On September 9, the West Lake Hills City Council takes up a rezoning case for the second time this year. The property is 911 Westlake Drive, the city's own former municipal complex, and the case already cleared a full approval cycle back in July. That it is back on the agenda is the detail worth sitting with, because it tells you something the zoning code itself never will: even when the city wants a deal to happen, on its own land, the path from "approved" to "buildable" runs longer than one vote.
For anyone evaluating a parcel in West Lake Hills this year, that is not a footnote. It is the clearest data point available on how this particular city government behaves when it has skin in the game, because in 2026 it has had skin in the game twice. It sold a residential lot on the same street. And it rezoned its own institutional building for commercial reuse. The two decisions, read together, describe the actual criteria the city applies far better than the ordinance text does.
The Building Behind the Second Vote
The property at 911 Westlake Drive is not raw land. It is the two-building complex that housed West Lake Hills City Hall and the police department for decades, built in 1983 with a two-story addition in 2009. The city's own Proposition A page describes both structures as noncompliant with current building code, showing wood rot, deterioration, and occasional flooding. That condition is why voters approved a $25 million bond in 2021 to fund a replacement, and why the city moved staff into a new complex a few blocks away that finished construction in mid-2025.
That left the old site vacant and, for the first time, negotiable. The city issued a Request for Proposals for a ground lease rather than a sale, ran a building tour for prospective respondents on May 22, and set a proposal deadline of July 15. Alongside the RFP, staff pursued a zoning map amendment to move the 1.918-acre site from GUI, its governmental designation, to B-2 Business with a Conditional Overlay District. The Zoning and Planning Commission recommended approval on June 17, and Council approved it on July 8.
Then the city's own Building and Development Public Notices page lists the same address, the same rezoning description, back in front of ZAPCO on August 19 and in front of Council again on September 9. The base zoning category was settled in July. What is still being worked out is the conditional overlay itself, the specific document that sets height limits and rules out certain uses on the site. Under the city's own conditional overlay ordinance, those restrictions are written into the zoning ordinance itself and can only be changed by another Council vote. Getting the district you want and getting the rulebook attached to it are two different approvals, and they do not always land on the same calendar.
What the City Chose When It Had the Choice
In a separate deal on the same street, West Lake Hills went through the opposite exercise with a different city-owned parcel. At 110 Westlake Drive, the city held 2.46 acres and, according to Community Impact's reporting, first solicited proposals broadly. Eleven came in. All were rejected, and the city restarted the process with a new condition: any new submission had to be residential only. Only two firms, Legacy DCS and Kendell Development, submitted under that constraint. Council awarded the contract to Legacy DCS at a purchase price of $1.575 million.
The plan that won is five detached homes averaging 4,000 square feet, priced from $1.49 million to $1.69 million, positioned around existing live oak and cedar trees, with a bird sanctuary planned under one of the larger oaks toward the rear of the property. Legacy DCS's own framing targeted a local empty-nester buyer looking for a low-maintenance, lock-and-leave property inside West Lake Hills rather than outside it.
Here is the comparison that matters for anyone reading the city's intentions:
| 110 Westlake Drive | 911 Westlake Drive | |
|---|---|---|
| City's role | Seller of a fee simple parcel | Ground lessor, retains ownership |
| Surrounding context | Established residential street | Site with institutional and commercial history |
| Use the city required | Residential only, after rejecting mixed proposals | Adaptive reuse, commercial (B-2) permitted |
| Revenue mechanism | One-time sale price | Recurring ground lease plus city sales tax |
The Same City, Two Different Answers
Both parcels sit on Westlake Drive. Both were owned outright by the city. And the city arrived at opposite answers on what belongs there. At 110 Westlake, surrounded by single-family homes, the city walked away from eleven proposals rather than accept anything other than residential use, even though a commercial or mixed-use bid might have paid more. At 911 Westlake, a site whose neighbors had already lived beside a police station and municipal offices for over forty years, the city moved toward commercial zoning on its own initiative, because a ground lease and sales tax stream from an active commercial use does more for the budget over time than a one-time land sale would.
That is the mechanism worth carrying into any other evaluation in this ZIP code. West Lake Hills is not applying a single standard of "would this generate more revenue." It is applying a standard closer to "does this use match what the immediate neighbors have already been living beside." A parcel that has only ever touched residential streets is going to face real resistance to commercial rezoning, revenue case or not. A parcel with institutional, commercial, or already-nonresidential history close by has a case that the city itself has now made for.
The RFP language for 911 Westlake makes the same point directly. The city said explicitly that it wants a partner who earns the trust of the residential neighbors surrounding the site, not simply the highest bidder. That is a preference the city demonstrated with its own money at 110 Westlake first.
What This Means If You Are Evaluating a Parcel Here
If you are looking at a lot or small commercial site inside West Lake Hills, three things follow from this year's record.
First, treat the zoning map designation as a starting point, not the finished picture. The 911 Westlake case shows that even after the base district is approved, a conditional overlay carrying its own height and use restrictions can still be in negotiation months later. Ask what CO language, if any, is attached or expected before assuming a B-2 designation gets you B-2's full range of uses.
Second, read the immediate residential context as a real constraint on any non-residential proposal, independent of what the underlying zoning allows. The city has shown, with its own land, that it will reject higher-value non-residential bids to protect a residential streetscape it already governs.
Third, if a parcel does carry existing commercial or institutional history nearby, that history is an asset in an entitlement conversation, not a liability. The city's own reuse plan for 911 Westlake treats that history as the reason commercial use is appropriate there and not elsewhere on the same street.
FAQ
Is the old West Lake Hills City Hall for sale? No. The city structured this as a ground lease, meaning it retains ownership of the land at 911 Westlake Drive and collects lease payments plus sales tax from whatever commercial use is developed there, rather than selling the site outright.
Does the B-2 rezoning at 911 Westlake Drive apply to other properties nearby? No. The zoning map amendment and its conditional overlay are specific to that 1.918-acre parcel. Neighboring properties keep their existing zoning designations, and any future rezoning request elsewhere would go through its own separate ZAPCO and Council review.
Land decisions in West Lake Hills rarely come down to the ordinance alone. Reading how the city treats its own property, this year in particular, is one of the more reliable ways to gauge how a private rezoning or entitlement request is likely to land. If you are sizing up a parcel in this corridor and want a read on how it is likely to be received, Courtney Hohl draws on direct Bee Cave council experience to help buyers and developers work through exactly this kind of entitlement question before they commit. Book a Private Market Consultation to talk through what a specific site can and cannot support.
