Council OKs first reading of zoning change but Austin Water wants more

City Council approved on first reading last week an amendment to the Hyatt West Planned Unit Development at the intersection of Riverside Drive and South First Street. As the developer’s representative, Leah Bojo, told the Planning Commission last month, her client wants to eliminate the minimum parking requirement for the area known as the West Parcel as part of their plan to add a considerable amount of multifamily housing to the site.

The item passed on consent with Council Members Alison Alter, Leslie Pool and Natasha Harper-Madison absent. Council Member Ryan Alter voted no but did not explain his vote at the time.

In addition to the parking issue, Alter told the Austin Monitor on Monday he wants the developer to agree to Austin Water’s request to hook up to the city’s reclaimed water line. While the developer has promised to use reclaimed water from its own site for irrigation and some other uses, which means they will save about 700,000 gallons of city water. If they hook up to the reclaimed water line, they will save an additional 1.2 million gallons, he said.

“We’ve got to be very aggressive in saving water,” Alter said. “It’s too precious.”

The developer is asking for an amendment to the PUD in order to eliminate more than half of the 670 parking spaces originally planned. It’s promising to build multifamily housing above the second story of a 14-story building. The original plan approved in 2007 was for an office building and parking.

The new plan would eliminate more than half of the 670 spaces in the old plan.

“We are looking to provide only 327 parking spaces underground,” Bojo said. Currently, parking is the only thing on the lot. Bojo said changing plans for the building would cost about $1 million, and connecting to the reclaimed water line would add another $2 million to the project’s cost.

When the matter came before the Planning Commission in September, staff recommended the extension of the reclaimed water main to use nonpotable water throughout the project for flushing toilets and urinals, evaporative cooling and irrigation. After lengthy argument, the commission voted 8-3-1 to approve a requirement for on-site reclamation of water, including condensation from the outside air rooftop units, storm water from the building and groundwater collected through the subsoil drainage system below the three-level underground parking garage. But they did not vote for staff’s recommendation.

Austin Water Assistant Director Kevin Critendon told the commission that Council directed staff to write code amendments in 2021 that would require use of reclaimed water for all new large buildings within 500 feet of the reclaimed line to connect to it. The city’s existing reclaimed water main is described by staff as just 470 feet from the Hyatt property.

In a memo, Austin Water’s Robert Stefani wrote that the only two PUDs currently approved in the South Central Waterfront area – the Snoopy PUD and the Statesman PUD – “have both agreed to connect to the reclaimed water system as a condition for their approval.”

There are three other proposed PUDs in the area, including the Hyatt West PUD, which staff is asking to connect to the reclaimed line. According to Stefani, the Hyatt West proposal as it now stands will use 1.9 million gallons of drinking water to flush toilets.

Posted In: Zoning, District 5