A small vacant lot and former junkyard in the North Loop neighborhood may become part of a new housing development stretching across three addresses after a Planning Commission vote to recommend rezoning the tract in a meeting on Jan. 14.
The lot, located at 5210 Bruning Ave. and 705 East 53rd St. and near Airport Boulevard, is currently zoned GR-CO-NP, or community commercial, combined overlay neighborhood plan. The requested change would add three overlapping zoning categories: MU, or mixed use; V, or vertical, and DB90, or density bonus 90.
Temaria Davis, an agent speaking on behalf of JEV Family, Ltd., said in her proposal to the commission that adding the proposed rezoning would make development on the tract possible by allowing residential units to be built above first-floor commercial space, as well as a host of other technical benefits.
Davis pointed to the underlying commercial zoning district and the proximity of Capital Metro bus routes 350 and 7 and Mueller Lake Park as supporting reasons for new development, as well as the affordable housing requirement included with the DB90 district.
“We’re making this request to add residential uses, and this is exactly where DB90 is intended to go,” Davis said. “In a high-transit area, on the edge of a neighborhood in or near a major thoroughfare.”
The case is related to two other rezoning petitions for neighboring lots which were approved without public comment on the commission’s consent agenda at the beginning of the meeting. Plans for development would likely hinge on building across all three sites.
North Loop residents present at the meeting spoke in opposition to the rezoning, alleging mismanagement by the current owner, James Volz. Three neighbors present at the meeting referenced past code violations at a now-vacant single-family home on the property.
Adnan Prcic, who said he lived across the street from the lot, told the commission that the lot had been neglected for years. He showed a PowerPoint presentation of archival Google street view photos in support of his argument.
“From these images, you can see that at one point the house served as a home for some folks. They were good neighbors, and with people living in that house, we were optimistic that it meant that all the rodents that once lived in that home wouldn’t return,” Prcic said. “That didn’t happen.”
He said that the residents were instead evicted after code enforcement officials raised concerns about the property. In response to questions from the commission, Cynthia Hadri, a senior planner with the city, clarified that the code violations in question have since been closed.
Eliud Ramirez, who said he works as a property manager for Volz, told the Austin Monitor that the tenants evicted from the house on the lot were mechanics employed by Volz in his nearby auto shop at the time, and that scrutiny of the property originally stemmed from neighbors’ complaints about the tenants playing loud music and keeping multiple cars in their front yard.
Ramirez also said he and other employees of Volz’s were unaware of his having received complaints from neighbors.
“Jim would have told us if there was something,” Ramirez said.
The neighbors asked for voting on the petition to be delayed until after Feb. 12, when a planned meeting of the North Loop Neighborhood Association would give the community a chance to discuss the proposal and potentially speak with Volz or his representatives about it.
Commissioner Grayson Cox introduced a motion to do just that but failed to find a second. The petition was advanced to City Council by a 10-1-1 vote, with Cox voting “nay” and Commissioner Alberta Philips abstaining.
“I feel like this is half-baked,” Cox said, explaining his vote. “I’m afraid this might just be entitlement shopping, and so I would like to see this a bit more fleshed out before we make a final vote on it.”
Commissioner Awais Azhar, who voted “yea” along with the majority of the commission, said that he weighed the commission’s approval of the two related petitions, verbal commitments from agents on behalf of the petitioner and the potential for a successful new development to ultimately improve the situation at the site.
“It’s really challenging, but sometimes part of the rezoning is to have that redevelopment so that some of these older issues can be resolved,” Azhar said.
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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.
