About
“To preserve the neighborhood and protect it from deterioration”
The West Austin Neighborhood Group (WANG) is a non-profit organization of neighborhood residents with the shared goal of preserving the character of West Austin and protecting it from deterioration. WANG is concerned with community development, ecology, safety, and many other matters that indirectly and directly affect the quality and character of our neighborhood and the City of Austin.
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President’s Message
By August W. “Happy” Harris III
OK, the cat is now out of the bag. It is hot, it is sizzling, it is bone dry. Oh, that isn’t the cat that you want me to chat about. Could it be the Brackenridge Tract? Smooth segue….thank you. Cooper Robertson & Partner’s (“CR&P”) offerings were much like the weather, miserable. I, for one, was absolutely appalled though I can’t say that I was entirely shocked.
For those of you who have not heard, CR&P came out with two suggested master plans that would result in between 12 million and 15 million square feet of development, including as many as 8,700 apartment units or nearly 30 times the size of the new Gables on Caesar Chavez and Lamar, 650,000 to 850,000 square feet of retail space and over 2 million square feet of commercial and office space, the latter the equivalent of nearly 4 Frost Bank Towers. All in the middle of a residential neighborhood in an ecologically sensitive area with severe traffic limitations.
I have been asked time and again whether there is any hope. Sparing all the hyperbole, I do, firmly and adamantly, believe that there is hope. The master plans presented for adoption by the Regents, are in the opinion of a number of us, worst case scenarios. They are not feasible, sustainable or desirous. That being said, the road ahead is not going to be absent of enormous challenges. WANG has worked and will continue to work with, not against, the University, City and others. It is advantageous for all of us to work in cooperation, since we are all inextricably linked. The University would not be what it is without Austin, and Austin would not be what it is without the University. Alumni, faculty, donors, benefactors and students — not to mention Regents and Chancellors — live in West Austin. All are Austinites. Of course, many West Austinites are not associated with the University but obviously have a vested stake in what happens on the Brackenridge Tract. Finally, the Brackenridge Tract would not be the unique property it is without the value provided by our neighborhood.
To date, neither in print nor in the hundreds of conversations I have had since, has there been one word, not one word, of support for these horrendous master plans. Time and again, I have heard that CR&P and it local team failed to learn from or listen to what we (and that would include an array of stakeholders) had to say. In my opinion, their work product evidences their failure to utilize invaluable input from the community.
Consequently, WANG has called upon the University of Texas System Board of Regents to reject both master plans submitted by (CR&P). We are pleased that Chairman Huffines has expressed an earnest desire to continue dialogue on this sensitive matter. Of course, we are grateful that he stated resolutely that the leases to the City of Austin for Lions Municipal Golf Course and to the West Austin Youth Association for its youth sports and educational complex as well as the 1989 Brackenridge Tract agreement will be honored until their expiration in 2019.
Neither the “Village Plan” nor the “Park Plan” propose truly sustainable redevelopment of the Brackenridge Tract in a manner that will benefit all while retaining and protecting the existing character of the surrounding core suburban community and its invaluable open space. Instead, it proposes residential densities as much as four (4) times that of the award winning Mueller Redevelopment. There are folks that don’t like the way Mueller was planned – but it did get national recognition – and it is just an example. Mueller is recovered industrial land or “brownfield” adjacent to two (2) major arterials, not parkland, “greenfield,” and lower density residential, retail, and academic tracts located in a residential neighborhood served by three (3) neighborhood collectors. The overall size, scale and thrust of the CR&P master plans are entirely inappropriate in proposing an incredibly massive mixed use, residential and commercial project.
CR&P fails to address the overwhelming traffic problems that would be created by either Plan. Their traffic consultant said that there are lots of modes of transportation that can effectively move people within the redevelopment but they have no answer to moving people in and out of the area. I have said it before (and it bears repeating), their fixes don’t even address congestion now much less the thousands of car trips that would follow any development. Every single road in West Austin and every intersection will be gridlocked. Increasing capacity and shifting Stratford/Westlake traffic to Enfield is not a long term answer either. (The Old Enfield Neighborhood should be very concerned.) One of their consultants told me that things would work themselves out over time. That is NOT an answer. Any project that would involve MoPac would have to go through CAMPO, likely in the 2040 plan. It would have to be prioritized for funding and the funding then would have to be available. It could be many years or even decades before a true fix was financed and completed. That is not sustainable.
Only CR&P’s planning staff can tell us how formulaic their process was in arriving at these plans. However the mantra of New Urbanism is touted by firms such as CR&P (and our neighborhood planning staff). Interestingly, one of New Urbanism’s precepts is that “development or redevelopment should respect historical patterns, precedents and boundaries.” There is absolutely nothing to suggest that CR&P heeded that precept in any shape, form or fashion. They falsely rationalize that this is a natural progression of the urban core. It is not! The Tract lies within a core suburban neighborhood. New Urbanism suggests that “infill development is intended to reclaim marginal and abandoned areas.” One could argue that this might apply at some level to the Colorado and Brackenridge Apartment tracts but it certainly doesn’t apply to the rest of the tract. “One underpinning of New Urbanism is the compatibility of building types with the same relative mass, height and architectural style, regardless of their uses, which may change over time.” It is challenging for me to see how masses of six story apartment complexes and a development with tens (?) of thousands of people is even remotely compatible in a built residential neighborhood.
If one of the primary intents of New Urbanism is to conserve our natural environment, it is incomprehensible to me that an intensive redevelopment that would swallow all but 20% of the tract, much of which is now greenspace, to transform it into impervious cover in a critical and environmentally sensitive watershed, not to mention resulting in the removal of countless heritage trees, could even remotely be considered environmental stewardship. The Brackenridge Tract might lend itself to Green Urbanism, which encourages open space of more than 60%. It is clear that didn’t cross CR&P’s mind. And that is a shame.
As we broil under these awful summer conditions, it is worth considering what a massive redevelopment will do to the West Austin environment. No matter how efficient the project might be, significantly higher levels of pollution can be expected, with all of the liabilities that ensue. With the prospective loss of greenspace and tree canopies and subsequent replacement replete with concrete, stucco and asphalt, the heat island effect will only be magnified. The Environmental Protection Agency says that the top solutions to mitigate the heat island effect are trees and vegetation – exactly what would be lost. It is more evident than ever that cities such as Austin are 1 to 10 degrees hotter than surrounding suburban areas. That is not sustainable.
The net is that both plans lack compatibility with the adjacent core suburban neighborhood, are devoid of significant open space, lack deference to the distinguished history of the Tract, and are absent consideration of public sentiment. Both plans also fail to address the detrimental effect that the project would have on the reputation of The University of Texas at Austin.
STAY TUNED FOR A BOLD NEW VISION!
Now, more than ever, in the history of West Austin and WANG, is it critical that you renew your membership and encourage friends and neighbors to join WANG. If what I have underscored above isn’t enough to get you to call on your friends and write a meager $20 check ($10 for students and seniors) for dues, then West Austin may well be lost. Please go to our NEW website, www.WestaustinNG.com.
