Updates to the lengthy policies outlining development standards along the east side corridors have been in the works for years. District 1 Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison, a former East 12th-area business leader, said her longtime priority of updating the local plans could pave the way for further revitalization of the historic neighborhood following Austin's decades of "disinvestment and so-called benign neglect" there.
"We need to come to terms with the fact that top-down decisions like that have had real and lasting consequences that will continue to be felt for generations," Harper-Madison said. "What we’re doing here is taking the various documents that govern growth on these corridors but making sure that they align with each other and with the community desires."
Those documents include the area's Urban Renewal Plan as well as Neighborhood Conservation Combining District plans for both East 11th and East 12th. The extensive and dense guidelines set development limits on characteristics such as building height and use and have long been out of alignment with each other—a situation the area's Urban Renewal Board and District 1 office have been seeking to correct.
In recent weeks, more than 550 community members responded to a District 1 survey on the process and their hopes for modernizing the URP and NCCDs. Much of the feedback provided through that poll backed up a local desire for a denser, affordable, accessible and more culturally vibrant East 11th and East 12th district, which Harper-Madison said could result from the revised rules.
"We’re making sure the regulations are more streamlined, less prescriptive, and will encourage the kind of diverse, active and walkable corridors that people have already told us that they want to see," Harper-Madison said.
The updates, first approved by the renewal board and planning commission last year, were delayed several times at City Council before the April vote. The revisions must pass two more readings at council, and Harper-Madison said she hopes those actions can take place together in the near future.
Recognizing cultural heritage
One point of contention between those involved—whether or not to allow cocktail lounges along 12th—emerged during council's April 21 hearing. As drafted, the rules would conditionally permit bars at 3,500 square feet or less, although any new establishments would have to go through a public approval process before opening.
Several residents told council they are already experiencing nuisance and noise issues related to the area's nightlife and requested a ban on any new bars. However, others said the area is in need of more gathering places, an opinion shared by many respondents to the district office's survey; more than 85% wanted to allow neighborhood bars. Harper-Madison also said she wants to see the pub option remain with a requirement for individual reviews.
“If we want this district to be a thriving place for artists and music and culture, then I don’t know that we can reconcile that with saying, ‘But also, no neighborhood bars or music venues. Period.’" she said. "That’s an all-or-nothing approach, and I believe in recognizing nuance. ... It’s about having a public process versus having no process at all.”
Several community members also spoke to the topic of the area's character and what an updated URP and NCCDs would mean for local preservation. Discussion covered what that concept means for East 11th and 12th with participants noting any more recent changes in the area are part of the centurylong record of racist zoning policies, segregation and displacement affecting the historically Black community there.
"Some of us have been having that conversation in a remedial way for the last 30 years because our neighborhood was not preserved," said Harold McMillan, founder of the East Austin Creative Coalition.
District 2 Council Member Pio Renteria, who grew up in the area, also spoke to his positive experiences in the district's more lively past. Renteria said he believes the action represents a small step the city could take to address past harms as Austin's Black population continues to dwindle.
“I’ve been waiting for this to happen again," Renteria said. "It’s a sad part of history that we went through with all the discrimination, and we have an opportunity to do something here today to start the slow process of change and bringing back the culture, the events that I miss so much and so dearly because that was part of my life growing up here in Austin."
Harper-Madison, a former leader with an area merchants' association, has also said the regulatory changes could help bring more Black-owned business back to the neighborhood that is already home to the regional Black chamber of commerce. District 1 policy adviser Lauren Hartnett said aspects of the revision may support those new enterprises by making commercial space more affordable and offering more flexibility in business uses.
District planning continues
Council's first approval of the updated URP and NCCD comes several months after officials formally renewed the city's focus on the African American Cultural Heritage District. That cultural center covers several square miles to the east of downtown, including the East 11th and 12th corridors. Official resolutions tied to the district include recommendations to support local art and artists and more publicly recognize the district's Black history.
The district has been in place for well over a decade, although the city's efforts on many aspects of the district plan remain in progress. Hartnett said some recent work on wayfinding improvements to highlight local landmarks with new signage or updated maps are ongoing.
New cornerstones of the cultural district could soon be coming to two vacant city-owned lots in the district as well. The properties, Block 16 and Block 18, are located on East 11th and are being targeted by the city for redevelopment.
Solicitations for projects on both properties could open to interested developers this summer. Once complete, the sites are envisioned as a home for mixed-use projects containing various elements, such as affordable housing, businesses or nonprofits, and creative space.
“The big important thing for this action ... is really just ensuring that the uses laid out within that resolution for the type of development to support creatives within East Austin and the district itself to sustain a vibrant and a successful cultural district, that we’re not prohibiting uses that would be counter to their vision and goals," Hartnett said.
