Mark Walters with the Housing and Planning Department gave a presentation to Zoning and Platting commissioners last week on a city study that evaluated trends of industrial land use in Austin. Walters said city staffers have noticed the “continuing erosion of industrially zoned land” over the last several years, particularly in Southeast Austin. “There’s been […]
City of Austin Zoning and Platting Commission
The City of Austin’s Zoning and Platting Commission addresses issues of land use as assigned to it by Austin’s City Code. It has sovereign authority, or the right to make final decisions on certain cases.
Posted inPlanning
ZAP briefed on Onion Creek flooding and development
Zoning and Platting commissioners were briefed last Tuesday on the effects of flooding on development in South Austin’s Onion Creek. Kevin Shunk, the floodplain administrator in the city’s Watershed Protection Department, gave the presentation in response to questions from ZAP. Shunk said Watershed is guided by the Land Development Code to make sure there are […]
Posted inZoning
ZAP endorses mixed-use for East Austin tract
On Tuesday night, the Zoning and Platting Commission voted in favor of mixed-use zoning for an East Austin property, but once again clashed over the scope of conditional overlays. ZAP commissioners recommended designating a 4.67-acre tract at 5601 Nixon Lane, off FM 969 east of U.S. Highway 183, with a community commercial base zone, a […]
Posted inPlanning
Zoning and Platting Commission recommends Circuit of the Americas PUD
At its meeting Tuesday, the Zoning and Platting Commission unanimously recommended – with staff members’ caveats – the Circuit of the Americas planned unit development. The commission would like staffers to track the impervious cover on the site and ensure an arborist maintains the site’s trees for at least three years. “We really have to […]
Posted inZoning
ZAP approves East Austin zoning change with condition
At its Tuesday evening meeting, the Zoning and Platting Commission voted to recommend a zoning change at 5601 Nixon Lane. The commission voted in favor of the 4.67-acre property, at the corner of Nixon Lane and FM 969, changing from Community Commercial to Neighborhood Commercial, with a provision excluding service stations from the list of possible […]
Posted inZoning
ZAP deadlocked on Jollyville Apartments case
After three separate deadlocked votes, at its June 2 meeting the Zoning and Platting Commission moved on from the Jollyville Apartments case without making a recommendation to City Council. The applicant is requesting a rezoning of the 0.79-acre parcel at Jollyville Road and Argonne Forest Trail, from Single-Family Residence – Standard Lot (SF-2) to Multifamily […]
Posted inZoning
ZAP finds a compromise to bring density and more affordable housing with a unit cap
In an effort to bring more density to the environmentally sensitive area of far Southwest Austin, developers came to the Zoning and Platting Commission on Feb. 4 with a plan to construct 15 condominiums within a small footprint on their 3-acre lot. To accomplish this plan, they requested a recommendation for a zoning change from […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: The breakdown of wide-eyed, optimistic exuberance
The trouble with working groups… At the Feb. 3 meeting of the Public Safety Commission, two agenda items required the appointment of commissioners to serve on working groups. These groups are tasked with assisting the city in determining the scope of work future consultants will need to complete for the APD systemic racism study and […]
Posted inPlanning
A heated ZAP tackles displacement
Nearly two years to the day citizens debuted the People’s Plan on Martin Luther King Day 2018, the topic of displacement mitigation came before the Zoning and Platting Commission for an update. On Jan. 21, commissioners listened to a report on how the city’s strategic initiatives aimed at mitigating displacement are progressing. Under the Neighborhood […]
Posted inPlanning
Commission calls city’s approach to South Austin planning “piecemeal”
Cases that come before the Zoning and Platting Commission are reviewed individually. But when a zoning request change at 12001 S. Interstate 35 came up at the Jan. 7 meeting, it caused the commission to lament the overall process for being too myopic. “Austin has gotten so far from planning,” said Commissioner Jim Duncan. “Unfortunately, […]
Posted inZoning
Campground case returns 18 months after initial rezoning denial
A rezoning case to transform a 12-acre plot next to the Colorado River into a community-centric campground returned to the Zoning and Platting Commission on Jan. 7. The case failed to receive Council’s approval in 2018. Following the 18-month waiting period required to refile a rezoning request, the Zimmerman brothers came back before ZAP with a […]
Posted inPlanning
Without paperwork, commissioners hear testimony on rezoning, but hold off on decision
It’s unusual for the Zoning and Platting Commission to postpone a final plat but hear a preliminary plan for a zoning case. Yet that is exactly what commissioners did at their Dec. 17 meeting, before discovering that they could not make any final decision for the subdivision at 12001 South Interstate 35 Service Road as […]