Community aims to channel area growth, not lose character

Updated Aug. 29 at 5 p.m.: Austin City Council heard comments about the South Austin Combined Neighborhood Plan from residents and stakeholders at its Aug. 29 meeting and then postponed discussion to Sept. 25, at which time it will be scheduled for additional comment and possible action on the plan.

Updated Aug. 29 at 9 a.m.: Austin City Council recessed Aug. 28 without addressing its scheduled agenda items regarding the South Austin Combined Neighborhood Plan.

Council will resume starting at noon Aug. 29 at Travis County Commissioners Court.

Original story, Aug. 28:

Zoning changes and updates could be coming to some South Austin neighborhoods if City Council approves the South Austin Combined Neighborhood Plan.

The SACNP—a document outlining land-use options for the South Manchaca, Garrison Park and Westgate neighborhoods—is slated to go to council for a public hearing and possible approval Aug. 28.

The plan, as well as infill options that would result in rezoning several lots in the planning area, would take effect 10 days after adoption, said Francis Reilly, planner with the city's Planning and Development Review Department's Comprehensive Planning Division.

Many residents awaited a neighborhood plan for years before the SACNP effort began, said David Foster, second vice president of the Southwood Neighborhood Association in the South Manchaca neighborhood.

"I think [the plan] can help channel density where it needs to be while respecting the character of the existing neighborhoods. It can fuel transit ridership," he said. "There's lots of great language in the plan about walkability and bikeability, so that would give us a leg up in shaping future bond elections so we can get some of that [funding] coming our way."

"Save our neighborhood" signs opposing the plan are visible on many residents' lawns.

Westgate resident Wayne Shipley helped form the Save Our Neighborhood group. He said he and others oppose increasing density without adding infrastructure to support it.

"We don't want to necessarily scrap a plan. We don't like this plan," Shipley said.

SON member Paula Simpson, a longtime West Garrison Park resident, said she thinks the SACNP needs revision.

"We would like to create a foundation for sustainable growth first before we talk about development or adding more density," Simpson said.

About the plan

In January 2013 residents gathered at Crockett High School for the first of many SACNP meetings. Reilly and other city staff talked with residents and property owners to learn what locals like about their neighborhoods.

The SACNP, which is part of the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan designed to direct growth and redevelopment for the next 30 years, consists of a policy document that guides decision-making about land use as well as actions and suggested capital improvement projects related to transportation, parks and watershed, Reilly said.

"That helps our departments as they're looking citywide in where to direct their money, basically," Reilly said.

Bond elections, public-private partnerships and developers are among potential funding sources for projects described in the plan, Foster said.

If the plan is approved, city staff will review development proposals against it, Reilly said.

"There's really nothing that's going to keep your neighborhood exactly the same as it always was. But what a neighborhood plan really tries to do is to manage change [and] work toward maintaining that character while directing changes to the parts of the neighborhood that are appropriate and desired by the community," Reilly said.

Donna Cunningham is a resident of Cherry Creek Village in the Garrison Park neighborhood. An Austin native, she launched South Austin Alliance for Neighborhood Plan to support the SACNP. She said the plan could influence traffic calming and more walkable neighborhoods.

"We're growing, and that's just the way that it is," she said. "Austin doesn't normally ask us what we want to have built around us. To me, to have the opportunity to put our voice into [a plan] is a really good thing."

Infill options

In March 2014, residents received a public notice about infill options for the plan, Simpson said, noting that is when she and others began to have doubts about the plan.

The term "infill" in urban planning refers to designating land—usually open or undeveloped spaces in between existing buildings—as appropriate for new construction and updates. The goal of filling in these spaces with so-called infill options would aim to increase density and affordability, Reilly said, noting infills can attract restaurants and grocery stores to neighborhoods.

Shipley said he does not want infill options in any part of the planning area, noting he does not want the city to change zoning for a wide area without due process because that could enable them to do it again later.

"During all those meetings [city staff] never said that what they were actually doing was rezoning every lot in a 2 1/2-square-mile area, but in fact, that's what they were doing," he said.

He added he is not sure how the plan will fit into CodeNEXT, Austin's comprehensive rewrite of its land development code.

Simpson also said infill options should be removed. She said she has seen no evidence that they increase affordability, added that infill conflicts with her deed restrictions, and said rezoning could overwrite a rule stating developers have to notify residents in a 500-foot radius that a project is being proposed. She said she is not opposed to infill options in areas with infrastructure to support it, but the planning area lacks that infrastructure.

City staff met with almost all the neighborhoods before going to the Planning Commission and updated its recommendations so that they addressed many of Simpson's concerns, she said. However, she said CodeNEXT should determine where infill options will go rather than the SACNP.

Southwood Neighborhood Association president Joan Owens moved to the area in 1976 and has been involved with the SACNP since its early days.

She said Southwood residents told the city infill options should prohibit cottage lots, limit corner stores to Manchaca Road and allow urban homes only where neighborhoods transition to commercial areas.

Next steps

If the SACNP is approved, the city would then designate a neighborhood planning contact team to serve as stewards for the plan and update it over time, Foster noted.

"I would find it very frustrating if the council doesn't go ahead and approve some version of this plan," Foster said.

Shipley said he wants a revised plan detailing where the city will get water to accommodate increased density as well as how to handle traffic and flooding.

Gretchen Stoeltje has lived in the Garrison Park neighborhood for five years and said she hopes council will support the SACNP, which could help mitigate traffic.

"It's a very broad vision and a set of hopes for what kind of neighborhood people want to live in," she said.

While she said she supports infill options for her neighborhood, she pointed out they involve so many limitations that they might not affect much of the planning area.

"I really hope that the time and the process and transparency that characterized most of the process will be honored and that council will see the plan as quite vetted at this point and representative of everybody who wants to say anything about it," she said.