Can Height and Homes Coexist?

The next big high-rise tower passing through city commissions – 800 West Ave. – has offered plenty of fodder for discussion. This development, an attractive 250-foot tower fronted by a park or row houses on West Avenue, would sit on a deep lot right in the middle of the Old Austin neighborhood. Can height and homes coexist? It might be right for Downtown but not so right for the edge of Downtown, commissioners have agreed. At Design Commission this week, Commissioner Richard Weiss coined a potential name for a new zoning category for such development: CRD, or central residential district. And Chris Riley, who represents the Old Austin Neighborhood Association, suggested it might be time to create an overlay for that first outer ring of Downtown – those places just outside the clear urban core where density is wanted but where projects must peacefully coexist with their neighbors.