When a fish restaurant wanted to take over the space where Thai Kitchen operates in West Lake Hills, City Planner Davin Fillpot was surprised by the number of variances the restaurant would need.

"They didn't want to do anything crazy, and everything they offered would have been nice for the community," he said.

Fillpot said the architect for the restaurant brought in two designs—one where the restaurant met every requirement from the city and one with everything the restaurant wanted.

"The design where they met all the requirements was eye opening," Fillpot said. "They were limited to 8–10 tables and about a dozen parking spots because of the restrictions in place."

Fillpot said the other design allowed for about four times the amount of tables along with a rooftop bar.

Although the restaurant is no longer in talks to come to West Lake Hills, the encounter was enough to spur discussions between Fillpot and City Council.

Formulating an idea

Fillpot and Sallie Burchett, a municipal planning consultant with Bojorquez Law Firm, began bouncing ideas off one another.

"We started discussing what we could do with the property along [Bee Caves Road]," Burchett said. "With about $10 million going into Bee Caves Road [widening], now is the time to figure out a plan."

Fillpot and Burchett put together a proposal to change the restrictions on commercial properties for a strip of Bee Caves Road from the H-E-B Shopping Center to Randalls in West Lake Hills.

"Our goal is to raise property tax value, increase sales tax revenue and create a commercial area that residents can enjoy," Burchett said. "We are hoping to create an area where residents can spend less time in their cars. A place they can park once and walk to a number of businesses."

Burchett said by proposing a number of ordinance changes, the land could be made more developable by local business owners.

Fillpot said he and Burchett are looking at what ordinances can be modified and are trying to keep things in line with what the city wants as to make better use of that area for residents.

Creating a vision

"What do we want Bee Caves [Road] to look like? What do we envision? It is the gateway. The bridge between Austin, Lakeway and Bee Cave," West Lake Hills City Councilwoman Linda Anthony said. "Right now it's a hodgepodge of shopping centers, single commercial sites, a few churches and duplexes."

West Lake Hills Mayor Dave Claunch said the council will be considering ways to encourage smart redevelopment of the commercial properties along Bee Caves Road.

"Several older structures along that stretch of roadway are ripe for redevelopment," he said. "Widening the roadway will likely remove some trees and vegetation from in front of those properties, so the council wants to explore redevelopment incentives that encourage vegetative screening in front of the buildings in exchange for higher impervious cover allowances and smaller building setbacks. We want to make it feel more like you are driving through a wooded area instead of a commercial area."

Anthony said there are possibilities to make the roadway a more attractive and inviting strip for businesses and to make the area a destination for West Lake Hills residents.

"We can do things to cluster and group things," she said. "We can do things with shared parking [and] with pervious pavings to help loosen some restrictions we have on commercial development. There is no reason it couldn't be an attractive, thriving part of West Lake Hills."

Proposed changes

"Right now we treat every business on an individual basis," Fillpot said. "We are hoping that by changing some of the ordinances we can promote relationships and synergy between businesses."

Fillpot said one of the main changes would include an increase in impervious cover from roughly 40 percent to 60 percent, allowing more space to build for businesses. Another change would encourage businesses to share up to 50 percent of the parking offsite or even offer valet service.

"We are trying to encourage a collaborative approach with an active street edge," he said. "We want people to spend their dollars in West Lake Hills instead of going to Austin to shop."

Along with those changes Fillpot and Burchett proposed revegetation of the front area between businesses and Bee Caves Road along with rainwater collection systems and creative ways to deal with water runoff.

"The widening of Bee Cave Road will cause a lot of old trees to come out," Fillpot said. "A lot of that [vegetation] will go away and if the city isn't proactive about revegetation then the whole feel of the roadway will be dramatically altered."

Widening the road

Fillpot said widening Bee Caves Road will offer safer access to local businesses, creating the framework to implement changes.

"If [the city] does not put things in place now, we could end up with things we don't like for the next 30 years," he said.

Burchett said the project could shape the way Bee Cave Road looks like for decades to come.

"We have the chance to do this right once," Fillpot said. "By putting these things in place, we can make a meaningful impact on our commercial corridor."

Comprehensive plan

Burchett said the proposed changes to ordinances and zoning are all based on the city's comprehensive plan.

"These are not new concepts," she said. "These are goals contained within the comprehensive plan. We are just staying the course."

Going forward

West Lake Hills City Council and Zoning and Planning will meet with Fillpot and Burchett before the October City Council meeting for a workshop to discuss requirements for shared parking, rainwater collection, establishing setbacks and setting desired land uses.

"Once we have a tally of everyone's desired [land] uses we can really start narrowing down the types of businesses we want in the area," Fillpot said.