Major upzoning in Zilker neighborhood draws opposition

On Sept. 12, City Council approved a zoning change for a 0.42-acre property in the Zilker neighborhood that will allow the developer to build to 90 feet, falling under the Density Bonus 90 category. The property at 2130 Goodrich Ave., currently the site of a one-story office building, is about 100 feet from South Lamar Boulevard. While the rest of her colleagues voted in favor of the change, Council Member Alison Alter abstained.

Staff and the Planning Commission recommended the change, but representatives of the Zilker neighborhood opposed it. Council had approved a zoning change for the property under VMU 2 but they had to go back to the drawing board after a judge invalidated that ordinance.

Now, after the passage of a modified density bonus program, staff and Council are approving zoning changes under DB90 that proponents hope will bring about the development of more affordable housing. However, the changes have come as a shock to many neighborhoods.

“The applicant has indicated an intent to develop a mixed-use building with approximately 55 multifamily residential dwelling units and is not seeking a modification to the pedestrian-oriented commercial use requirement,” Zoning Officer Joi Harden told Council.

That applicant is Heartwood Real Estate Company. The Drenner Group represented the company but did not make a presentation. The staff report noted, “A building constructed under density bonus 90 (DB90) standards allows for a mix of residential uses and commercial uses, and the result is typically retail, restaurants and offices on the ground floor, and residential units on upper levels.”

Bill Bunch, speaking on behalf of the Zilker Neighborhood Association, told Council, “We’ve opposed this project in its various forms over the last few years as being completely inappropriate to this part of our neighborhood. And in this particular location, as you heard, this project is close to Lamar, but it’s not on Lamar. Its sole access is on Goodrich, which, if you go down a few blocks, turns into Garner and is a street through the heart of Zilker.

“At this location, the pavement is 30 feet wide,” Bunch said. “The transportation plan calls for it to be expanded to 58 feet, but that’s not going to happen. I can’t imagine that it would happen because you have a whole lot of both multifamily properties and single-family properties along this stretch of Goodrich that would have to be condemned to make that possible. I don’t see the city doing that.”

Several other neighborhood members voiced opposition to the project. Felicity Maxwell, a member of the urbanist group AURA, praised the project.

The proposed 90-foot building would be next door to Pathways at Goodrich Place, a public housing project owned and operated by the Housing Authority of the City of Austin.

As the staff report explains, there are two options for projects to include low-income rental units: “1) a minimum of 12% of the rental units in a building are affordable for a 40-year period for households earning 60% or less than the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area MFI; or 2) a minimum of 10% of the rental units are affordable for a 40-year period as described above for households earning 50% or less MFI.”

There are also two options for developments that include ownership units. The staff report says those options include: “1) a minimum of 12% of the rental units in a building are affordable for a 40-year period for households earning 80% or less than the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area MFI; or 2) an in-lieu-fee payment to the Housing Trust Fund, equivalent to the required percentage of the total residential units, including the mix of bedrooms required, at the rate set in the fee schedule at the time of final site plan submission.”

Bunch accused District 5 Council Member Ryan Alter of intimidating the Housing Authority official, Mike Gerber, into withdrawing his opposition to the project. He also said Ryan Alter refused to meet with the neighborhood.

Ryan Alter made the motion to approve the zoning change and responded to Bunch’s claims. “No. 1, I never talked with HACA or Mike Gerber and pressured him to make a change in his recommendation. That’s just wholly inaccurate, and I think it’s important that that is clear on the record. No. 2, we did meet with the neighborhood. And so, to say that we did not is just, once again, not true.”

After publication of this story, Mike Gerber of HACA contacted the Austin Monitor to say that neither he nor his organization ever opposed this particular zoning case. Although they opposed the previous case in the beginning, he said, “HACA withdrew its opposition to the Goodrich project more than 16 months ago when we were assured by the Transportation Department and the Development Services Department that traffic was being addressed and that Rabb Glen Street that runs through our property would not be reopened…. Bill Bunch simply has his facts wrong.”

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Posted In: Zoning, District 5