M Ranch embodies what’s envisioned for this site in the Leander Comprehensive Plan, which reflects the community’s aspirations for how it wants Leander to evolve. M Ranch will transform 290 acres of greenfield into a walkable urban village with a vibrant mix of offices, shops, restaurants, homes, medical facilities and 25 acres of open space.

M Ranch will help lure jobs to Leander by creating the environment employers prefer. Employers — and the skilled professionals they seek to hire — favor walkable, mixed-use environments with a diversity of housing types, dining, retail services and natural amenities within close proximity. Retailers, restaurants and neighborhood service providers also require housing nearby to sustain their businesses.

With only 25 percent of the project’s 290 acres planned for residential development, M Ranch includes proportionally less housing than nearly every comparable mixed-use project in the northern part of the region. Click here for a comparison chart. Furthermore, the location is miles away from the nearest existing or planned multifamily development.

Located at the southwest corner of Hero Way and Reagan Boulevard, M Ranch is perfectly situated for a mixed-use urban village. However, this future growth area must be carefully cultivated to foster the high-activity, diverse development envisioned here in the Leander Comprehensive Plan. The carefully crafted plan for M Ranch creates a premiere destination that enables the people of Leander to eat, drink, shop and work close to home.

M Ranch will be built in six balanced phases over 10-to-15 years with specific multifamily caps limiting the amount of housing that can be built until the commercial development target for each phase is achieved. No other developer of a large mixed-use project in Leander has agreed to provide these protections without massive City financial incentives.

City leaders have long sought to attract more commercial development in order to reduce the tax burden on Leander homeowners, relieve growth pressure on local schools and allow Leander residents to work, shop and dine closer to home. The property owner is not asking for any financial incentives with this zoning request. The $2 billion development is expected to generate $51 million in property tax revenue annually once fully built, including $29 million annually for the school district and $11 million for the City.