Urban Design Group filed a site plan Sept. 18 with the city of Austin for a hotel, restaurant, office building and parking garage complex located at 320 S. Capital of Texas Hwy. The filing was made on behalf of Munson Park Ltd., according to filed documents.
Brad Jackson, city of Austin senior planner, said the 35.07-acre tract was originally slated for two office buildings when site plans for the Bee Creek Watershed property were submitted Feb. 20, 2008.
He said Urban Design Group received variances in 2008 for construction of the project's driveway.
The property drains into a tributary of Bee Creek, which feeds into the Wild Basin Wilderness Park waterway, Jackson said.
In 2008, area residents voiced their concerns about the environmental effects of the project—including potential traffic, water quality and drainage problems—to city officials, said Rusty Mase, Knollwood Camelot Neighborhood Association president. Mase, a botanist, was chairman of the management committee for the Wild Basin Preserve, which abuts the tract, during the 1980's.
"A hotel brings up sewage disposal issues," Mase said. "I'll be interested in calculations of estimated total effluent and disposal methods they propose to use."
The plans filed with the city show a hotel with a swimming pool and deck, a restaurant, an office building and an eight-story parking garage. The site plan revision provides that water quality ponds will be installed, all disturbed areas revegetated and a portion of the tract extending from the Capital of Texas Hwy. right of way will retain its natural Hill Country character.
The property is in the Austin's extraterritorial jurisdiction, but the city lacks land use authority in its ETJ to prohibit the project, Jackson said.
Jackson said notice to surrounding homeowners for the new plans is not a requirement since the project filed is a revision of the 2008 plans, and no new variances were requested. The plans proposed for the project are subject to city of Austin review and approval, which may take from two to six months, he said.
Currently, one hotel, Omni Barton Creek Resort and Spa, 8212 Barton Club Drive, exists in the Westlake area.
