One North Austin neighborhood is hosting a rally this Saturday to support what residents call a “fair and open bidding process” for the city-owned property at 10414 McKalla Place.

The Gracywoods Neighborhood Association President Francoise Luca, Monica Guzmán from the Restore Rundberg Revitalization Team and Austin ISD Trustee Ann Teich are hosting the rally at 10 a.m. Saturday at the parking lot at the Jimmy Johns, located at 10622 Burnet Road, Austin, at the intersection at Braker Lane. Information about the event is available on the Facebook page here.

Some residents in the are, including Luca and Guzmán, support the resolution Austin City Council will consider next Thursday, June 28, to seek bids from developers for the 24-acre site.

“We, the Restore Rundberg Revitalization Team, support a transparent, competitive process for the use of McKalla Place. We support the highest and best use of public land, benefiting the greatest number of the community. We recognize and support use of the property for low-income housing,” according to a June 7 letter sent to City Council.

On June 1, the city of Austin also received the official proposal from Precourt Sports Ventures to build a $200 million, 20,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium to relocate the Columbus Crew team to Austin. PSV is also proposing to lease the property from the city for $1 per year for up to 80 years and not pay property taxes.

Two other mixed-use development proposals for McKalla have also been proposed by Capella Capital Partners and by a group of local developers led by John Chen, Marcus Whitfield and Vista Planning.

Council will also consider a resolution June 28 to start negotiations with PSV and bring back the item for either more discussion or approval of a deal Aug. 9 after council takes a break in July.

District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool, who has supported opening bids for McKalla, said she views the two resolutions as “complementary.”

“One tells staff to continue the soccer stadium conversation and the other says that while that’s happening, we’re also going to put all of our options on the table. I think they can work well together,” she said.

Several groups have also been formed as the city weighs its options. One group called MLS2ATX is being funded by PSV to garner support to bring a team to Austin. That group is also asking residents to contact City Council and pledge support. More information is available here.

Another group called No Soccer Subsidy is organizing against PSV’s proposal to use city-owned land for a privately funded stadium. The group is promoting a petition on Change.org and is seeking signatures to “tell the Austin City Council to use the city-owned land located at McKalla Place for on-site housing for low-income families, not for a private soccer team,” according to the petition. The petition is available here.

In the city’s June 1 report, the executive summary from Rebecca Giello, interim director of the city’s economic development department, states that McKalla Place would be a “suitable site” for an MLS stadium.

However, the report also indicates that if the city issues a request for proposals to developers, then other potential uses could be evaluated, such as uses for “affordable housing, creative space, parks and partnerships with nonprofits.”

The report states that “there was not sufficient time to conduct the appropriate market and financial analysis to ascertain their financial viability of a generalized mixed-use development of the site.” However, staffers came up with what they called a “blended” scenario to evaluate mixed-use redevelopment against an MLS stadium.

Additional reporting by Jack Flagler