Austin TOD Neighborhood Workshops Next Week

In case you hadn't noticed, transit-oriented development (TOD) is picking up steam in Austin. For newbies to Urban Development, "TOD" refers to the process of installing a rail-based public transit system in a city and developing dense residential/retail/commercial projects around it. Yes, people of Austin: It's your old vaporous friend, rail. But this time, it looks like he's here to stay.

A few years ago, installing a rail system was just one of many possible futures for Austin. Public debate centered around whether rail was even a good idea. Times have changed. It seems clear that commuter rail is happening and happening fast. The debate is no longer about whether rail is good for Austin; it's now about how the rail stations ("TOD nodes") should be positioned and developed. After all, these stations will be built in a select few Austin neighborhoods. The goal is to install rail stations across the city in a way that adds value to each neighborhood.

Luckily, we seem to have a City Council that's interested in handing over some control to neighborhoods. Next week, from June 26-28, the City will host three "hands-on workshops" for station-area planning. The workshops will be hosted by PB PlaceMaking, the firm charged with construction of the transit stations and physical implementation of the TOD plan. These workshops will be held in each neighborhood to be affected by the TOD development, and all residents are invited to attend and participate. At the very least, next week's workshops should provide us all with a little more insight into just how much power the City intends to give residents of these affected neighborhoods . Exact time and location information for the workshops can be found here.

A little history of TOD in Austin, if you please:
November '04: Voters approve construction of a 32-mile commuter rail connecting Austin with Leander. This project is expected to be operational next year.
July '04: Taking a cue from voters, Austin City Council approves a Resolution directing City staff to initiate the process of developing "transit-oriented development" (TOD) regulations. The Resolution, once approved, reflected many months of community input and involvement by many interest groups, including those representing neighborhoods.
May '05: The TOD Ordinance is amended to include a rail station in Oak Hill (the final version of the TOD Ordinance is here).

The TOD Ordinance itself -- the master plan for TOD implementation in Austin -- has two phases. Phase I involved deciding where rail station zones ("TOD districts") would be placed and establishing fundamental zoning rules and classifications for these districts. In other words, Phase I involved laying the regulatory groundwork. This phase is complete. Austin now sits in the initial stages of Phase II, in which "station area plans" (SAPs) are to be created for each planned neighborhood station. According to the City's plan, Phase II is when the neighborhoods (and other groups) get down to brass tacks with the City on the specifics of how each station is to be laid out. Next week's workshops are all about fleshing out these neighborhood-specific plans with direct input from the most important parties: Neighborhood residents themselves.

There are, at present, nine commuter rail stations planned for the Austin TOD project. If you live in one of the neighborhoods in which one of these stations will be built (check this link), it seems clear that major changes are in store for your area. We strongly recommend that you head over to your local workshop next week and voice your opinion. The more voices heard by PB PlaceMaking and the City, the more this development project will be suited to the needs and desires of Austin residents living near the stations and (hopefully) using them for transportation. On the other hand, if community voices are lacking, rest assured that your neighborhood could easily experience some drastic, permanent and unwanted changes. So, get out there and make sure this project turns into something that improves your quality of life! Demand that you get what you want out of Austin's crack at transit-oriented development.

For further information, try these informative resources:
Austin TOD
Transitorienteddevelopment.org
Austin Chronicle story
M1EK's (latest) take on TOD
Prentiss Riddle's tour of station locations.

Image of Leander-to-Austin commuter rail construction courtesy of JimNTexas on Flickr. Image of European urban commuter rail system courtesy of MarenYumi on Flickr.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By s in News on June 22, 2007 12:52 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

ol'pappy

Yeah, I already read that on Thursday and chuckled at it. If developers are interested in shitty neighborhoods, they need to go raid the Rundberg / Rutland pantry (if they can keep themselves from getting shot up there).

waltsatan

From the Oak Hill Gazette:

“While the construction of a new Oak Hill Park and Ride is an important priority for Capital Metro, the advancement of this project is heavily dependent on the final design of TxDOT’s 290/71 expansion. Capital Metro’s goal of establishing an Oak Hill Park and Ride with Transit-Oriented Development possibilities would also be dependent upon consensus among property owners and stakeholders in the area.”

If TxDOT has their way with a 12-lane mega-tollroad through Oak Hill, rail will never happen here. Fix290.org!

SolMan-ATX

ol'Pappy - Here's an onion article you should see, I'm sure it's the future of St. Johns:

Shitty Neighborhood Rallies Against Asshole Developer

ol'pappy

Or no, I was wrong. Huntsman - where they're putting in Crestview Station. Maybe the do-gooders won't reach over past Lamar, but I bet they do.

ol'pappy

I could be wrong, but I thought they were going to build a station where Westbrook Metals is which is in the Saint Johns neighborhood which happens to be where I live. So if they're going to encourage Transit Oriented Development, (which is what this is all about, right?) they're going to make the neighborhood I live in nicer which means my rent will increase. Or am I wrong about Westbrook Metals? I was under the impression they were going to build fancy tract houses and condos and all that junk over here. Please say I am wrong. I'd love to hear it.

mdahmus

"But, it's at least a step forward."

