Lago Vista map fight over a ranch capped at 568 homes

We wrote this story before the City Council met on Oct. 1. It does not report what happened at that meeting.

Acreage totals and the sum of the two master plans' costs in this story are our calculations from the cited records.

What the map does

The map matters because a 2023 city rule ties zoning changes to it. Under Ordinance No. 23-01-19-03, "no zoning application deemed to be inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan shall be considered" until the owner first wins a plan amendment. That amendment takes the vote of at least three-fourths "of all members of the governing body." The same ordinance says an application "shall in no way bind the City Council to amend the Comprehensive Plan."¹⁷

The labels on the map

Each area on the map gets a place-type label, and the labels for housing areas carry guidance on how many homes an acre the land should hold.⁷ The council adopted the Lago Vista 2030 Comprehensive Plan in May 2016. Its map uses Rural Residential, Estate Residential, and Low Density Residential for lower density homes. Rural Residential means fewer than 0.2 homes an acre. Estate Residential means 0.3 to 1, and Low Density Residential means 2 to 3.¹⁸

Halff Associates, the city's consultant, helped write a 2025 draft plan. At an open house, people disagreed about where its draft map placed "Lifestyle Neighborhood" and "Conservation Estate."¹⁹ The draft plan in the packet for an October 2025 work session uses the three older labels.^18,19

City staff wrote a new draft dated February 2026 with 11 place types, including three tiers of rural residential.² Rural Residential Tier 1 guides land to no more than 0.33 homes per gross acre, on lots of at least 3 acres. Tier 2 guides land to 0.3 to 1.0 homes per gross acre on lots of at least 2 acres. Tier 3 guides land to about 1.0 home per gross acre on lots of at least 1 acre. Neighborhood Residential covers detached single-family neighborhoods. It guides land to 1 to 4 homes per gross acre, on lots that match established subdivisions. Neighborhood Transition guides land to 4 to 8 homes per gross acre on lots of about 0.20 acres. It is mapped next to detached-home neighborhoods, where height and intensity must step down.⁷

Staff say this place-type guidance does not create zoning or development entitlements.² It is meant to help the city weigh future land use decisions, rezonings, and amendments.⁷ The staff report says the map itself "does not rezone property."²

How it started

Shoreline Ranch sits along Shoreline Ranch Drive, east of Lago Vista High School.⁵ It was zoned as a planned development district long before this map update. A 2021 staff report says an earlier ordinance for the district allowed at most 201 homes.⁴ A 2007 change cut about 17 acres from the district and raised the cap to 568 homes.^4,5 In 2021, TerraMark Ventures applied to raise the cap to 1,360 homes.⁴ In April 2022, Mayor Ed Tidwell announced that the applicant had withdrawn the request.^20,21

Today, Shoreline Ranch Texas LP owns 130 parcels in the area, and most list a latest deed dated Jan. 11, 2022.³ In August 2022, TerraMark wrote to city leaders for the owner. The letter said the 2030 plan "incorrectly shows" the land as Rural Residential. It said the cap of 568 homes on 322 residential acres put the property in the "Low Density Residential" category.²² City records describe the 2030 plan's label differently, as "Estate Residential" or "POA Park" in 2023 and as Rural Residential and "POA Park" in 2025.^5,23 In October 2022, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted "all in favor" to recommend low-density residential for the land.²⁴

2023, a new rule and a denial

In January 2023, the council approved the rule that ties zoning to the map, by a 4 to 3 vote.^17,25 Council Member Gage Hunt made the motion and Council Member Kevin Sullivan seconded it. Council Members Rob Durbin, Chelaine Marion, and Paul Roberts voted no.^21,25

In July 2023, the council voted unanimously to hire Halff to update the plan.²⁶ The contract's base price was $235,000, including $60,000 for a parks master plan.¹⁴ In December, staff reported that Halff had made a $5,000 math error in its total.¹⁶ The council voted unanimously to approve the amendment "in the amount of $240,000."¹⁵

In August 2023, the council held a hearing on changing Shoreline Ranch on the map to low-density residential.^21,23 Sullivan, then a council member, said a new label would not automatically mean more than 568 homes.^6,21,27 He said that until the city upgraded its water and wastewater facilities, "it would be criminal on our part to approve more than that."²⁷ Later he said that asking for all of it to be low density "seems like a naked attempt to increase the density on that parcel."^6,28

Mayor Tidwell moved to approve the ordinance, and the motion died without a second. Sullivan then moved to deny it, and the council voted 6 to 1 to deny it, with Tidwell voting no.²¹

