New Downtown Restrictions to Limit Lakeside Skyscrapers
May 22, 2009 20:51 Filed in: News
The most contentious Austin zoning battles relate to development close to Ladybird Lake. The prime downtown lake is considered one of the city's most important natural assets. As a result, the City has been closely examining proposals to protect the lake from future development. Essentially, the City Council would like to limit the height of development on sites directly adjacent to the lake.
Essentially, the City has two goals: first, to control development around the lake. Second, to ensure access to the lake. The appropriate policy action becomes complicated with an important hypothetical: where there are gaps in the hike and bike trail, should the city provide height variances in exchange for trail extension or improved public access to the lake? It's this very real example that been the focus of City Council debate.
Last night, after much discussion, the Council gave the second of three required approvals that limit building heights around the lake to either 60 or 96 feet depending on location. To address the above example the council decided that developers could be allowed to exceed 96 feet "if they can prove doing so would be substantially better for the community." This is a fair compromise that will provide the City with the appropriate zoning tools to protect the lake in the future.
Here is a summary from the Statesman:
The Austin City Council gave the second of three approvals Thursday night to limit the height of buildings along Lady Bird Lake.
Buildings would be limited to 96 feet in some areas and to 60 feet in other places.
The height limits are intended to prevent what neighborhood activists fear could become over-development of the lakeside, a tree-lined ribbon loved by joggers that meanders in an east-west line through the central part of the city. Similar height restrictions were passed in 1986 but were effectively wiped off the books in 1999.
Debate over height limits resurfaced in 2007, when neighbors objected to a proposed shops-and-condos development planned for Riverside Drive. CWS Capital Partners wanted to build towers up to 200 feet tall, but after a legal challenge from a neighborhood advocacy group, Save Town Lake, CWS settled on 96 feet.
After a year-and-a-half of study and argument, the debate over height limits has come down to whether developers will be allowed to exceed 96 feet and under what circumstances.
On Thursday the council gave what amounts to a preliminary approval of the new height limits. But, at the suggestion of Council Member Mike Martinez, the council decided that developers could be allowed to exceed 96 feet if they can prove doing so would be substantially better for the community. The choice would be at the council’s discretion. That way, Martinez said, the council isn’t locked into a “one-size-fits-all” rule.
Council Member Laura Morrison had argued for making the height limits absolute, and Council Member Lee Leffingwell wanted some discretion but as little wiggle room as possible. Both drew applause from the audience, which had many members who spoke for height limits as strict as possible. When their ideas did not get support from the council, Leffingwell and Morrison ultimately sided with Martinez.
The unanimous council also agreed to create a committee that will devise a system by which developers can be allowed additional height in exchange for concessions, such as allowing public access to the waterfront.
Thursday’s action won’t become official until the council takes a third and final reading on the matter three weeks from now.
Essentially, the City has two goals: first, to control development around the lake. Second, to ensure access to the lake. The appropriate policy action becomes complicated with an important hypothetical: where there are gaps in the hike and bike trail, should the city provide height variances in exchange for trail extension or improved public access to the lake? It's this very real example that been the focus of City Council debate.
Last night, after much discussion, the Council gave the second of three required approvals that limit building heights around the lake to either 60 or 96 feet depending on location. To address the above example the council decided that developers could be allowed to exceed 96 feet "if they can prove doing so would be substantially better for the community." This is a fair compromise that will provide the City with the appropriate zoning tools to protect the lake in the future.
Here is a summary from the Statesman:
The Austin City Council gave the second of three approvals Thursday night to limit the height of buildings along Lady Bird Lake.
Buildings would be limited to 96 feet in some areas and to 60 feet in other places.
The height limits are intended to prevent what neighborhood activists fear could become over-development of the lakeside, a tree-lined ribbon loved by joggers that meanders in an east-west line through the central part of the city. Similar height restrictions were passed in 1986 but were effectively wiped off the books in 1999.
Debate over height limits resurfaced in 2007, when neighbors objected to a proposed shops-and-condos development planned for Riverside Drive. CWS Capital Partners wanted to build towers up to 200 feet tall, but after a legal challenge from a neighborhood advocacy group, Save Town Lake, CWS settled on 96 feet.
After a year-and-a-half of study and argument, the debate over height limits has come down to whether developers will be allowed to exceed 96 feet and under what circumstances.
On Thursday the council gave what amounts to a preliminary approval of the new height limits. But, at the suggestion of Council Member Mike Martinez, the council decided that developers could be allowed to exceed 96 feet if they can prove doing so would be substantially better for the community. The choice would be at the council’s discretion. That way, Martinez said, the council isn’t locked into a “one-size-fits-all” rule.
Council Member Laura Morrison had argued for making the height limits absolute, and Council Member Lee Leffingwell wanted some discretion but as little wiggle room as possible. Both drew applause from the audience, which had many members who spoke for height limits as strict as possible. When their ideas did not get support from the council, Leffingwell and Morrison ultimately sided with Martinez.
The unanimous council also agreed to create a committee that will devise a system by which developers can be allowed additional height in exchange for concessions, such as allowing public access to the waterfront.
Thursday’s action won’t become official until the council takes a third and final reading on the matter three weeks from now.