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Land Development Code third reading council meetings will start Tuesday, March 31. See below for the full meeting schedule:
Public Comment
Tuesday, March 24 from 4pm -12am
Saturday, March 28 from 9am -12amThird Reading Special Called Meetings
Tuesday, March 31 from 9am -12pm
Wednesday, April 1 from 9am -4pm
Thursday, April 2 from 10am -12am
Tuesday, April 7 from 9am -12am (if needed)Third Reading Location:
City Hall Council Chambers 301 W 2nd Street
Or, you can watch live on ATXN
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Here is important info from Kenneth Webb, North Shoal Creek Contact Team Chair, regarding a rezoning request for the property at 8303 N. MoPac (currently the Ergon Asphalt Plant).
“A community meeting for a plan amendment to rezone the property at 8303 N. MoPac has been scheduled at the North Village Branch Library, 2505 Steck Ave, on Monday, March 9, 2020. The meeting will be from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. A copy of the meeting announcement is attached. For more information, email Maureen.Meredith@austintexas.gov.
In accordance with 7.D of its bylaws, a meeting of the NSCNP Contact Team will be held March 12, 2020, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at the First Texas Honda Dealership Conference Room, 3400 Steck Avenue. The Agenda for the meeting will include:
1) Rezoning of 8303 N MOPAC.
2) Neighborhood Plan Amendment for 8303 N MOPAC.
Please come to both meetings. The March 9 meeting provides an opportunity to ask the owners of the property questions you might have about this rezoning request. The March 12 meeting provides an opportunity for you to offer input regarding this request to the Contact Team.
A public hearing before the Zoning and Platting Commission will also be required. I have been informed that this public hearing will be scheduled after the March 9 community meeting, and that. March 31 is a possible date.
Attached are several documents which may be helpful in considering the two applications submitted for the subject property. Most of them may be found under Development Resources at austintexas.gov:
- Copy of the notice for the community meeting: CommunityMeetingNotice
- ZONING USE SUMMARY TABLE (LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE), October 13, 2015: KWpermitted_use_chart
- MU5B_Extract20200131.pdf, pages 37-39 of Section 23-3C-5120 of the January 31, 2020 LDC draft: KWMU5B_Extract20200131
- Comparison Notes, which includes more information and my notes, which may be helpful: KWComparison Notes
The January 31, 2020 LDC draft can be seen and downloaded by the link in the District 7 Newsletters, or https://app.box.com/s/vzmewodbqv0vrfqo4jrisp7cc3989cmz
More detailed uses for mixed uses (MU) including MU5B are listed in the January 31 LDC draft in Section 23-3C-5030, pages 3C-5 pages 2-16 (pages 360-374 of 1382).
City of Austin Guide to Zoning, September 2016. The guide contains details regarding the various types of zoning currently in effect and is available online at https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Planning/zoning_guide.pdf
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The North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Association’s (NSCNA) second General Membership Meeting of 2020 is 6:30-8:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 3 in the Pillow Elementary School Library. Please enter through Pillow’s front door; the library is the first room to your left.
The agenda includes an update on the City of Austin’s Land Development Code Revision.
If you haven’t already paid your $15/household dues for 2020, you can pay by cash or check at the meeting. You can also join online at www.nscna.org/join; online payments are $16/household which includes a $1 PayPal processing fee.
Hope to see you there!
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What’s happening:
•Residences within 200 feet of Buell Avenue could be adversely affected by the proposed new zoning on Buell Avenue. The city’s proposed new zoning violates the North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Plan and calls for massively dense redevelopment on Buell (MU5B-Q zoning) which is the most intense mixed-use zone and will allow residential, commercial, or mixed-use buildings up to 60 feet/5 stories, with an additional 30 feet/3 stories allowed with multifamily residences up to 5 to 7 or 8 stories tall. This will have a dramatic impact on increasing the property taxes on surrounding area residences. It would also result in an overwhelming amount of car traffic using Stillwood Lane as a path to get to Steck Avenue and Mopac Expressway.•Businesses on Buell Avenue could be adversely affected by the proposed new zoning on Buell Avenue by having their property taxes skyrocket beyond affordability. This would defeat the purpose of the zoning in the North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Plan that was designed to allow the businesses on Buell to grow and yet not be affected by drastically increasing property taxes.
