Planning Commission supports rezoning lakefront property 

The Planning Commission supported rezoning 200 E. Riverside Drive, which is just east of South Congress Avenue, for a multiuse development project that would include multiple towers where a vacant office building currently sits. 

The development will be 160 feet from the banks of Lady Bird Lake and adjacent to the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail and Boardwalk. Developers are still planning the project but anticipate constructing between two and four towers – which, with the rezoning, will have a maximum height of 500 feet – that will include ground-floor retail space as well as potentially office, residential or hotel space. The towers will sit alongside a planned Capital Metro station for the proposed Blue Line, a light rail that will run along East Riverside Drive. 

The development will be designed to “encourage a pedestrian environment by expanding open space with connections to the waterfront,” Sherri Sirwaitis, with the Planning Department, said. 

While the towers were originally proposed to be office space atop ground-floor commercial space, the developer is reserving the right for housing. “The goal is to have first-floor retail and the … buildings will probably be hotel or residential,” said Richard ​​Suttle, the lawyer who represented the developer in the Planning Commission meeting. While demand for office space is currently low, Suttle said that the developer is still keeping the possibility of future office space on the table, especially as the Blue Line develops in coming years.

Suttle also explained that the number of towers will be informed by plans for the location of the CapMetro station and proposed Blue Line.

“It’s tough to plan right now because we don’t know exactly where the train is coming through,” Suttle said. However, he affirmed that the developer is “going to make sure the train fits.” 

The redevelopment of the property, which is located in the Lady Bird Lake and East Bouldin Creek watersheds, will also reduce the site’s impervious cover by 8.9 percent across its 3.95 acres. 

While the project is currently slated for a 2026 completion, commission chair Claire Hempel confirmed with Suttle that the entire site likely won’t be open in 2026. Instead, the towers will probably open in succession. One building will open in 2026 and then the developer plans to determine the usage of the other towers according to market changes. 

Commissioner Adam Haynes raised a motion to postpone the rezoning decision because of concerns over pending City Council resolutions regarding the South Central Waterfront Plan. The motion to postpone failed as other commissioners expressed reluctance to further delay the decision-making process. 

“I think it does make sense to move along,” Commissioner Awais Azhar said. “I remember in 2013 going on a tour through the South Central Waterfront planning area with city staff. … Here we are over 11 years later and that plan has still not been adopted.” 

“When we have that degree of inaction it makes it very hard to put that burden on the property owners,” Azhar said. “I think this moves us forward to meeting different sets of goals,” he said after noting the staff recommendations and superiority elements connected to the project. 

The commission voted to approve the rezoning of 200 E. Riverside Drive with only Commissioner Jennifer Mushtaler voting against the rezoning after voicing concerns about the lack of large-scale environmental modeling for development along the South Central Waterfront.  

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Posted In: Zoning, District 9