Up Plum Creek

Terrain.org has an interesting case study of Plum Creek, a 2,200 acre Muelleresque development north of Kyle. Plum Creek hasn't gotten nearly as much publicity as Mueller, despite implementing similar techniques and being much larger.

Some of the "case study" is overly adoring (it was written by Plum Creek's Director of Operations), but it describes an atypical neighborhood that many Austinites have never visited or even heard of. Particularly interesting is the description of the city approval process, which has a lot of room for improvement. Among other sprawl-inducing requirements, Kyle's residential subdivision code mandates wide streets and alleys, segregation of retail, commercial and residential space, and oodles of parking. Only after sustained negotiations were compromises reached between the city and the developers. Even today, each new phase brings more wrangling with city government.

Plum Creek is suburban even with the variances, but it is a clear improvement over the cul-de-sac hell of neighboring developments. Streets are laid out in a grid and lined with sidewalks, trees and porches. Garages are in the back, usually off an alley. The elementary school, parks and some retail and commercial spaces are easily walkable from most houses and can be accessed without having to hike major roads. If the San Antonio/Austin commuter rail line gets built, the Buda/Kyle stop could turn Plum Creek from an interesting neighborhood into one of Central Texas' better alternatives for a less car dependent lifestyle.

We hope developments like Plum Creek will lead to modifications in the building code (in Kyle, Austin and other cities) enabling future developers to incorporate pedestrian-friendly design without having to battle city hall. Traveling from Plum Creel into a neighboring, code-conforming development makes it clear than many modern zoning requirements are misguided and reduce neighborhood livability.

This type of design ages well - the oldest parts of Plum Creek are among the nicest, with both trees and communities established. That said, we hope Plum Creek's best is yet to come. Some planned commercial areas are currently under construction, with mixed use areas somewhere on the horizon. Plum Creek is not the perfect expression of the New Urbanist ideal and covering ranches with single family homes may be an unredeemable waste of resources, but Plum Creek is a lot better than the suburb across the street.

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

By Shawn Shillington in News on February 23, 2009 10:22 AM 0 Comments

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mdahmus

The CM Red Line precludes good light rail from ever happening here. The ASA line is largely irrelevant (will probably never happen; if it does, it might suck up some money that would be much more usefully spent on the CAMPO TWG light rail plan that is the best we can now implement given the disaster of the Red Line).

trza

You lost me. Why would an Austin/SA commuter line preclude light rail in Austin?

mdahmus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_Rail_Runner_Express#Ridership

They've settled to about 4000 per day on a route which seems a lot more interesting than Austin's.

When commuter rail ends up competing with light rail for money (and in Austin's case, precluding it from ever happening on the corridor which makes the most sense), one ought to consider how 2000-4000 riders per day would rack up against light rail starts in other cities.

The answer is: dead last. Not even close to second-too-last. Dead freakin' last. A BAD light rail line carries 15,000 people per day when it opens. A good one, like Houston's or Minneapolis's, hits 30-40,000 per day.

trza

A new commuter rail line has just opened between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, which requires bus transfers (and a shuttle to get from the ALB airport to the train). Anecdotally, from what I have heard it has been a very popular option so far. I would be interested to see if any insights from that project could be applied to an Austin/San Antonio line. They are about equidistant, and both share a great deal of interstate traffic between the two points. There are many differences, obviously (the size of the two cities, the fact that Santa Fe doesn't have a major airport), but if it works there, perhaps it could work here.

mdahmus

If the ASA line ever gets commuter service, which is a much bigger if than you have been led to believe, it'd still only drop people off at Seaholm, where they'll have to transfer to...

the bus.

Once again, as with the CM Red Line, expecting that people who won't take the bus today even when a very good bus option exists (the nice express buses) will be willing to take a bus as a transfer from a train seems incredibly naive.

(I am more and more pessimistic about the CAMPO TWG urban rail line every day as McCracken seems to inch away from it in order to win anti-tax voters - it wouldn't help that much anyways; even a transfer from commuter to light rail would drive away a large chunk of potential riders).