2024 and 2025, a draft no one adopted

The council added more Halff work in 2024 without a price in its motion.²⁹ That September, the council voted 6 to 1 to have Halff hold one more meeting with the council and the plan's advisory committee.^9,29 The motion asked staff and Halff to keep the added costs down "as much as possible."²⁹ Halff's price list put an extra advisory committee meeting at $6,500 and more administration and plan revisions at $4,200.³⁰

In December 2024, the council and the advisory committee met to hear an update from Halff.⁹ Council Member Paul Roberts said, "I desire to not see a future land use map that's abundantly in conflict with underlying zoning that's already in place." He added, "But I think it needs to be consistent."³¹

Later that night, a Halff consultant summed up the talk about undeveloped land east of Lohman's Ford Road. The consultant said, "it sounds like, in general, we want to downgrade this lifestyle neighborhood to perhaps the low-density residential neighborhood or lower."³²

The proposed plan reached a joint council and commission work session in October 2025.³³ A commissioner who said she had led an advisory committee subcommittee said Halff's product "did not reflect what the will of the community was." She said it "was very driven towards higher density."³⁴ Mayor Kevin Sullivan said, "I think we have to be super careful about how tough we want to be on developers."^33,35 The meeting ended with a decision "to create two sub-committees" to work on the plan and plan a town hall.³³

2026, the commission redraws the map

The map now before the council is based on a markup two commissioners made in February.² On Feb. 22, commissioner Gene Harris posted the marked-up map on the city's online council forum.^36,37 He said he and commissioner Dave Stewart "came up with" it.³⁶ In March, the commission voted 6 to 0 to form a subcommittee, proposed by Chair Lynda Aird, to revise the draft.³⁸ In May, the commission voted 5 to 0 to send the subcommittee's summary on with amendments.³⁹

In June, the council "directed the plan to go back to sub committee, staff and planning and zoning."⁴⁰ Later that month, council members agreed by consensus that the budget and charter review came first. They said plan and map updates "may need to be deferred."¹⁰ A July staff memo from Development Services Director Jordan Strohmeyer said the council had directed staff to keep the 11 place types.^41,42

At the commission's July 9 meeting, Sullivan spoke in public comment about a hotel project. He said the map is not a regulatory document but "because of our other ordinances it acts like it's a regulatory document."⁴³ Roberts, by then a former council member, spoke a few minutes later.^11,44,45 He said that when land gets a zoning change or is platted, "you want to have that reflected in your future land use map." He tied that to "the very reason mayor Sullivan had pointed out."⁴⁴

The commission then voted 4 to 1 to recommend the 11 place types and the February density guidance, draft minutes show. The motion made "the Harris/Stewart February 22 marked-up FLUM map and" legend the basis for the new map. It told staff not to change any marked designation unless the council directs otherwise.⁴⁵

August, Sullivan speaks for Shoreline Ranch

In August, Sullivan told the commission and then the council that he was representing Shoreline Ranch.^8,46 At the commission's Aug. 13 meeting, Sullivan spoke during citizen comments on items not on the agenda. He said that since the commission's last meeting, "Shoreline Ranch representatives have engaged me to help them walk through the PDD amendment process."⁸

Of the January 2023 ordinance, he said, "I was someone who voted for it, and I'm part of the problem."⁴⁷ He asked that the map label for Shoreline Ranch be changed to Neighborhood Residential. He also asked the commission to have the council send the map back. He said the new label would only give the owner "the opportunity to ask for a modification to our PDD."⁴⁸ Council liaison Paul Prince told him the council saw the budget and the charter as higher priorities.^49,50 A commissioner then told Sullivan, "the map you're holding was not accepted by P&Z."⁵¹

On Aug. 20, Sullivan told the City Council, "I specifically was representing Shoreline Ranch, and I discussed their situation." He asked the council to consider sending the map back to the commission for more discussion.⁴⁶

The packet and the emails

In the days before the meeting, Sullivan and Roberts made their cases to the council by email.^6,11 The first version of the meeting packet had the staff memo for the item but no attachments.⁵² On the morning of Sept. 29, Sullivan emailed the mayor and council, who were blind copied. He wrote that neither the plan nor the map "you are considering is included in the packet."¹¹ Later versions added a place-type table, a draft map dated July 27, and a photo of a hand-marked map.^53,54,55 Its two pages are the same image files Harris attached to his Feb. 22 forum post.^36,55

