20 Jun Save Town Lake!
Urgent Call to Action to protect Lady Bird Lake
Save Town Lake Supporters and all those who love Lady Bird Lake, we need your help to preserve our waterfront’s scenic vistas. Our City Council is preparing to vote on a project that will violate the provisions of the Waterfront Overlay District (WO). That project is called the Post Paggi Planned Unit Development (PUD) and it is on the site of the existing Taco Cabana at 211 South Lamar and in front of the historic Paggi House, directly across Riverside Drive from Lady Bird Lake. In the next few days the City Council needs to hear from the community that protecting our lakefront from intrusive development should be their highest priority and that this project should not be approved if it violates the WO. Please e-mail the City Council and ask them to deny this application for PUD zoning.
The Post Paggi PUD
Once again an out of town developer is attempting to use the PUD ordinance to circumvent the protections in the Waterfront Overlay District. Save Town Lake opposes this zoning change for the following reasons
1. This project is in the Butler Shores sub district of the WO and limits the height of any building in this sub district to 60 feet. But the developer, Post Investment Group out of California has hired a high powered local law firm to apply for an additional 36 feet of height for this project which results in a 9 story, 96 foot tall building a stone’s throw from the shoreline of Lady Bird Lake!
2. The developer is also asking that the required setbacks to Riverside Drive, South Lamar and Lee Burton Drive be reduced to zero feet and that any pedestrian and bike lane improvements be done in the city right of way. While this will allow them not only to build taller, but also wider. The increase “bulk” of this proposed building will only make the “walling off of the Lakefront” more pronounced and shift the burden for providing pedestrian and bike amenities to the community.
3. To maximize the development potential of a taller and wider building, the developer also wants to increase the amount of building area they can build. That is done by increasing the Floor Area Ratio of the current zoning that would only allow 2 sq. ft. of building for every 1 sq. ft. of site area, an FAR of 2 to 1. What the developer wants is to increase the FAR to 5 to 1 an increase of 2 1Ž2 times what is now allowed.
4. The WO requires that development in this sub district provide “open space” to lessen the direct impact on the parkland adjacent to Lady Bird Lake. The project attempts to circumvent this requirement by counting the condo’s private balconies as “open space”. They have also located the court yard with their pool towards the inside of the site so that the bulk of the building faces the lakefront. While this maximizes the number of condo units with lake views, this is surely not what was intended by the WO.
5. While Save Town Lake opposes the use of the PUD zoning in the Waterfront Overlay District, it should be noted that this project does not meet some of the minimum requirements of a PUD.
* A PUD is supposed to be for large tracts over 10 acres with multiple zoning districts. This project is on less than one acre on just two properties that both have similar current zoning.
* The PUD ordinance originally created by City Council required the developer to either provide on site affordable housing or pay a fee in lieu base on the entire area of the project. In this case the developer has even gotten the City Council to change the affordable housing requirement for this property reducing what they would have to contribute to the affordable housing trust fund.
* PUD’s should be superior to what could be achieve by the current zoning. Is it superior to violate the Waterfront Overlay District just so one developer can capitalize on the scenic beauty of our Lady Bird Lake?
6. This project has been rejected by the Environmental Board and the Waterfront Planning Advisory Board as not being superior to what can be done with the existing zoning. The recommendation of these City Boards should signal the Council that this project should not be approved.
But if this project is approved in it’s current form it certainly will be a sweetheart deal for the developer, and all the Council needs to do is ignore the protections of Waterfront Overlay ordinance!
The developer has spent a lot of time and money lobbying the Council. What the Council needs to hear now is from the community. Save Town Lake urges you to send a message today stating your opposition to the Post Paggi PUD. It is on the City Council agenda for this coming Thursday, June 20th and it is agenda item #78. It is likely to be postponed until the June 27th meeting so there is still time to let the Council members know how you feel about this project and protecting Lady Bird Lake. You can send your message to all of the City Council members at
http://www.austintexas.gov/
We suggest a simple message such as:
“I am writing to let you know that I oppose granting the PUD zoning to the Post Paggi Project, agenda item #78, and support maintaining the protections of Lady Bird Lake that are in the Waterfront Overlay Ordinance for this Butler Shores sub district. This building should not exceed the 60 foot height limit of this sub district.”
Or, alternately go to http://savetownlake.org/
It is important to let our City Council know that this is a city wide concern, so please tell them what area of town you live in as well. And if you would share this call to action with everyone on your email list and through out all your social media contacts that would be very helpful
Thank you for helping Save Town Lake.org preserve the Lady Bird Lake waterfront.
Jack Graham
President of the Board of Directors
Save Town Lake.org
Correction: original read "Post Properties out of Dallas", which was inaccurate as it was a different Post Properties based in California.
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