The owner of a site in East Austin’s Rosewood neighborhood is asking for a zoning change that would allow future development to include a bar. So far, that request has been met with opposition from neighbors and city staff, over nine months of postponement and, most recently, ambivalence from the Planning Commission during their Sept. […]
East Austin
East Austin is the quadrant of Austin that, generally speaking, is east of IH-35.
Posted inZoning
Planning Commission recommends industrial rezoning in Govalle
Planning Commissioners have voted unanimously to recommend a rezoning for an industrial site in East Austin’s Govalle neighborhood that could lead to another tall housing development on the Colorado. The site, located at 20 Strandtman Cove near Airport Boulevard, is currently zoned LI, or light industrial, and houses a warehouse for foundation materials. The request […]
Posted inPlanning
Planning staff spells out steps for preservation and coordination in 78702 and beyond
The city is preparing to move forward with a long-term planning effort that would coordinate public and cultural investments in a portion of East Austin seen as under threat of gentrification and other growth pressures. A new memo from the Planning Department issued last week responds to a 2024 City Council resolution directing staff to […]
Posted inTransportation
East Austin’s ‘wishbone’ bridge takes shape as concrete beams almost span Lady Bird Lake
Massive concrete beams now extend over the water at the east end of Lady Bird Lake as a new three-pronged pedestrian bridge – the first of its kind in Austin – comes together next to the Longhorn Dam. Only one gap remains before the bridge’s skeleton is assembled. Once complete in mid-2026, this long-awaited “wishbone […]
Posted inHousing
Austin churches answer prayers for affordable housing – by building it themselves
Standing at a pulpit on a Sunday morning in March, the Rev. Daryl Horton of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in East Austin prayed for a swift approval of building permits. An ask that, as anyone familiar with municipal bureaucracy knows, requires nothing short of a God-given miracle. “Y’all keep praying for the city as those […]
Posted inPreservation
Landmark commission stalls demo of midcentury Baptist church
As East Austin’s Rehoboth Primitive Baptist Church moves on to roomier digs up north, its congregation is preparing to say goodbye to its home of six decades in more ways than one. What was once holy ground at 5303 Samuel Huston Avenue landed on the Historic Landmark Commission’s radar last month, with a request from […]
Posted inPreservation
Planners vote to preserve east side building despite developer opposition
The Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward on historic zoning for the building at 1500 East 12th St., which is estimated to have been built near the turn of the 20th century. According to city documentation, over the building’s century-long history it was a neighborhood grocery store, the meeting place of Black fraternity […]
Posted inPreservation
East Austin bids adieu to another historic bungalow
After a century on East Austin’s Cotton Street, a little blue Craftsman bungalow is finally biting the dust, with new owners getting the go-ahead from the city’s Historic Landmark Commission to proceed with demolition. A different outcome seemed possible just last month, when commissioners voted to initiate the site’s historic zoning based on ties to […]
Posted inPreservation
Historic zoning remains in limbo as commission continues to ponder east side building’s complicated past
The fate of a century-old storefront at the corner of East 12th and Comal streets remains up in the air, with debate over its merits as preservation-worthy intensifying at the city’s Historic Landmark Commission. 1500 E. 12th St. landed on commissioners’ radar last month, when an application to demolish the structure from owner and real […]
Posted inAustin
Cisco’s gets a $50,000 grant to preserve the restaurant’s history
Lee esta historia en español Cisco’s Restaurant, Bakery & Bar has been serving classic Tex-Mex dishes like huevos rancheros and migas to Austin residents since 1950. Now, 74 years later, the restaurant has received $50,000 as part of an effort from the National Trust of Historic Preservation to support small, historic businesses. Longtime customer Gardner Selby […]
Posted inHousing
City could push ‘agrihood’ combos of farmland, housing developments in East Austin
The city may soon take steps to promote the creation of “agrihood” developments in Northeast Austin, which would combine small community farms with housing. Proponents of the movement see the still-rare projects as an answer to Austin’s housing needs and development pressures as well as a way to bring more stability to the local food […]
Posted inPreservation
City to tally public assets in 78702 with goal of preservation and activation
The city will inventory all of the culturally and economically significant publicly owned real estate just east of downtown in a move intended to preserve and enhance locations central to the area’s longtime Black and Latino communities. A resolution passed at Thursday’s City Council meeting calls for the city manager to oversee cataloging of all […]