City Council to consider expanded arts, music venue code language by June

The city’s Music and Arts commissions have given their support to expanded definitions of what constitutes music venues and creative spaces, in the hope that the city will move ahead with building code changes and incentives to encourage those spaces throughout Austin.

The unanimous votes – held during a recent joint meeting of both commissions – came in advance of an effort by city staff to bring the definitions to a series of other boards and commissions in the coming weeks, with City Council expected to conduct a hearing for possible approval in June.

The definitions will come before the Codes and Ordinances Joint Committee this Wednesday, with Planning Commission consideration scheduled for May 23.

City Council requested staff, including the Law Department, to move forward with the new language last year, after years of work by music and arts stakeholders to create language that differentiates music venues and creative performance spaces from the more restrictive bar and cocktail lounge uses currently spelled out in the code.

The definitions spell out a variety of activities – including live/work and work/live scenarios – that are friendly to artists and musicians and would in some cases allow for the sale of alcohol as a revenue generator. Donald Jackson, business processing consultant for the Economic Development Department, said that once the definitions are adopted, staff can begin defining the process for creating cultural districts around the city, with the goal of creating one in every City Council district throughout the city.

Jackson also said the new language would allow for exploration of incentives to either preserve existing creative spaces and music venues or encourage developers to include them in new projects.

Arts Commissioner Acia Gray said the possibility of having the new code language in place by this fall will let the city begin discussions with developers that could make a meaningful difference in the amount and variety of creative space available for artists.

“These things are set up to get developers engaged and excited about who’s instigating what, because it’s not the city of Austin making things happen. It’s getting the communities interested in connecting to developers that want to make this happen,” she said.

Asked about the effect of compatibility concerns, such as the “agent of change” concept, which is intended to address noise issues between new building projects close to creative spaces, Jackson said the new language could be used to make negotiations move more smoothly.

“We could use the definitions to work on compatibility issues … while there’d be a lot of difficulty having a tool that would automatically supersede any sort of rights,” he said. “As part of the site review process and part of the development review process there can be some level of collaboration and coordination. Having something binding that (a builder) would have to do, that is a much harder thing.”

Music Commissioner Lauryn Gould said she would like for the expanded definitions to make it possible for musicians and artists to make their residential properties more flexible to allow for impromptu, low-intensity gatherings for performances and exhibitions.

“Some spaces I’ve been aware of in the past, none of which continue to exist but I’d like to see come back, were the sort of thing where maybe if somebody had a back house on their property where they’re able to host a community gathering for informal performances or jams or a community space during the day and people could have a gathering at night,” she said. “I am curious as to how these changes would affect those potential (uses) because I know there’s been a lot of constraints around the building code, and I would like those spaces in my backyard but currently it’s a thing that is completely overwhelming to me.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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