City Council to vote neighborhood coffee shop resolution

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Quote of the Day

“We’re not talking about taking a home and rezoning it commercial. But if a local business wants to open a small coffee shop and sees a year-long rezoning process costing tens of thousands of dollars, maybe there’s a way to make that more reasonable while still involving the neighborhood.”

— Council Member Ryan Alter, from “Council looks to serve up more neighborhood coffee shops“

Council looks to serve up more neighborhood coffee shops

From Chad Swiatecki:

The proposal from District 5 Council Member Ryan Alter asks the city manager to conduct review of existing city codes and recommend changes that would lower barriers for neighborhood-scale cafés while preserving protections for nearby homes. The item cites Austin’s Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan’s goal of building “compact and connected communities” where more residents can meet daily needs without driving.

Alter said the idea grew from observing how other cities integrate small coffee or breakfast spots into walkable areas and attributed their comparative absence in Austin to a lack of appropriate zoning designations.

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Planning Commission counsels Council to expand commercial in density overlays

During their regular meeting on September 23, Planning Commissioners made a recommendation that City Council loosen limits on commercial uses in their incipient reworking of the city’s density bonus programs.

Currently, both Density Bonus-90 (DB90) and Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Density Bonus (DBETOD) programs limit many commercial uses to the first and second floors.

Commissioner Greg Anderson said that staff’s original proposal for the ETOD and DBETOD overlays, which were put forth as part of a bevy of “transit-supportive” code amendments passed in early 2024, would have allowed for commercial uses on upper floors, but that was amended in a Planning Commission recommendation at the time.

Anderson characterized that change as a mistake that had “watered down” the overlays, and suggested that it had occurred because of the marathon nature of the amendment process.

“It was late, things happen, but now we have a chance to fix it,” Anderson said.

Commissioner Adam Powell, who co-sponsored the recommendation and spoke in support of it, used the example of “zakkyo” buildings to illustrate what he hoped the changes could achieve. The buildings, which are seen mostly in Japan, are narrow towers with many small-business commercial tenants spread out across several floors.

“People recognize when you’re building buildings tall, why not have more commercial flexibility, create some more thriving ecosystems, even within one building?” Powell said.

The language of the resolution making the recommendation, which can be read here, also appears to encourage council to consider expanding density bonus programs to even primarily commercial projects, which would represent a significant turn away from their erstwhile focus on providing housing stock. It passed unanimously.

— Miles Wall

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ELSEWHERE IN THE NEWS

Austin’s Hideout Theater will be downtown no more, but it will stay in Austin after a relocation to near-Southeast’s Art Hub.

In other downtown Congress Ave. news, the city is moving forward with plans to revamp the street in an effort to make it more pedestrian, bike, and tree-friendly.

In what is perhaps a burst of over-enthusiasm for Austin’s fall, such that it is, Axios tries to nail our autumnal peak.

The Statesman’s Bridget Grumet weighs in on Prop Q et al.

And UT students are speaking out about the “campus protection act” which they contend aims to limit just that kind of thing.