East Cesar Chavez zoning granted despite neighbors’ objections

Although former City Council Member Raul Alvarez and other east side advocates argued strenuously during last week’s meeting against granting DB90 zoning to the property at 3020 E. Cesar Chavez St., Council members approved the change on all three readings. The old zoning allowed for a relatively modest mixed-use building. Developers are now expected to replace it with a 90-foot-tall mixed-use building, which will include residential uses on the upper floors.

In order to be eligible for DB90 – a new zoning category that allows buildings up to 90 feet tall – the developer must provide a minimum of 12 percent of rental units affordable for households earning 60 percent of the median family income, or a minimum of 10 percent of units affordable for households earning 50 percent of the local median family income. Either way, those units must be available on those terms for 40 years, according to the ordinance approved by Council. Alternatively, the developer is allowed to pay the cost of those units as a fee-in-lieu to the Housing Trust Fund.

The developer is James Eustace operating as Eastside Partners, LLC. Leah Bojo of the Drenner Group represents him.

Alvarez wrote a letter to Council in July requesting that they postpone consideration of the East Cesar Chavez zoning case, as well as eight others, all of which were seeking the DB90 designation in East Austin. Alvarez wrote, “The community has been blindsided by DB90 because, for many years, an MU or VMU zoning change typically meant 60 feet in height. Also, VMU2 (the category that DB90 is replacing and which it most closely mirrors) was limited to certain corridors and city staff and Planning Commission are now failing to respect these conventions that were collectively developed.” He noted that there were 17 DB90 proposals for Central East Austin, either coming to Council or to the Planning Commission. He asked, “Please consider the individual context of each DB 90 case,” as well as the cumulative impact on the east side of “these out of scale proposals.”

The file also included a letter from Daniel Llanes, chair of the Govalle/Johnston Terrace Neighborhood Contact Team. Llanes complained that a number of DB90 cases were going to the Planning Commission despite the fact that the developers had not met with the neighborhood contact team. He also wrote a letter to city staff indicating that he would be appearing at the Planning Commission to voice his group’s opposition to the DB90 case.

A representative of the Govalle/Johnston Terrace Neighborhood, Valerie Menard, also requested postponement of all DB90 cases on the agenda. She disputed the usefulness of DB90, noting that it allows “development to rise to 90 feet, 30 feet above what had been considered compatible to neighborhoods, and removes compatibility requirements. In return, developers are merely required to set aside a fraction of units for affordable housing, which, defined is as 80 to 60 percent of MFI. (This) is a failure from the start. It’s a failure if the goal is to increase the stock of affordable housing. In 2023, the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers ranked Austin third-worst metropolitan area in the country for providing affordable housing for extremely low-income communities. … Just this week, the same organization reported that Austin has only 21 of 100 homes available for very low-income households,” Menard said.

She concluded, “I seriously doubt most Austinites have any idea of what DB90 will do to their neighborhoods. Looking at the list of zoning cases, I know that East Austin stands to be the most seriously impacted, and especially District 3.”

The item was approved without comment from Council with Council Member Alison Alter off the dais and Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison absent.

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Posted In: Zoning, District 3