After more than half a dozen community members took the dais to speak against an East Austin rezoning request, the Planning Commission voted to postpone its decision due to a clerical issue in the agenda. This marks the second consecutive meeting in which an administrative mistake has delayed the commission’s ability to act on an agenda item.
The property in question, 2.7 acres on Gunter Street in East Austin, currently consists of approximately seven single-family homes built in the 1940s and 1950s, located near Airport Boulevard and Springdale Road at 1143 ¾ Gunter Street, 1145 Gunter Street, 1145 ½ Gunter Street, 3605 Abbate Circle and 1144 Wayneroy Drive. The owner was seeking to rezone the majority of the site to multifamily use as they intend to develop 47 townhouses on the property.
“We really think we can develop something that will fit with the character of the neighborhood,” said Nikelle Meade, the lawyer representing the property owner. “Some of the buildings will be three-story, some will be two-story. … We know we have opposition, we know that the neighbors would like for the site to remain (single-family housing), but we really think that these 3 acres close to downtown really gives us an opportunity to provide a considerable amount of housing.”
Seven neighborhood residents spoke against the proposed rezoning, expressing concerns about increased traffic, strained communications with the developer and impact on the culture of the neighborhood.
“We are being asked to compromise the safety of our kids, the safety of our homes and the character of our neighborhood,” said Candice Boehm, a resident of the East MLK neighborhood. “We would love to see the zoning stay at SF-3 (family residence) or for the applicant to consider other single-family zoning.”
“We are not opposed to development, but the scale of this project is too large for the neighborhood to support while maintaining the culture and community that thrives here,” said Julia Levet, another neighbor.
Many residents emphasized that the proposed density increase would pose a safety risk to the community.
“We’ve had over two dozen cars that have been hit in the last two years alone,” said Omar Ghaznavi, a homeowner on Gunter Street, who described safety concerns over worsening traffic. “Despite the dismissiveness of the traffic issue, there is a car that came through our fence and into the siding of our house.”
Following the public hearings, Chair Claire Hempel said that the legal team had flagged that the property’s address was incorrectly listed on the agenda so the commission could not move forward on the case.
“Law has advised us to not take any more action on this tonight,” Hempel said, noting that the commission could not proceed with a question-and-answer session.
“I have fierce opposition to this city attorney decision,” Meade said, requesting that the item be rescheduled for the soonest possible meeting.
“We are fine with rescheduling,” Ghaznavi said on behalf of the neighborhood. “We would just request they get their address right since this is like the third time they have messed them up.”
The commission voted to postpone the item until its next meeting on Nov. 19.
“We will certainly take into consideration in a future hearing of this case everything we have heard tonight,” Commissioner Alice Woods said, assuring the neighbors that their feedback will be considered even if they cannot attend the Nov. 19 meeting.
“This is two meetings in a row where we’ve had such a clerical issue, so whatever we can do to encourage staff to let this to be the last time would be really terrific,” Commissioner Greg Anderson said.
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City of Austin Planning Commission: This commission addresses issues of land use as assigned to it by Austin's City Code. These include the abilities "[t]o make and amend a master plan, recommend approval or disapproval of proposed zoning changes and control land subdivision within neighborhood planning areas and submit, annually, a list of recommended capital improvements." It has sovereign authority, or the right to make final decisions on certain cases.
