Austin City Council voted Thursday to approve on first reading a proposal that calls for the area off 45th Street and Bull Creek Road—where the Grove, a 75-acre retail, commercial and residential project, is planned—to be zoned as a planned unit development, or PUD.
The approval on first reading comes with a few changes that ARG Bull Creek LTD, The Grove developer opposes, including reducing the square footage cap on retail and commercial buildings.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said approving the zoning on first reading was a "placeholder" that would help move the proposal forward and get answers to questions on parkland, transportation management, traffic mitigation and affordable housing as it relates to The Grove.
Here's what you need to know about Thursday's discussion on The Grove:
The proposal still needs to be approved on second and third readings
City Council anticipates taking this up again at its Nov. 10 meeting. A public hearing will precede a vote on the proposed zoning.
The involved parties are going into mediation
That means The Grove and the Bull Creek Road Coalition—a neighborhood group that opposes the development—will hire a legal mediator that will attempt to help settle the dispute and come up with a resolution that satisfies both sides.
City Council members said they were pleased the parties agreed to mediation but expressed concern over whether a compromise would be reached before the anticipated Nov. 10 meeting in which the council is slated to vote on the the zoning proposal on second and third readings.
District 7 City Council Member Leslie Pool said she would move to postpone the readings if it seemed as though the mediation was ongoing or a solution had not yet been reached.
"The key is to come to a resolution, not in order to meet a particular time frame, and if taking another month will achieve a resolution, I think that would be viewed positively on this dias," she said.
The proposal comes with a reduced cap on the size of retail and office space
District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool proposed limiting the amount of office space to a maximum of 115,000 square feet rather than the proposed 210,000 square feet and limiting the amount of retail space to a maximum of 100,000 square feet instead of the proposed 150,000 square feet.
The developer opposes the reduced cap on retail and office space and other proposed amendments
In a letter to Austin City Council, attorney Jeff Howard, who represents The Grove, said Pool's proposed amendments—which, in addition to reduced caps on retail and office space, include a reduction in the number of vehicle trips per day, more land for parks and more affordable housing—were "wholly unacceptable".
Howard said if council passes Pool's amendments, ARG Bull Creek LTD, which is developing the project, would stop pursuing PUD zoning and start pursuing conventional zoning, which does not require developments to include affordable housing units.
City Council voted against the idea of a traffic improvement fund in the Bull Creek area
District 10 Council Member Sheri Gallo proposed exploring the idea of creating a traffic mitigation fund for the Bull Creek Road area that would be used to fund solutions to speeding, traffic congestion and street safety, but council members voted against it. Council members said the developer should absorb the costs of traffic mitigation rather than the taxpayers and raised concerns about setting a precedent for future development in Austin.
