander annexed the 337.29-acre property in 2025, Community Impact reported that plans at the time called for roughly 174 lots ranging from one to two acres each. The phasing plan approved this month instead reflects 188 planned lots, a shift the dossier does not explain but that tracks with how the project's water modeling has evolved — the same 2025 coverage noted a water model showing capacity for up to 184 lots without system improvements, a figure that lines up with the cap cited in this month's approval.
Roads, Floodplains and Fire Access Still Unresolved
Before later approvals, developers still have to apply for a floodplain development permit given the property's steep topography, and they must respond to outstanding concerns from both the city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the report states. A traffic study is required, and road improvements are needed on Nameless Road, which is currently maintained by Jonestown and Travis County rather than Leander itself.
The scale of the development also triggers a requirement for either a secondary access road or residential fire sprinkler systems throughout the homes, since Oakwood Hills' size means a single entry point could complicate emergency response. Details on that secondary access road, along with broader fire-system specifics, will be worked out at the preliminary-plat stage rather than settled now. Developers have also proposed private streets throughout the neighborhood, while separately seeking city maintenance of a boulevard, according to city documents cited in the report.
Parks, Trails and a Fee-in-Lieu Proposal
On the open-space side, developers are planning about 6 acres of private parks and a trails system for Oakwood Hills. City preliminary-plat requirements set a minimum parkland standard of 7.5 acres per 100 units, and the Oakwood Hills developer has proposed paying a fee in lieu of parkland to help close that gap, per the Community Impact report. Individual lots in the subdivision must be at least one acre in size.
For now, the approved phasing plan represents a procedural green light rather than a construction start date. With floodplain permitting, a traffic study, road work on Nameless Road and emergency-access questions still pending, Oakwood Hills has several more regulatory steps to clear before any of its 183 cleared homes — let alone the five lots waiting on new water infrastructure — actually break ground.