In his Sept. 29 email, Sullivan wrote that he planned "to speak on behalf of Shoreline Ranch." He would "specifically request a Neighborhood Residential designation on the FLUM for that property," he wrote. In his words, "The current land owners of Shoreline Ranch acquired the property in 2022." A wrong map label and the 2023 ordinance, he said, left the owners in "a Catch 22 situation." The owners want the label aligned with their entitlements, he said. That way they can seek a PDD amendment that is "modern, market driven, and has a chance for success." He also said a map Strohmeyer placed in the July 9 commission meeting showed Shoreline Ranch as Neighborhood Residential.¹¹ A staff draft map dated June 23 in that meeting's packet labels the land along Shoreline Ranch Drive Neighborhood Residential. Strohmeyer's July 9 memo said that draft map "is not intended to represent a final staff" recommendation.⁴¹

Roberts emailed city staff that evening, with the mayor and council blind copied. He asked the council to "decline the requested substitution of Neighborhood Residential." His July 9 remarks, he said, were about the hotel approval. "I did not intend those remarks as an endorsement of Neighborhood Residential for Shoreline Ranch," he wrote. If a developer's profit depends on later changes, he said, "that is the purchaser’s business risk." The 2023 ordinance, he said, "expressly preserves Council’s discretion over the comprehensive plan." He asked the council to "establish a definite timetable" to finish the plan.⁶

Sullivan wrote again early on Oct. 1. Of the Dec. 19, 2024 meeting, he wrote, "We instructed the Halff representative to designate the land as Neighborhood Residential."¹¹ The video of that meeting shows the consultant's "downgrade" summary quoted above, and the minutes record no map vote.^9,32 Moments later, a speaker said the undeveloped area "should be either residential neighborhood or conservation estate."³² Sullivan urged the council to "confer with legal" about treating landowners differently and wrote, "That just seems ripe for legal liability." He wrote that for Senate Bills 840 and 15, "there was a small city carve out that allowed us to ignore those laws."¹¹

Both 2025 bills apply only to cities of more than 150,000 people that are at least partly in a county of more than 300,000.^56,57 The 2020 Census counted 8,896 people in Lago Vista.⁵⁸ Neither bill's text names any other exemption for small cities.^56,57

What it costs taxpayers

Shoreline Ranch Texas LP was the city's top taxpayer on the 2023 certified roll, with $34,191,146 in taxable value.⁵⁹ On the 2025 roll, its taxable value was $8,454,990. The records we reviewed do not say why the value fell.⁶⁰

The final Water Master Plan, presented for adoption in March 2025, projects 20,386 water connections at full buildout, up from over 5,300.¹² Together the two plans come to $244.2 million in capital projects, mixing 2023 and 2024 dollars. Both plans call these figures construction cost estimates. They say fees for "design, surveying, environmental studies, geotechnical studies, land acquisition, legal fees, etc. are not included."^12,13

The 2022-23 budget put $200,000 for the "Comprehensive Plan" in the General Fund's Development Services professional services line.⁶¹ That line spent $172,250 in 2023-24 and $161,838 in 2024-25, and it has $0 approved for 2026-27. The budget does not break out how much of that line went to Halff.⁶²

Where it stands

The Oct. 1 staff report asks the council for direction on five points. They include the 11 place types, the map's labels, and any use of Rural Residential Tier 3. Staff also asks whether to prepare the next draft and the public hearing. Staff noted that the marked-up map did not place any land in Rural Residential Tier 3. A thoroughfare map, an evacuation map, and a utility and infrastructure map are still being drawn. The item report we reviewed has no recommendation line and no financial impact line.² Our next story will report what the council decided.

What we could not find

• The full text and council votes for Ordinance 02-09-26-01 and Ordinance 07-10-18-01, which amended it, since we have seen only summaries of their terms.^4,5
• The price of the 2024 Halff add-on and the total the city has paid Halff.^29,62
• Any 2026 map amendment application from Shoreline Ranch, and the presentation and timestamp file Sullivan sent the council.¹¹
• Why Shoreline Ranch's taxable value fell from $34,191,146 in 2023 to $8,454,990 in 2025, and who the partners of Shoreline Ranch Texas LP are.^59,60
• How much of the water and wastewater capital projects impact fees would pay for, since the plans say which projects are eligible for the fees but not how much the fees would raise.^12,13

What you can do

• File a Texas Public Information Act request on the city's records request page for all correspondence to council members and Planning and Zoning commissioners about Shoreline Ranch or the FLUM since Aug. 1, 2026, including Sullivan's presentation and attachments.⁶³
• Ask for Halff Associates invoices and payments under the 2023 contract and the 2024 add-on.⁶³
• Ask for the computer map files behind the July 27 draft map.⁶³
• Speak at citizen comments at a council or Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.^1,64 The meeting notice says you must submit a completed form first.¹

If you have records on this, you can share them with us at /share-records. We protect your identity and publish the evidence when we can do so safely.