LAKEWAY— Legend Communities will break ground on a second amenity center in the Rough Hollow planned community, Highland Village, in Lakeway as early as June.

The Lakeway City Council approved several items at its regular meeting April 18 that would allow the developer to move forward on submitting plans, such as annexing a 7.86-acre Rough Hollow greenbelt lot; annexing a 13.84-acre lot south of Highlands Boulevard and zoning it for commercial use; changing zoning near Tavish Trail from government, utility and institutional use to commercial; and allowing a special-use permit for a small gas station and convenience store.

What’s Included

The amenity center will offer residents additional luxuries to those already provided at the Rough Hollow Yacht Club and Marina and the Grille at Rough Hollow. Once site plans are approved, the developer will bid out the project.

“When you start a lifestyle community, you have to create a place where people want to be. Highland Village is supposed to be a core place for residents to hang out,” founder and Principal of Legend Communities Haythem Dawlett said. “This wasn’t just another amenity center in Austin.”

Dawlett said he hired someone to travel Texas to find the best amenities to include in his designs and it has taken a year to develop site plans.

The new amenity center, which will be the second of three planned for Rough Hollow, will offer a welcome center, six pools, an enclosed, air-conditioned event pavilion, grill dining, a plaza with a waterscape and the Village Green—a space for an amphitheater, seasonal farmers markets, holiday events and gatherings.

Planned Activities

Philip W. Jalufka, president of Legacy International Resort Properties, said the company is in the process of hiring an activities director for Rough Hollow who will begin planning activities for residents once ground is broken on the center and is expected to have an activities calendar in place by early June. Planned events are likely to include yoga, stand up paddling, book fairs, guided tours and mountain biking as well as many other activities for families and stay-at-home moms.

“There aren’t that many master-planned developments like Rough Hollow in Austin. The only other one generally like it is Steiner Ranch, and it’s not on the lake,” Jalufka said.

Possible Public Use

While some retail, a restaurant and a proposed gas station could be open to the public, the rest of the amenities will be for resident-use only.

Lakeway City Council granted a special-use permit for the event pavilion as well, in case it is rented out for weddings, but Dawlett said he only anticipated the pavilion to be rented to the public in its early days. Once it has been open for a while, he anticipates community use will be too high to continue renting it to others.

The Cost

Approximately 100 homes have residents in Rough Hollow, with about 1700 more planned. Prices range from the low $300,000s to multimillion dollar homes.

Homeowners association fees will be between $150 and $170 per month and include all the amenities onsite.

“For a few dollars more per day, it’s worth the cost. Some developments may say they have lower HOA [fees] and taxes, but their amenities are next to nothing. Once this village emerges, it will all be obvious,” Dawlett said.

The project is expected to be complete within a year from its start date.