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Town Lake Setback Variances Non-Starters for Martinez, Leffingwell 

Wells Dunbar  Tue Aug 28, 3:18pm , 2007
Tags: Town Lake, Lee Leffingwell, Mike Martinez, City Council

"You know what would be great here? Condos!
Photo by John Anderson
As setback variances along Town Lake Lady Bird Lake begin to wind their way through the board and commissions system, City Council members are taking preemptive measures voicing their disapproval with the request. Earlier today Mike Martinez fired off this press release announcing his reluctance to "begin dismantling the Town Lake Waterfront Overlay piece by piece." We also just received an email from Lee Leffingwell stating he agrees.

Below, the text of Martinez's press release:

Today, Council Member Mike Martinez announced he will not be supporting developer requested variances to the Town Lake Waterfront Overlay.

The Overlay was created in the 1980’s through a citizen lead initiative to protect the lake front from encroaching development. It was intended to guide future development to protect the water quality and parklands – the things that make the waterfront such a valued resource to the entire community.

“The Town Lake Waterfront Overlay was a citizen-lead policy initiative that should only be overturned or amended in that same manner. If there are property owners and community members who believe there should be amendments to the overlay, there is a comprehensive public process that should be used. Granting individual property owners requested variances is not good policy for legislation that protects a crown jewel in the heart of Austin’s urban core.”

Council Member Martinez believes that protecting the core values of Lady Bird Lake such as water quality, scenic assets and view corridors are essential to the entire City of Austin and secondary to development initiatives of property owners.

“My position has nothing to do with the individual development at the center of this issue today. After having met with CWS representatives I am sure the developer would enhance the shores of Lady Bird Lake if granted the requested entitlements within the secondary setback (150 to 200 ft). For me, the policy issue at hand is whether or not the city council should begin dismantling the Town Lake Waterfront Overlay piece by piece. I don’t believe we should be taking the teeth out of the waterfront overlay, and I am taking this opportunity to state my opposition to that proposal today.”

Tonight the Parks and Recreation Board will hold a public hearing to consider the project requesting variances from the Waterfront Overlay Ordinance. The Director of the Parks and Recreation Department will then make a recommendation to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission will vote on the site plan and, depending on their decision, it can ultimately be appealed to the City Council. This last appeal process was recently changed by the council allowing site plans requesting variances from the Overlay to be appealed to the Council.
 

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COMMENTS
14
 
2 more, at least Deb Aug 28, 2007 - 10:42 pm
Cole and Kim are also anti-variance. It would be political suicide to do anything different.

Parks voted 5-4 to deny the motion for variance tonight.

In contention there was ye-old "if we don't give them everything they want, they won't throw us a bone" - the bone being a small patch of parkland and connection to the trail.

Is the patch really viable parkland and is the trade-off for precedent of dismantling years of community-developed plans worth it?

WWLD?

(What would Ladybird do?)


What would Ladybird do? guest Aug 28, 2007 - 11:48 pm
I certainly hope she wouldn't cave to some rich assholes living in Travis Heights that would rather have a nice view of the Capitol for them to enjoy rather than a trail extension for EVERYONE to enjoy.


But then again... guest Aug 28, 2007 - 11:51 pm
I don't want to speak for Ladybird since I do not think she would appreciate it. It very much sucks that you're using her name to further your cause when as far as I know, she never took a stand on this particular issue.

Dangerous Game Shilli Aug 29, 2007 - 09:11 am
I will be heartbroken if the result of this is that the town lake trail gap doesn't get closed. The entire east side of the trail would be much more accessible if getting there didn't involve cutting through the Statesman's parking lot and walking along a busy street over the highway. I thought the 100 foot set back was a reasonable compromise. At 150 feet, the developer is basically forced to rebuild the existing structures, because there isn't any room left on their land to build something new. Also, this isn't a trail out in the wilderness - it is an urban park in the middle of the city. There is nothing wrong with it having some tall buildings around it. I just hope city council doesn't mess this up and miss the opportunity to close the gap in the hike and bike trail.

m1ek Aug 29, 2007 - 11:32 am
Shilli put it best - but also props to calling out the rich Travis Heights folks. Jeff Jack doesn't care about the trail, or, for that matter, jack squat about the environment - he cares about the views (and relatively calm traffic) his neighborhoods currently enjoy.

His Neighborhoods? guest Aug 29, 2007 - 12:12 pm
Huh? Jeff Jack lives nowhere near the proposed development -- he is the President of the Zilker NA, and last I checked that was a couple of neighborhoods over from the rich assholes in Travis Heights. Nor in my experience has Jeff Jack shown any geographical bias in his perpetual rants against variances -- he is an equal opportunity ranter.

m1ek Aug 29, 2007 - 02:45 pm
Yes, Jack is over in Zilker, but he's basically been pulling/pushing all of the major close south NAs for years now.

el_longhorn Aug 29, 2007 - 03:29 pm
You are getting almost everything you want, Austin! Compromise is OK as long as you are making good progress toward your goal. To use an overused phrase, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good!

Huh? guest Aug 29, 2007 - 04:12 pm
Whatchu saying?

Or more to the point... guest Aug 29, 2007 - 04:15 pm
What's the goal as you see it? What's the perfect and what's the good?

Perfect, good, and bad el_longhorn Aug 29, 2007 - 04:24 pm
The goal is to have a trail that runs the entire length of Lady Bird Lake. The perfect is a 200' setback, the good is a 150' setback. The worst outcome is for things to stay as is with a 20' setback and no trail. I just hope that the city doesn't go for the 200' setback and end up with nothing.

It'll be interesting if this doesn't get built SolMan Aug 29, 2007 - 04:41 pm
Another large condo project in South Austin recently got pulled:

http://crosslandteam.com/blog/2007/08/24/austin-condos-first-signs-of-pullback-from-developers/

I wonder if we've come to a breather in condo development, at least on the south side.

If this doesn't get built, the developer will probably say it's because they couldn't get their variance. But, I don't think I'll believe it.


guest Aug 29, 2007 - 09:55 pm
Why would anyone but a greedy developer support variances in the first place? Is there a developer 'plant' on this blog?

With the city rolling out its climate protection plan this past March, I'm surprised that variances still get this much attention to begin with.


CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUND! guest Aug 29, 2007 - 11:24 pm
Why was a committee formed to save Lake Ladybird when the only thing they're interested in is stopping this one condo development?

And because I honestly do not know this,

Are they interested in dropping their lawsuit if a compromise is met where the setback is alieviated and the condos are built and the trail is developed or are they in this just to see this one condo fall?

Is there even a lawsuit over this or am I misremembering?




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