At its Oct. 17 meeting, the Zoning and Platting Commission unanimously approved staff’s recommendation to allow an additional 800,000 square feet of industrial office uses at 7700 W. Parmer Lane. The site is located northwest of the intersection of U.S. Highway 183 and MoPac Expressway, the unofficial boundaries of the urban core. The commission has been critical of the CodeNEXT maps for designating the urban core for the most intense development and treating everything outside as if it were categorically different. After the vote was called on the item, Chair Jolene Kiolbassa took a moment to recognize a case that appeared to corroborate the commission’s claims. “There are a lot of businesses moving here, and there’s a lot of growth in office space, and it’s not where you’d usually suspect. It’s in these areas in North Austin,” she said.
Commission chair highlights intense development outside urban core
