Neighbors turn out for Manor Road proposal
Tuesday, February 4, 2025 by
Miles Wall A proposal to amend a city plan surrounding Capital Metro’s Martin Luther King Jr. Station was met with anger from neighbors during a Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 28 and a successful request from developers for commissioners to postpone any decision on the case.
The amendment would remove a plot of land at 2967 Manor Road, an address close to the intersection of Manor Road and Airport Boulevard, from a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Special Regulating District surrounding the station.
TODs are special base zoning districts in Austin intended to direct development in an area to create “compact, walkable, mixed-use communities within walking distance of a transit facility,” according to the city building code.
Applicant 2967 Manor AGV LLC is also asking the city to rezone the property to General Commercial Services-Density Bonus 90, or CS-DB90, to allow for a 91-foot, 81-unit commercial and residential development.
Though intended to encourage density, the TOD surrounding the MLK Jr. station imposes a height limit of 60 feet and would allow for only 30 units to be built on the site, according to background information assembled for the commission.
During public comment on the commission’s postponement of a decision on the case, nine neighbors spoke in opposition of the development plan more generally, criticizing its perceived effects on the neighborhood.
One of those neighbors, Steve Hunt, said he had lived on Rountree Drive, a residential street close to the intersection of Manor and Airport, for more than 18 years. He criticized the design of the intersection and said he thought a tall apartment complex would be bad for both tenants and neighbors.
“The effects would only make a bad situation worse, not only with parking and increased traffic, but with the eyesore factor,” Hunt said. “They’d be overlooking views of a tow yard, an empty lot which is sometimes a used car lot, a gas station and all of our backyards.”
Jim Walker, chair of the steering committee for the Cherrywood Neighborhood Association, said that his and other neighborhood associations near the TOD would prefer a postponement of at least two weeks to allow more time for the neighborhood and the developer to discuss the proposed changes.
Walker, who is also the director of sustainability at the University of Texas, noted the outsize importance of the area, which encompasses two Capital Metro train lines and four planning areas.
“This is the first carve-out from the MLK TOD, so that’s a precedent that I think we from a planning point of view need a little bit more weight, a little bit more time, a little bit more iterative conversation,” Walker said.
The commission voted narrowly to postpone discussion and voting on recommending the petition to City Council for two weeks, to the next planned meeting on Feb. 11, after rejecting a motion brought by Commissioner Grayson Cox and supported by other commissioners to postpone four weeks.
Jonathan Tomko, a consultant with the Planning Department, said that staff supported removing the property from the TOD rather than amending the TOD to allow taller, higher-density building due to limited staff resources.
Tomko said that the department is already stretched thin developing TODs for rail stations built over the last few years and the prospect of developing them for new stations, which depend on time-sensitive federal funding.
“We have many areas around high-frequency traffic that have never received any planning whatsoever,” Tomko said.
Victoria Haase, an agent speaking on behalf of the landowner, expressed skepticism about the neighborhood’s likelihood of supporting the proposed amendment or resulting development, but said the landowner was committed to engaging with the neighborhood over the next two weeks.
“If we get to two weeks and more time is needed, and it’s clear that everyone’s making an effort, perhaps we postpone again,” Haase said.
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