Red dawn(s again)… Austin Transportation and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority are partnering up this month to add more red lanes – or “fresh Elmo,” as they’re called by transit advocates – to the city’s central transit spine. Beginning last week, work crews are painting existing bus priority lanes red on Lavaca and Guadalupe streets […]
City of Austin Board of Adjustment
The city’s Board of Adjustment is a quasi-judicial body that decides on variances, special exceptions and can issue interpretations of code.
Posted inLand Development Code
BOA denies a new build designed for a new decade
When the first Lake Austin Watershed Ordinance went into effect in 1980, some properties had development rights curtailed overnight. The property at 2803 Edgewater Drive is one of those cases where the ordinance limited the buildable area on the property’s steep slopes to 196 feet. With such a small percentage of the three-acre lot classified […]
Posted inCity Hall
BoA discusses how many postponements are too many
Postponement requests are available to applicants, neighbors and city staff who require extra time to organize their cases for the Board of Adjustment. However, there are certain cases that come before the board where a postponement request is a red flag. Board Liaison Elaine Ramirez with the Development Services Department brought a discussion about postponement […]
Posted inLand Development Code
BoA contemplates basements in Clarksville
There is an exception in city code that exempts homes with habitable basements from including the underground space in their overall square footage calculation. In order to claim that exception, however, a house must meet strict guidelines: The first story of the structure must not rise more than 3 feet above the average elevation of […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Board of Adjustment agrees to a lake setback reduction for a family home in West Lake
City records are not infallible archives. This reality was evidenced by a variance case at 1901 Westlake Drive, which was postponed last month by the Board of Adjustment in order to dredge up more information on the history of the lot’s shared driveway and whether it – and its accompanying impervious cover – was required. […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Board of Adjustment soundly rejects variances over ‘egregious’ code violations
After dedicating nearly a year to the construction of his personal residence at 504 Sunny Lane, StoryBuilt founder Ryan Diepenbrock found his construction choices to be the subject of a case at the Board of Adjustment last Thursday. Diepenbrock, who was unable to attend, sent his agent Colby Turner to seek retroactive variances to bring […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Lake setbacks threaten construction of family home in West Lake
Paris Schindler, owner of the lot at 1901 Westlake Drive, came to the Board of Adjustment seeking a variance to construct a 6,354-square-foot family home. While normally a 2.26-acre property would easily accommodate such a structure, 44,000 square feet of the lot is within the Lake Austin setback and much of the property ascends a […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Board of Adjustment waits for new code to make a decision on a fence
Slow and steady wins the race, and sometimes that requires a case postponement – or two, or three – to successfully acquire a variance. Such was the case at the Oct. 14 meeting of the Board of Adjustment, where Corey Keller came to request a variance to allow him to increase the height of his […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Board of Adjustment debates how far is too far to read a sign
The Hill Country Roadway Ordinance mandates that any sign along Highway 360 be less than 12 feet high, smaller than 64 square feet and conceal exterior lighting. However, Ben Robinson, who was representing the applicant for the Nalle Woods apartments at 4700 North Capital of Texas Highway, explained to the Board of Adjustment at its […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Board of Adjustment wants to participate more fully in LDC review
The Land Development Code draft continues to make its way through the city’s boards and commissions, making its latest stop at the Board of Adjustment on Monday night. The Board of Adjustment is tasked with sending feedback to the Planning Commission about the sections pertaining to variances and code interpretations – the areas of code […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Board of Adjustment seeks more information, postpones adaptive reuse project
In an effort to create market-rate affordable housing in North Austin, a developer is attempting to reuse the existing 281 units of the Austin Suites Motel at 8300 N. Interstate 35. In order to accomplish this goal, the developer came to the Board of Adjustment seeking a variance to decrease the minimum site area requirement […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Dock variance fails for a second time at the Board of Adjustment
After the Board of Adjustment denied a variance request to extend the width of a dock into the interior setback of a Lake Austin lot and reduce the interior setback to 0 feet, the homeowners returned in August for a reconsideration. Alex Tynberg, the owner of the property at 2710 Scenic Drive, told the board […]