SOS sues city to stop Statesman PUD

The Save Our Springs Alliance has sued the city in an attempt to stop construction of the Statesman Planned Unit Development that Council approved in December 2022.

Specifically, the environmental organization seeks to stop any “permit approvals, city fee waivers, and ‘other development subsidies’ contained in the final ordinance.”

The Statesman property, previously the home of the Austin American-Statesman and its printing press, sits at a prime location at the end of the Congress Avenue Bridge on the southeast side. Various plaintiffs, including SOS, have already won a lawsuit overturning use of a tax increment reinvestment zone or TIRZ to help fund the project. In that case, Judge Jessica Mangrum ruled that the developers could not use $354 million in taxpayer money to develop the site. It is not clear how the development might change as a result of that ruling.

However, under regulations approved by the previous City Council, the property is projected to house more than 3.5 million square feet of development on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake.

If SOS were to win the latest suit, the developers of the property, represented by attorney Richard Suttle as trustee, would have to file a new zoning request, along with any other changes they wish to see for developing the property. The property was originally owned by the Cox family and they presumably still have a considerable share of its ownership. Their partner in the development is Endeavor Realty.

Bobby Levinski is the lead attorney on the case. According to the suit, “this case challenges Defendants’ attempt to bypass the requirements of state law, to make a deal with a billionaire landowner, at the expense of the rights of Plaintiffs’ members under a legislative democracy.”

The lawsuit accuses defendants of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act, violating the Austin City Charter related to parkland, procedural irregularities in violation of city land use rules, and contract zoning, among other violations.

In a news release, Levinski said, “The package of development entitlements associated with the Statesman PUD is unprecedented. This PUD goes beyond zoning by essentially adopting a separate code unique only to this property.”

Levinski further noted that “the Statesman Property was listed as a ‘Tipping Point’ property in the city’s South-Central Waterfront Vision Plan; how the property developed would have a major impact on whether the City could achieve its goals for affordable housing, parkland, and environmental protections for the district.”

The Statesman PUD was not required to provide 20 percent affordable housing and “ignored the density bonus standards embedded within the PUD ordinance,” said Levinski. “With this PUD, they were able to increase their allowed height on parts of the property from 35 ft. to 725 ft., and they can build up to 3.5 million square feet without even triggering the baseline that requires on-site affordability.”

He pointed out that the city is using the Statesman property as a model for the South Central Waterfront. Levinski noted that Council is set to vote next week on blanket rezoning changes for more than 120 acres of land, “extending downtown-style development south of the lake.”

Defendants include not only the city of Austin but also every member of the City Council, City Manager T.C. Broadnax and City Clerk Myrna Rios, all in their official capacities. City Attorney Anne Morgan released the following statement: “We just received the lawsuit filed by SOS that challenges a 2022 ordinance and related actions involving the former Austin American-Statesman property. We are reviewing the lawsuit and will respond through the court process as appropriate.”

Photo by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Posted In: Courts, District 9