Why this matters:
•Rezoning violates our North Shoal Creek neighborhood plan, approved by City Council in Aug. 2018, which was designed to maximize density while protecting our core of family homes. Our North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Plan is now an official part of the City of Austin’s Master Plan that guides the land code.
•District 7 Council Member Leslie Poole, our North Shoal Creek City Council representative, attempted to change this MU5B-Q zoning back to the IF zoning that the NSC Neighborhood Plan included, but her proposed amendment to change it back was voted against by the City Council.
• The plan’s intention for Buell Avenue was to protect the existing businesses and allow them to grow and to include a mix of live-work spaces, residents, small scale services, artisanal businesses, offices and tradespeople. The housing considered was to be townhouses, rowhouses or small apartments. It was to serve as a transitional area between Burnet Road and the residential interior
”The scale and height of new buildings along Buell Avenue should be one to three stories”, “heights should step down to be compatible with adjacent residences” (page 48-49) of NSC Neighborhood Plan.Take action:
•Visit FileYourProtest.com no later than February 29th for details on filing a rezoning protest. If you do file your protest, file no later than February 29th. Texas law gives you the right to protest any zoning changes affecting your property and properties near your residence.
•FileYourProtest.com has more detailed information on MU5B-Q rezoning and an easy way to contact Mayor Adler.
•For more information, email development@nscna.org.
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Council just passed Draft 2 of Austin’s revised Land Development Code. There’s still one more vote – to be held in late March or early April — to go. Here’s what happens to single-family housing in North Shoal Creek:
- 26 homes on Rockwood, Boxdale, Firwood and Steck are rezoned to R4.
- R4 is the least intense transition zoning and allows for up to 8 units per lot.
- All other single-family homes in North Shoal Creek are rezoned to R2A. R2A allows up to 2 units per lot: a single-family home, a duplex, or a single-family home plus an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit — e.g., garage apartment or “granny flat”)
- An R2A home that qualifies for a preservation bonus qualifies for 3 units: a single family home plus a duplex, or a duplex and an ADU.
Why this matters:
- R4 rezoning violates our North Shoal Creek neighborhood plan, approved by City Council in Aug. 2018, which was designed to maximize density while protecting our core of single family homes.
- District 7 Council Member Leslie Poole, our North Shoal Creek City Council representative, does not agree with the R4 rezoning.
- Rezoning opens our neighborhood up to safety concerns – R4 doesn’t require additional off street parking, which means our streets could potentially have more parked cars, endangering bicyclists and pedestrians.
- Rezoning lowers impervious cover requirements leading to greater flooding concerns, especially for neighbors adjacent to the recently expanded Shoal Creek flood plain on the west side of Rockwood.
Don’t want your home rezoned to R2A or R4? Take action:
- A lawsuit has been filed against this citywide rezoning via the land development code.
- Texas law allows property owners to protest rezoning their property. If the plaintiffs win, a super-majority of council members will be required to pass a zoning change that has been protested.
- Visit http://FileYourProtest.com for an easy, convenient way to protest your rezoning online.
- Read the FAQ at http://FileYourProtest.comfor additional information on your right to protest a rezoning.
- For more information, email development@nscna.org.
File Your Rezoning Protest by March 1 at FileYourProtest.com
These six slides are from a staff presentation given at Council’s February 5th worksession. The first four show examples of R2 zoning, (the closest match to existing single family zoning). Most single-family lots in Austin are 7,000 square feet or larger. In the proposed code, a standard lot is 5,000 square feet.
The last two slides show the R4 zoning applied to Rockwood south of Steck. R4 is the least intense multifamily zoning and has a base of 4 units up to a maximum of 8 units on a 5,000 square foot lot.