No, it's a step backward; because in order to build light rail now, you have to tear up commuter rail. There's no way to evolve the one into the other. It's like saying going 50 miles towards El Paso is the first step in your drive to Houston.

And it doesn't go "to downtown". It goes to a train station where you have to transfer to a shuttle bus to get downtown, or to UT, or to the Capitol. And unlike Chicago, there's enough parking at those places that the transit alternative can't simply rely on "at least you don't have to pay 20 bucks to park".

RAT

mdahmus, please spare us the diatribe that commuter rail sucks

of course commuter rail will not be as efficient as light rail. But, it's at least a step forward. a baby step at that.In general, Texans are so ignorant about public transportation they need training wheels. 39% percent of them elected a governor who aims to litter the Texas landscape with miles of concrete. Now that's real innovation for ya.

I think a lot more people will be using it than just suburbinites. How can you argue with a train that can take you from MLK to downtown.And if you're going to bitch about waiting for a bus give me a break. Please visit the city of Chicago where combining a bus ride with a train can be an everyday occurrence. You also have the option of walking your fat ass.

mdahmus

Tim,

I think you're conflating a lot of positions there all at once.

I believe light rail would work (as proposed in 2000) because it's worked everywhere else, and the line here would have brought a bunch of people from the suburbs AND the dense residential parts of town right to UT, the capitol, and downtown. We had a GREAT chance to come back in 2004 with a scaled back version of the plan that just barely lost in 2000 due to Krusee's stab-in-the-back and a bunch of mouth-breathers coming out to vote for Dubya; but instead, Krusee rode in again and derailed Austin for the long-term benefit of his own constituents (who don't even pay Cap Metro taxes, by the way).

I think commuter rail is going to fail because it ONLY serves the suburbs, and requires those people, who are already the least likely to want to ride the bus, to ride a bus twice a day (from train station to downtown, UT, capitol; since the commuter rail line doesn't go anywhere near the last two and barely touches the lamest corner of downtown - too far for most people to walk to work).

As for how this TOD will affect the neighborhoods - I think the current zoning is set so far below what the market demands in this part of town that ANY excuse to build denser will work - but it won't be true TOD because the residents won't ride the transit (because, unlike light rail, this transit will, in fact, suck).

Is that making it any clearer?

Tim Thomas

Dude, what's up with South Austin? We don't get any planning? WTF? I mean, I know our buses work well, and are pretty fast, but that doesn't mean they're going to stay that way forever. I want to hop on a train and be downtown in minutes...

Hopefully this will pass because people don't pay much attention to public transit. The more we get, the better it will be and the more people will use it. You guys can spend 4 hours a day going 5 miles on the parking lot that will be MoPac in a few years. I'll happily zoom around on public transit.

I find it hilarious, though, that this public transit that no one is going to be taking is going to completely tranform the way neighborhoods work. Right... My guess is it'll be like having a park and ride in your neighborhood. You SUV drivers won't even know it exists.

Stan

seriously, pappy-- how is building some sort of public transportation that actually works going to increase your rent?

ol'pappy

Is there a fly in here? I thought I heard a buzzing. I guess it was nothing though.

mdahmus

pappy,

Increasing the (ridiculously low) density allowed (not required, remember, just allowed) around these stations would only lead to increased rent for you in the universe in which economics is completely backwards, AND the universe in which Yosemite Yuppiesam actually wants to spend a ton of money to live next to a rail line that runs to a couple of train stations on the edge of town from which he needs to transfer to a bus to actually get downtown, UT, capitol, The Domain, or anywhere else worth going.

Unfortunately for those among us who might actually prefer to see you priced out of rent, and most particularly, internet access, neither one of the aforementioned universes actually exists.

ol'pappy

Oh boy. More new stuff to raise the rent. Whatta scream.

mdahmus

Thanks for the link, by the way. The best introduction to why TOD isn't going to work isn't my most recent crackplog (which is more of a complaint about the Chronicle's lack of actual analysis) but this one instead:

http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.com/blog/archives/000405.html

which has use cases, maps, and a picture of one of our nation's most beloved letters.

M1EK

There's no plan for a rail station in Oak Hill, but they asked to be included in TOD for their bus station, which is just precious. Folks, there's never ever ever been any TOD around anything but extremely high-quality rail transit. Not around bad rail service that requires you to hop on shuttle buses to get to work (Tri-Rail in South Florida) and most DEFINITELY not around bus service, no matter how good it is.

cc

I've been looking through the CapMetro site and all I see everywhere are Park n Rides for Oak Hill, with those Rapid buses that trigger green lights.

s

I meant, when the ordinance was amended in 2005, not 2006. Woopsy.

s

I'm pretty sure there will be a rail station in Oak Hill. It's not on the latest TOD station map because they've yet to designate the TOD district boundaries for that particular station. If you look on the map, it should say something at the bottom right about this. When the TOD Ordinance was amended last year, I believe this was the major amendment - an Oak Hill station (since there will already be one there as it is for the Austin-Leander rail line).

coffee cat

Whatever happened to having a rail station at Oak Hill. Is there going to be nothing but shuttles going to far South/west Austin? That's no change.

Derek

It's funny that you linked to M1EK's blog and then used a picture of a light rail train in a post about Austin's commuter rail future. That seems calculated to drive him nuts.