Early this morning, Bee Cave City Council approved an amendment for developers Christopher Milam and John Paul DeJoria, providing a green light to their revised plan for The Backyard project slated for a tract of Bee Cave Parkway between RR 620 and West Hwy. 71—adjacent to Bee Cave City Park and across the street from the Ladera residential neighborhood. The amended plan Substantial changes to The Backyard project from the planned development district approved in December 2014 included a trade-off of four movie/sound stages in favor of two data centers and a distributed energy center, or power plant, housed in two enclosed buildings that will be used to provide energy to the entire project. Additionally, the splash pad and tennis courts provided in the 2014 plans were scrapped in favor of an outdoor community garden center with an educational component set on the old Backyard tract and managed as a nonprofit organization by Summer Majors, the development company’s parks and recreation director. The amendment retains the original plans for an outdoor music venue—the Live Oak Amphitheater and The Glenn at the Backyard; a 125-room hotel—The Nelson, parking garages and a hilltop garden as well as four office buildings. Milam said the hotel was altered to now include a music recording studio in its ground or basement floor. However, the city’s consent was tempered by its requirement that the project have access to West Hwy. 71 before its staff can issue a certificate of occupancy on any of the development’s planned structures. Access to West Hwy. 71 denied The amendment put before council on Tuesday evening’s meeting included only an access to the site from Bee Cave Parkway, as opposed to the original plan that required a second avenue of egress and ingress off West Hwy. 71. Milam said he was unable to secure an easement to the roadway. Ladera residents packed City Hall, requesting council act on their concerns that, without access to West Hwy. 71, patrons of the new center will back up Bee Cave Parkway and the only access they have to reach their homes. “My primary interest [about the project amendment] is the removal of an exit onto [West Hwy.] 71,” Ladera resident Ed Shields said. “That is not acceptable. You have to be good neighbors. This proposal dumps all traffic on Bee Cave Parkway and now I [won’t be able to] get into my subdivision.” Shields also said he was concerned that the project’s noise and traffic impact would lower his property values. Paula Boyd, also a Ladera resident, said she was concerned that the venue’s attendees will park in her neighborhood since she felt the planned parking garages would be inadequate. “What is going to keep these people from going into Ladera,” Boyd said. “Bee Cave Parkway was not designed to be a major traffic carrier.” Homestead resident Carrell Killebrew said the amendment presented does not provide the city with the same benefits as the original 2014 planned development district. “If this was presented as a fresh plan to City Council today, would you approve it?” he said to council members. Killebrew said he was unsure of the developer’s good faith since Milam admitted his contractors inadvertently removed trees from the project site without the city’s permission or knowledge. Milam’s experts said their traffic analysis of Bee Cave Parkway showed a passing grade for the roadway—either level A or B—depending on a scenario of all patrons arriving to an event within 30 minutes of the performance or one hour prior to the performance, respectively. He said he was unable to obtain an easement over property owned by an adjacent tract that would allow access to West Hwy. 71. Data centers, clean energy The addition of the project’s data centers “fit nicely in the volume of the [prior proposed] sound stages,” Milam said. “We are a growing city in a technology area,” said Steve Braasch, former Bee Cave Mayor Pro Tem and the managing partner of Digital 724 Networks, LLC,  a regional provider of network facilities and data centers. “A data center is a low impact, low employee count, low footprint facility, yet it is high revenue.” He said the different pieces of equipment that go into a data center, including routers, are taxable items producing revenue to the city as well as the building value providing the city with ad valorem taxes. Braasch said there are no data centers in the area. “It’s a clean business—it’s quiet and it makes money,” he said of a data center. “This is a good alternative, a good solution for the city of Bee Cave in exchange [for movie studios]." Outlier Energy CEO Chris Whipple said he would be designing and implementing the distributed energy center buildings that would burn gas to provide energy onsite. Whipple said the project would also assist the area’s water and wastewater system, the West Travis County Public Utility Agency, by consuming its treated effluent to cool the center’s tower. The WTCPUA has stated it has had an issue disposing of its treated effluent through private users including neighboring golf courses that pay for the water for irrigation purposes. The agency, under its state permit, must provide a way to dispose of the treated wastewater. A local resident and graduate of Westlake High School, Whipple said the U.S. Department of Energy is reviewing the proposed program to be one of its flagship installations as a way to generate electricity. The project could possibly provide energy to all of Bee Cave, an option, he said, was not permitted in Austin Energy’s service area. Road improvements included The Backyard district also includes plans for road improvements to Willie Way, through the development, as well as to Bee Cave Parkway at RR 620, amounting to about $1.2 million to be paid for by the developer, said Mayor Caroline Murphy. Without the development moving forward, the city would need to absorb those roadway costs, she said. “The road improvements will help us sooner and occur before any occupancy,” Murphy said. “That moves us forward with the traffic situation and doesn’t require a connection to [West Hwy.] 71. I think [the entertainment] venue does require a connection to 71 and that venue has to wait.” Even the vote is gridlocked Milam said his development company has already invested $35 million into the project. Citing concerns over the potential traffic impact with only access onto Bee Cave Parkway, City Attorney Patty Akers narrowed down two options for council members:

• Withholding a certificate of occupancy for only The Backyard music venue until access is obtained onto West Hwy. 71 and allowing occupancy for the remaining buildings on site; or
• Withholding a certificate of occupancy for the entire project until access is obtained onto West Hwy. 71.

With all council members present, the council was gridlocked on a vote for the first option, with Council Members Bill Goodwin, King and Monty Parker opposed. The council remained gridlocked on a vote for the second option, with Goodwin, King and Mayor Caroline Murphy opposed. Upon Murphy’s call for a reconsideration, the second option passed with Goodwin opposed.