Council supports relocating and expanding Barton Creek sewage pipe

The prospect of an expanded and relocated Barton Creek wastewater line has Southwest Austin property owners hopeful of getting redevelopment projects off the ground. On the other hand, environmental advocates worry that an expanded sewage pipe will encourage more growth and construction activity in the sensitive watershed.

The one point everyone seems to agree on is that a creek is better served without a wastewater line running through it.

City Council passed a resolution Thursday directing the city manager to identify options for moving the pipe out of the Barton Creek Critical Water Quality Zone and restoring “needed capacity in the pipe, including the related costs, benefits, risks, and a potential timeline.”

Simon Property Group’s Stephen Shea flew to Austin from Indianapolis to speak in favor of the resolution. He told Council that Simon, which owns Barton Creek Square mall, has tried unsuccessfully in the past to redevelop the property. “The site’s potential is unrealized and stuck in amber due to constraints beyond our control,” he said. “We envisioned a vibrant redevelopment that would provide much needed housing and improved environmental standards that have come into effect since the mall was built in 1981.”

He continued, “I’ve heard that nonprofit organizations have considered portions of the existing parking lot for affordable housing. However, any affordable housing project faces the same roadblocks as ours specifically because of a lack of wastewater capacity.”

Save Our Springs Executive Director Bill Bunch told Council that the resolution is less about “cleaning up the creek” than about installing a larger pipe “to serve more development – some of it outside our city … in Rollingwood and West Lake, where we have no authority to impose the SOS Ordinance.”

Indeed, officials of Rollingwood and West Lake Hills wrote letters to Council in support of the item. Both cities have existing wastewater agreements with Austin Water and the two letters state that expanding capacity will allow businesses along the bustling Bee Caves Road corridor to redevelop. Additionally, they wrote, some businesses and homeowners are still on septic systems and may want to connect with Austin’s sewer system as redevelopment opportunities take shape.

Richard Suttle, representing the Terrace office development at Loop 360 and MoPac Expressway, also spoke in support of the resolution and offered to serve as a resource given his experience working on the Terrace project in the 1990s.

Council Member Paige Ellis, who sponsored the resolution, said the measure provides “an opportunity to make sure that we can have a new and fresh conversation about what we want to see in our community and what is good for the environmental health of everybody in Austin, especially when it involves Barton Creek.” She said several projects with affordable housing components have been floated in relation to locating in Ellis’ District 8 but have been unable to move forward because of constraints.

“I want to make sure that District 8 is able to do its part to leverage affordable housing to make sure that we are doing better to mitigate traffic and (to accommodate) different land uses,” she said, referring to the Simon representative who spoke on the potential redevelopment of Barton Creek mall. Noting that the Capital Metro bus line already runs from the mall to Bull Creek, she said an expanded bus line would be ideal for the area.

“The conversation about where we have been in Southwest Austin and where we’re going in Southwest Austin is very fresh and there’s a lot of people who want to get creative about how to solve these problems,” she said.

Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool, a co-sponsor of the resolution, expressed relief that the wastewater pipe would be removed from Barton Creek. “Wastewater pipes don’t belong in creeks,” she said. “They are prone to leaking and they also imperil local ecosystems and cause harm to people and fish and wildlife.” An expanded wastewater line will also enable older projects to redevelop under higher water quality standards and lower impervious cover, she said.

Austin Water is expected to return to Council in November with recommendations on how to proceed with the wastewater line.

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