Hotels could be coming to the Bouldin Creek neighborhood after the Planning Commission approved an extension for a site plan at Mattie’s at Green Pastures restaurant.
The proposed development would bring two hotels with about 100 rooms and renovations to the historically significant home previously owned by Henry and Martha “Mattie” Faulk, whose daughter Mary eventually took ownership and established a restaurant.
Jeff Trigger, chairman of the Green Pastures board of directors and president of La Corsha Hospitality Group, which is behind the project, spoke before the commission Tuesday. The group has preserved other historic sites around Texas, including restoration on Austin’s Driskill Hotel. The project at Green Pastures, however, hit delays when the Covid-19 pandemic strained service and hospitality businesses as the public took social distancing measures.
“We’ve made a tremendous good faith effort to preserve Green Pastures’ legacy within our original time that was allotted,” Trigger said. “But just like the site plan extension process, sometimes doing things right takes a little bit more time and effort than you’d like.”
The first phase of the site plan, which included interior remodeling of the previous Green Pastures restaurant, and the improvement of the restaurant’s landscape and parking areas, has been completed. Commissioner Greg Anderson shared excitement over the plan, especially given its location near downtown and the river. Another speaker associated with Green Pastures said that the development would provide more jobs and space for the community to gather, and even help “maintain the feeling of old Austin while continuing with Austin’s positive trajectory.”
And while residents in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood largely supported the hotel and restaurant updates, many wanted to see adjustments to the site plans, sharing privacy concerns given the hotel’s proximity to their homes.
In a public statement, resident Steve Bing said the hotel would be placed 15 feet from his home’s rear property line, and is concerned that balconies at the hotel will allow users to look into his backyard, along with the living room and bedroom windows. “Users will be able to easily determine our family’s comings and goings,” Bing said.
Another resident, Elizabeth Winkler, said that she lives so close to Green Pastures that she hears couples taking their wedding vows from her yard and cheers for them as they say “I do.”
“I love Green Pastures. I’m there all the time. I love the staff. I love the restaurant. And I actually wouldn’t mind living right next to a hotel,” Winkler said. “I really think that this place could be both commercially viable and an incredible asset to the neighborhood if it were just two stories high.” Winkler then offered to invest in the project if it fit that criteria.
Trigger, meanwhile, said it is not economically viable to adjust the size to two stories high as residents requested. “It will kill Green Pastures,” Trigger said.
The commission unanimously approved the extension, giving the team a three-year extension to carry out the project. But they’ll have to act quickly since the commission questioned the earlier delays.
Addressing Trigger and his team, Commissioner Adam Haynes said, “We need progress.”
Photo by Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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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.
