BIKE: Transit-Oriented Development [COA developing ordinance]

[Patrick Goetz]

kristen theiler wrote:
> Did anyone on this list attend the meeting? I'd intended to go, but it 
> didn't work in my schedule - it'd be great to hear what was discussed.
>  

Yes, I'm on this committee.  The plan is to create a special zoning 
category for the areas right around transit stations.  As one might 
expect, these will allow for (and require) higher density and will 
encourage mixed use; i.e. buildings which include retail, commercial, 
and residential.    One of the neat features will be special incentives 
to developers to provide affordable housing.  For example, in certain 
zones, developers will be allowed to add 2 additional floors above the 
standard height restriction if they agree to include some percentage of 
affordable housing units.  This will also be the Austin's first stab at 
implementing something called "form-based zoning", where the zoning 
simply addresses the size of the structure without saying anything about 
what goes in it.  Included with this will be certain design guidelines. 
  For example, buildings within, say, 1000 feet of a transit station 
will be required to have windows on the first floor and a minimum 
ceiling height of 15 feet.  (One might think that requiring windows is 
kind of odd -- of course you're going to have windows -- but careful 
observers of most "big box" projects, the Walmarts, Home Depots, 
Walgreens, and Lowes will notice that these building frequently don't 
have any windows on most sides of the building, rendering them very 
pedestrian unfriendly.  In the same vein, building entrances will be 
required to face the street (not the parking lot), and parking will only 
be allowed at the side or backs of buildings.  Surface parking will be 
severely restricted so that structured parking will be more or less 
required.

The first couple of meetings consisted of a targeted group consisting of 
city staff, various commission members, and community professionals and 
were aimed at collecting input on what kinds of issues the TOD zoning 
needed to address.  The meeting you're referring to was more of a public 
event aimed at gauging the community's reaction to this proposal.  As 
one might expect, various members of the CAVE coalition (Citizen's 
Against Virtually Everything) and neighborhood groups were somewhat 
suspiscious that this was yet another attempt to "ruin" their 
neighborhood (and there's certain to be more of this nonsense as the 
ordinance moves closer to city council action), but COA staff did a very 
good job of keeping the initial proposal modest (for example, not a 
single SF-3 zoned property is included in any currently proposed TOD 
zone, even when these houses are well within 1000ft of the proposed 
station), so the complaints were mostly subdued.  Jeff Jack suggested 
that if this passes, it should include a provision which says no SF-3 
zoned property in the vicinity of a TOD zone can EVER be rezoned, but 
then backed off and amended his request to "until such time as the zone 
is 80% built out".  If we're really lucky, one or more of the CAVE 
coalition members such as Susanna Almanza will set themselves on fire at 
the city council meeting to protest this wanton destruction of Austin's 
way of life.  Bring marshmallows, 'cause I doubt anyone's going to be 
grabbing for the fire extinguisher unless it looks like the furniture 
might get damaged.

There are some technicalities associated with how this is going to get 
implemented which you can read about in the link included below.  Here 
is some good news for bicyclists:  most automotive uses (car sales and 
service -- this kind of thing) will be strictly prohibited in the TOD zones.

Find out more here:

    http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/development/transit_development.htm

and here's a short KUT clip on the TOD stuff where George Adams explains 
how they plan to implement the ordinance and I blab some boring but 
important nonsense: 
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kut/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=705135