The 5.5-acre city-owned property at 6909 Ryan Drive, Austin, has for years been viewed as a redevelopment target in the community. Given the area's lacking parkland and a citywide shortage of affordable housing as well as the site's location next to a Capital Metro MetroRail and bus station, area residents and city officials said the property's makeover is an opportunity to meet some of those identified neighborhood needs.
“This parcel was a significant issue for Crestview neighbors all the way back to 2014, when I first filed to run for the seat that I later won that year. So for me, as a District 7 resident and elected, it’s been on my agenda for the whole six and a half years that I’ve ... been in office," District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool said Aug. 23.
With support from the city, including Pool's office, a community working group spent months in early 2018 crafting a report on what residents throughout the Crestview, Brentwood and Highland areas hoped to see at the Ryan Drive Site if redevelopment were to take place. That process was followed by additional community feedback and city staff review leading to the opening of a request for development proposals last summer and eventually resulting in staff's recommendation of a project plan to council this month.
The plan from 3423 Holdings LLC centers around 344 housing units, including a 335-unit apartment complex and nine adjacent ownership townhomes. The project would link to CapMetro's neighboring Crestview transit station and initially include a 3.2-acre park and 16,575 square feet of retail, community and creative spaces.
An expansion proposal incorporating an adjacent 1.51-acre property also owned by 3423 could see the complex's parkland expanded by over 1 acre and with a new splash pad facility, along with the conversion of an existing 25,000-square-foot warehouse into a cultural center. That portion of the project, however, is yet to be solidified and would be shaped by additional resident input.
The plan is also billed as having a significant affordable housing component, the extent of which has yet to be set. The development team shared two outlines for the breakdown of affordable units on-site, one of which would include a smaller portion of spaces at lower median family income, or MFI, caps while requiring no city subsidy. The other includes a larger portion of affordable units at lower MFI levels while requiring $5.9 million from the city, according to 3423's proposal.
Pool said both she and the Ryan Drive Community Working Group behind the 2018 report favor the second option, which would bring more affordable units—and potentially more permanent supportive housing for those exiting homelessness—to the complex. Both options include the same distribution of studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
Laying out priorities
Council's Aug. 26 vote to continue project negotiations with 3423 Holdings would move the city closer to a solidified development agreement for the site. But while the details have yet to be hashed out, some stakeholders said the initial package appears to be in line with the community vision for the property.
“I like the fact that they’re ticking off just about every single darn box from the stakeholder group," Pool said. "We’ve got multigenerational housing; a significant portion of it would be affordable; it’s transit oriented—not just because it has to be, but because it is on the rail line, and it just makes sense. It has parkland, ... and there’s room for arts and child care. I’m just really, really pleased with how this has all come together."
Anne-Charlotte Patterson, chair of the Ryan Drive working group and a board member on the Crestview Neighborhood Association, also said she supports the proposal up for council consideration this week. She also noted seeing the plan to fruition as envisioned will require city staff and neighborhood stakeholders to keep a close eye on the project's path forward.
“I think it’s ambitious. It does promise the most parkland, and it does have a good chunk of affordable housing, so that is really attractive. ... We just want to make sure that it comes to pass the way that it’s been described," Patterson said.
Both Patterson and Pool said the project's focus on extensive park space and setting a majority of housing units below market rate were key aspects of area residents' hopes for the site. Patterson said some early talks had circled the idea of turning the entire lot into parkland given Crestview's open space deficiencies, plans that eventually evolved to include housing and artistic components given the lack of such affordable spaces in the area as well.
"We really think that it can be a model for how to use city land and address all these issues that we have in Austin. We need green space, but we need affordable housing, and we need creative space," she said. "It’s a really critical development at a critical time."
Pool also said the results of the planning process have echoed some of her views on aspects of Austin's stalled land development code update regarding community input in development decisions.
"It is entirely possible and in fact not just achievable, but preferred, to work with the people who live around a site in order to craft and make real the vision that folks who are most proximate to the site, who you can argue would have the greatest impact of whatever is going to be built," she said. "It is people who live in those neighborhoods who should have specific say, and I’m glad to see that the new iteration of this council is more in tune with that approach and more in line with the approach of listening to the community.”
"It is entirely possible and in fact not just achievable, but preferred, to work with the people who live around a site in order to craft and make real the vision that folks who are most proximate to the site, who you can argue would have the greatest impact of whatever is going to be built," she said. "It is people who live in those neighborhoods who should have specific say, and I’m glad to see that the new iteration of this council is more in tune with that approach and more in line with the approach of listening to the community.”
To further solidify the community-favored aspects of 3423's plan, Pool plans to amend council's Aug. 26 action through a motion sheet laying out priorities for city staff and the private development team to stick to during upcoming negotiations. Council Members Greg Casar and Kathie Tovo recently took a similar path ahead of council's vote over negotiations for the proposed St. John Site, another underutilized city-owned property in District 4 now set for redevelopment based on years of community input.
Pool's motion sheet calls for regular updates from staff on the negotiating process and identifies the Ryan Drive working group's report as a blueprint for the redevelopment of the property. Other requests Pool is seeking include her preferred affordable housing mix, increased transit access planning with other entities, a reduction of parking space, and establishing "flexible and affordable" creative areas on-site. She also said a lease of the site, rather than its sale to the development team, would be preferred.
“This is a model for how the city of Austin can do development. We’re fortunate to own the dirt, to own the parcel ... So we’ll be able to get some predictions in cost there and be able to offer lower-cost housing, I hope," Pool said. "The whole idea is to have children and families living in this new development to become part of the Crestview neighborhood, which is really one of the banner neighborhoods in the city, and make a home there."
