The Planning Commission last Tuesday recommended Vertical Mixed-Use zoning on a 1.6-acre site at 7601 Cameron Road over opposition from several neighbors.
The site’s owner requests a zoning change from Community Commercial (GR-CO-NP) to Vertical Mixed-Use (GR-MU-V-CO-NP), which would allow a residential project with ground-floor retail to rise on the currently vacant site.
Leah Bojo, representing the property owner, said that the location on Cameron Road, a Core Transit Corridor, makes it a great place for more intense development. But even after Bojo met with neighbors several times to assuage their concerns, three still spoke against the rezoning on Tuesday.
Neighbors said they worried about the loss of open space and trees, increased flooding, and dangerous conditions for drivers and pedestrians on Cameron Road, a street that sees lots of speeding and crashes. They requested a 100-foot vegetative buffer and a traffic impact analysis in exchange for supporting the rezoning.
But Bojo said the property owner could not agree to either request. While the owner is fine with a 25-foot vegetative buffer, a 100-foot buffer would eat up three-quarters of the site. And the projected number of car trips associated with future development under VMU zoning does not meet the threshold for a traffic impact analysis.
Commissioners generally agreed with Bojo that the site is suitable for VMU zoning. But a motion by Commissioner Grayson Cox to recommend the requested zoning along with a conditional overlay to require a raised curb along Cameron Road (a nod to neighbors’ concerns about pedestrian safety), stirred some debate.
“The grade separation is just one of those basic features that makes it safer and more comfortable to walk on the sidewalk in front of this property along a busy street,” Cox said. While a sidewalk currently exists along the site, only a strip of grass separates it from traffic.
Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson expressed concern that adding an overlay with limited information about its impact adds complexity to the Land Development Code and could have unintended consequences.
“Just putting lots of overlays from our opinions on the dais without seeing site plans, without really understanding other actions that staff may have in mind, I think that’s a bad direction and something I’m not wanting to go down,” Thompson said.
Bojo said a raised curb would likely be required anyway during the site plan process. City staffers also cautioned that the Law Department might decide a curb cannot be required as part of a zoning overlay, but they nonetheless allowed Cox’s motion to proceed.
The vote was 8-1-1, with Thompson against and Commissioner Carmen Llanes Pulido abstaining.
City Council approved the rezoning request on the first of three readings on Jan. 26. A vote on second reading is scheduled for Feb. 9.
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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.
