Architecture in Austin - Guest Writer Series: Stephen Oliver

Our last Comprehensive Plan was ratified in 1979. In the 1980s the city spent considerable energy and time attempting to update the plan, as our charter requires us to do every 5 years, but the plan was never approved by Council. Since then, some central neighborhoods have created a patchwork quilt of “Neighborhood Plans” that have been approved by Council as partial updates to the 1979 Austin Tomorrow Plan. With a thirty year-old Comprehensive Plan, continued explosive growth and disparate views about how our community should move forward, we all have our work cut out for us.

Knowing what we want for Austin’s neighborhoods and the city as a whole is as daunting a task as the comprehensive planning process itself. If you want to learn about the comprehensive plan, I recommend starting at the City of Austin website where you can sign up for the interest list and learn about upcoming meetings (the next one is on July 13th at 6pm, City Hall, Rm 1101, 301 W. 2nd Street).

After getting the lay of the land from the City of Austin website, you can tap into other urban planning resources and develop your own point of view about what you would like to see for the future of Austin. This is Smart Growth is a planning primer including many of the core values that should be explored during the planning process. Score your ability access services and resources within walking distance of work or home at http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/. Visualizing a better built environment is one key to understanding how to implement it - the before-and-after images and renderings at Urban Advantage illustrate the possibilities of good design.

Stephen Oliver

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this image sums it up. Depicting a one-third mile segment of Burnet Rd., it shows the approximate maximum size of any future redevelopment based on existing entitlements, and goes as far as assuming the assembly of multiple adjacent properties, which isn’t always feasible.

While the City of Austin’s new design standards aim to foster the creation of dense, affordable and walkable transportation corridors, the reality is that our city code creates inherent conflicts as shown by what is possible when complying with current regulations. Unfortunately the result is not the realization of our vision of shaded retail storefronts with lofts above lining the street. Our city code applied to the shallow lots on this stretch of Burnet Rd. allows for the construction of buildings only slightly more dense than today (and sometimes less) - hardly an incentive for property owners to develop existing buildings with new housing, offices and retail. Only a few deep lots have the capacity to support infill growth. Usually that’s where the development debate begins. The relationship between what we can do, what we should do and will do is worth our time and effort as we address the complexities of place making, health, pollution, congestion, community building and economic growth.

Understanding these issues is the first step; taking action is the next. The Comprehensive Plan is your opportunity to have a say in Austin’s future. I encourage you to formulate a point of view and share it with city leadership.