Tract 350 set to take another step forward

The next step in finally realizing the decade-and-a-half-long plan for a housing development butting up against the Boulder Creek Golf Course is set to happen in the city council meeting scheduled for next week.

It is a largely technical step. One is not going to see construction starting right after next week’s meeting or anything. But the documents backing up this technical step reveal an interesting change in the plans as so far presented that have the potential to affect parts of the project in terms of affordability.

The issue to be voted on is all about easements. What are easements? In the simplest terms, an easement refers to an agreement by a property owner to allow another party use of a specific part of a property for a specific purpose without giving up ownership of the property. The specific purposes here are drainage and pedestrian access.

Before any construction can begin, the developer has to ensure that there are sufficient appropriate drainage measures in place to ensure that the property does not flood and that water does not just flow into an adjacent property in a way that causes flooding there.

In this case, some part of the drainage measures will have to cross city-owned land that is not part of the sale. So the biggest part of the agreements to be voted on give the developer the right, in perpetuity (i.e., forever), to have drainage measures they install exist on city-owned property.

The second major part of the agreement has to do with grading and being able to park the equipment used to do that.

The sale of the land is not going to happen in one transaction. While the city and the developer have an agreement for the entire Tract 350 parcel, the sale will happen in at least two phases. But, in order to be able to keep construction flowing smoothly, the developer would like to prep the land for the entire tract in advance. Also, while they are prepping the land slated for the first phase of construction (as well as during the construction process), they would like to be able to park and store equipment on the parts of the tract they have not yet purchased.

The agreement sets up a licensing agreement between the city and the developer to allow for these contingencies.

A graphic detail in the supporting documents reveals a partial change in the branding for the coming housing development.

All of the contracts and all of the information that has come out so far has only referred to Toll Brothers. But the drawings showing the proposed phasing for the project also refer to the developer Storybook Homes.

Storybook was a smaller developer founded in Las Vegas in 2003 by Wayne and Catherine Laska. They developed an average of about 100 homes per year between the company’s founding and the beginning of the Covid-19 era, including the last large development in Boulder City. Toll Brothers, a luxury home developer headquartered in Pennsylvania bought Storybook in 2021.

According to Janet Love, Toll Brothers division president in Las Vegas, the overall development will feature both Storybook and Toll Brothers branding.

“Our tentative plan for this community includes three collections of home designs,” she said in an emailed statement. “One collection is planned under the Storybook brand with homes ranging from approx. 2,500 to 3,500 square feet, and two collections are planned for the Toll Brothers brand including homes ranging from approx. 2,700 to over 3,600 square feet. We currently anticipate all three collections opening for sale in spring 2026.”

Potentially, this is about more than just the name on the neighborhood. According to a press release put out by Toll Brothers following the purchase of Storybook, the acquired company, “primarily serves first-time and move-up home buyers” with homes starting in the $200,000 range. In contrast, Toll Brothers describes itself as “the nation’s leading developer of luxury homes.”

According to multiple real estate pros, a typical Storybook home can be expected to cost less than half of a typical Toll Brothers house.

When asked about potential pricing differences between the “collections,” a Toll Brothers representative replied that it was “too early to share additional community information.”

“We take great pride in offering a variety of home designs and price points,” said Love. “All built with the same dedication to quality for which Toll Brothers is known.”