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The Austin Contrarian did a nice post yesterday on the Design Commission's Density Bonus Recommendations. A "density bonus" isn't quite what it sounds like - developers don't get a bonus for building more density. Instead, developers pay the city (generally to provide money for parks, affordable housing or mass transit) in exchange for the right to build more density.
Parks, affordable housing and mass transit are all good things, but density is also a good thing. Increasing the cost of density reduces the supply. Some projects will be built only if they don't have to pay density bonuses. People seem willing to pay any price for a downtown condo right now, but that isn't going to last forever. The current case-by-case approach allows the city to extract concessions from developers when it can (and to specify the concessions that make the most sense), while allowing good projects without high margins to go forward without paying an extra tax.
We'd rather see the city encourage density instead of taxing it, increase the costs of things we don't like (burning gasoline, wasting water and electricity, building sprawling suburbs, using plastic bags, speeding, kicking puppies, stomping on flowers) and use that money to fund parks, affordable housing and mass transit.
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Actually, stomping on flowers is really therapeutic. You should try it sometime. Puppy kickers should be put to death, though.
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell. Austin can't keep growing forever, whether densely or not. Where does it stop?
Tarvin,
I think you're missing the point. People want to move here and businesses want to move here. There will be growth until that is no longer true. While we are growing, isn't it better to encourage dense growth instead of sprawl?
Tarvin,
The growth-as-cancer analogy fits suburban sprawl far more than it fits density.
AC brings up some good points. We should be encouraging dense growth, not taxing it. But, I think it's the only viable approach at this time because of the two dominant political powers in this town:
1. Granola Mafia types who view all growth as a threat to their way of life.
2. The unholy alliance of ignorant bumpkins and clueless suburbanites who run the State Capitol.
The Granola Mafia will demand some price for density. Their power is ignored at great peril. You HAVE to throw them a bone. And, any sensible growth management plan that makes sprawl more expensive than density would be quashed by the clowns in the Capitol.
So, the key is to minimize the pain of the density bonus. I hope the council is able to strike that balance.
I am extremely pro density, but Austin needs to enforce an "ugly tax" on some of these
hiddeous projects going up. Especially condos built out of 2x4 and stucco construction.