Terraced Lake-front Development to Attract Flyers, Other Buyers
By Ron Maloney
Staff Writer
The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung
CANYON LAKE - If your second car's a Cessna and you're looking for a new place to live, you need to call Johnnie Long – and go visit his project, "The Enclave at Canyon Lake."
Starting Feb. 1, one of its premier lots – one with lake frontage and park and airport access – will go on sale in a month-long, closed auction to the highest bidder.
It won't be an auction for the faint-of-heart or for someone with a thin wallet. The opening bid is set at $450,000. The rest of the lots are expected to retail for from $100,000 to $500,000.
A builder of custom homes for more than 20 years with much experience building around New Braunfels and Comal County, Long found the property adjacent to the Canyon Lake Airport when he was building a home in River Chase for its owners, the Otis and Dorothy George family.
Their son, Bill, still lives on the site near the airport – the only public airport near the lake.
As Long was building the River Chase home, he heard the Georges mention that they were looking to develop their ranch, which had been in the family for more than a century.
"They showed the property to me and said, 'Could you develop this?' I said, 'Whoa!' This has the potential to be absolutely awesome."
The possibilities for the property, located on a quiet lake cove alongside the airport, were immediately obvious.
Located across from King's Point on the north side of the lake, the property was naturally terraced in a way that the 80 or so one-to-four acre lots stack up above one another, offering unfettered views of the lake. Some of the lots have lake frontage. For those that don't, there's a 28-acre park, clubhouse and swimming pool.
Then there was the airport, its hangars and its 2,600-ft. runway, located down adjacent to the lake.
While the George Ranch was some of the best real estate left along the lake, Long could see even greater potential in buying the 19-year-old airport and adding that into the mix he foresaw for what would become The Enclave at Canyon Lake.
"It's very unique. We have a huge potential here," Long said, driving around the property Monday afternoon. "I realized this was a great opportunity. It's exciting just to think about it."
He got the airport, and the plat now in the permitting and approval process fronts 14 lots right along the runway, where home owners will be able, literally, to build hangars as part of their residences.
The community will be gated, and quality and height restrictions along with careful land planning mean that even those with property close to the airport will not see their views unduly obstructed by their hangars, which can only be 30 feet tall and, with the incline, will be located below the homes. The homes located behind that first series of lots will be built 30 or 50 feet above them, too – so all get the lake view over the roofs below.
From behind the hangars there is room for three tiers of lots that step up and back from the lake. All except for a very few of the oak-treed lots offer lake views. And, with the trees and landscaping, few offer any views of the airport located below.
Right now, the people who fly in and out of Canyon Lake Airport share the runway with the local deer population – and a warning sign on the roof of the largest hangar building warns flyers to watch for them.
Long hopes to take care of that problem later this year.
"We're going to resurface and reseal the airport this year and build a deer-proof fence around it," Long said.
The airport will be an important amenity for Long's buyers who fly their own planes, but it doesn't overpower the rest of the site.
It's an adjunct – an amenity some buyers would appreciate but others might not care about. The Enclave at Canyon Lake can accommodate either buyer.
Long sees folks from, say, Houston, flying into the airport during the time it would normally take them just to get to Katy on a Friday afternoon and either going fishing or driving to Austin or San Antonio.
"There's great bass fishing right off the point," he said, pointing to submerged trees. "That's perfect bass habitat."
As much as he loves the property, Long, who just built a home in Boerne, doesn't anticipate moving to the lake – unless it's to build a second home.
But one never knows.
"I kind of picture myself on a bench down at the pond or the lake, fishing with my grandson," Long said.
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