Council gives first reading OK to major development on tiny slice of land

On a vote of 8-3, City Council last week approved on first reading a major change for a small sliver of property at 1209 W. Fifth St. The change would allow the developer to build up to 120 feet, a change that has neighbors up in arms. After hearing objections to the proposal from several neighbors in the Old West Austin Neighborhood Association, Mayor Kirk Watson joined Council members Alison Alter and Mackenzie Kelly in voting against the zoning proposal. The matter will likely come back to Council at next week’s meeting for second and third reading.

Zoning Officer Joi Harden read a list of prohibited uses into the record, along with the following statement: “The maximum height of the building or structure on the property shall not exceed 120 feet for residential uses, and be 90 feet for commercial uses, and 120 feet for a mix of residential and commercial uses. If 70 percent of the building is designed for residential use, a hotel/motel use may satisfy up to 50 percent of the residential use requirement.” The zoning approved is Limited Industrial Service-Planned Development Area-Neighborhood Plan (LI-PDA-NP) combining district zoning.

The address is in District 9, represented by Council Member Zo Qadri. He spoke in favor of the zoning change, thanking both the neighborhood advocates who opposed the change and the applicant “for working with the community and incorporating as many of their requests as possible. I know a lot of work has been put into the case. I believe we’ve landed in a place that satisfies the main concerns regarding affordability and the pedestrian environment.”

Neighbors continue to disagree. Sheila Lyon, chair of the Old West Austin Neighborhood Association zoning committee, told Council her group has worked successfully with several large developers over the years, including a planned development agreement for property at 410 Pressler St. That agreement, she said, allows for 120 feet in height and includes “many community benefits approved by Council.” She said the Fifth Street proposal does not match what the Pressler developers offered.

James Cousar, an attorney who has worked with numerous commercial property owners as well as lenders and the city itself, reminded Council, “I worked with commercial and other property owners, and we came up with a neighborhood plan, which has served us well for 20 years. And I know that neighborhood plans are not broadly being honored anymore. But what’s important about this neighborhood plan is it set a hard 60-foot cap on new development in the neighborhood.” He noted that there are two highly successful developments close to this property, which respected the 60-foot cap.

Cousar concluded, “We should not be building 120-foot-tall buildings on less than half a lot. The other problem with this project is it’s speculative. They’re not bringing you a plan and a design and a developer. They’re asking for a great big zoning envelope. We request that it be denied.”

Leah Bojo, representing the developer, told Council, “We realized a couple of months ago that we were not going to be able to come to an agreement on the restrictive covenant that we’d been working toward. So we have in place instead two other restrictive covenants, private, signed, ready to go, one to implement ETOD-level affordable housing. We have that signed and ready to record. And we also have one with Safe Streets Austin to do the all the streetscape improvements,” which she said would improve what is currently there. She added, “We have bigger trees and closer-together trees than would be otherwise required. We have a requirement for pedestrian-oriented uses – so we did everything we could to sort of mimic what the ETOD program would provide.”

Qadri concluded, “Given this project is on a transit corridor with a high-frequency bus route, which warrants the height proposed, along with a street environment mimicking what we’d get under DB ETOD, we have to get a balance. We have to balance community benefits against what pencils out to keep generating new development. So I believe this aligns with our city values of affordability” and mobility in an “area we’d want to see this type of growth. And I believe we’ve struck a good balance.” He reminded those watching that the case would come back to Council on Nov. 21.

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Posted In: Zoning, District 9