City towers close in on campus

The city of Austin is no stranger to growth, with a booming population that is only expected to rise in upcoming years. A sure sign of Austin's expansion can be found in its ever increasing downtown skyline, which looks more like Houston or Chicago with each passing day.

There is one development in particular that is a source of contention among residents of the historic downtown neighborhood surrounding Austin Community College's Rio Grande Campus. A 400 foot, 32 story, 160-unit development by CLB Partners is central to the controversy. The high-rise will be erected in the historic Original City Neighborhood at Seventh and Rio Grande Streets.

This will be an unprecedented zoning change if CLB is allowed to build, as the Austin skyline does not extend west of Guadalupe Street or north of Sixth Street. Many Austinites have formed coalitions such as Draw the Line Austin to ensure the building, and other buildings like it are not erected. They contend that the building would be "out of context," insisting that they are not opposed to expansion of the Austin skyline, but that if we "thoughtfully and carefully [designed] a dense urban core for Austin, [we would be] ensuring that downtown truly is everybody's neighborhood."

This year the city of Austin is reportedly paying $600,000 to the ROMA Design Group to establish more concrete goals for the space between Interstate Highway 35 and Lamar Boulevard, Town Lake North and MLK Boulevard. The city wants to reach a consensus between developers and landowners, businesses and residents to create rules for development. Draw the Line Austin requests that CLB wait until the city has established a centralized business district and set precedents for what will happen at the edges before CLB builds.

The project, which is estimated to cost upwards of $50 million, could affect the Rio Grande Campus for several reasons. No one has clearly stated whether the infrastructure of the area can handle the traffic that type of construction would bring. The streets farther north of Sixth Street are not built like the ones in downtown - they are generally narrower and there are fewer traffic lights. This could also present a huge parking problem, which already riddles the surrounding blocks.

Taylor Andrews, project developer of Andrews Urban insists Austinites should not worry, "With the office market in downtown growing and the retail market now racing to a critical mass, residents within these downtown towers will make significantly fewer daily trips in their cars."

"The traffic generated by these mixed-use projects around ACC's campus on 12th Street will be far less than would a single-use project, such as an office building or a shopping mall without a residential component."

Andrews said that with the development of downtown markets, such as the cluster at Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard, people where residents can park their cars on Friday and not need them again until Monday morning. The contention is that downtown has come to provide all the daily needs of a resident without ever needing to leave.

Draw the Line's idea of a "dense urban core" presents a complication. The numerous view corridors, which ensure residents have a view of the Capitol from around the city, are something that some city residents prize as much as Town Lake, the Barton Creek Green Belt, or any other city landmark.

ACC psychology major Melanie Bujnoch thinks that the building will not be as big of a problem as some people are claiming, "It seems like the whole thing will be pretty self contained," she said. "It could be out of place, but I do not think it symbols the end of the neighborhood. They are doing the right thing by building up, but I am not sure if we really need more luxury apartments."

She says the development will not have an impact on Rio Grande students as much as the luxury apartments being built in Austin's West Campus neighborhood. "My main concern is the increased cost of apartments close to campus." As the luxury condos, starting upwards of $400,000, are marketed to a completely different consumer than the typical Rio Grande student, the development should not have any effect on the price of surrounding student housing.

The City Council approved the initial proposal to rezone the district on Feb. 15 with a 6-0 vote. Mayor Will Wynn abstained from voting. In order to get final approval to break ground this spring, the Council met to approve the second and third readings in a closed hearing on March 1. The developers "were given the zoning they needed to get the full height entitlement that they were seeking [by 700%]...development could begin as soon as Q4 of this year," said Kat Jones of Milkshake Media.

As for traffic implications affecting ACC, Jones notes that in the development application, the developer avoided traffic impact analysis by agreeing to keep the trips below 2000 per day. She says this could be misleading, as "the city doesn't monitor [the amount of traffic] and has never shut down and rezoned a property that exceeds this trips [per] day."

Despite some minor inconveniences like temporary road closures and the pains that come with large construction machinery, the Rio Grande Campus should be out of the line of fire, as many residents will choose to walk and normal traffic patterns do not coincide with typical class start times.

Wells Dunbar, a reporter for the Austin Chronicle, said that the CLB partnership "has seemingly operated in good faith, earning invaluable support from local business like Ranch 616 and some neighbors, and pledging a quarter of a million dollars in improvement."

"Regardless of your views on the condo-ization of downtown, the negotiations CLB proceeded with [were] much more inclusive than the take-it-or-leave-it style all too prevalent at City Council," Dunbar said.

The condo is supposed to be finished in late 2008. For now all advocators and disapprovers can do is look up and watch.