Rosedale Cafe Exemption Approved

A cafe and grocery project has been proposed for this property on Hancock Drive, formerly Innu Salon (Photo by Jana Birchum)

The architect behind a would-be cafe and grocery at the corner of Hancock Drive and Woodview Avenue in the Rosedale section of Central Austin says the city has lifted a suspension of a site plan exemption. "I just wanted to add an quick update," Michael Hsu posted on the online version of the Chron­icle's item on the case ("Rosedale Reacts: Cafe Non!," May 25). "The change of use and site plan exemption were changed from suspended to approved last week." City officials confirmed that the status of the project had indeed been changed – to "agreed." "I've never seen that one before," said Planning and Develop­ment Review Department spokesperson Sylvia Arzola. She later added that the exemption had been approved based on the fact that Hsu was "in compliance with off-street parking requirements" without encroaching on neighbors' properties. He got there, she says, by reducing the number of spaces on the property by one and converting six of them to spaces for compact cars. This approval appears to allow the project, which would replace the former Innu Salon, to move forward. That effort had been the subject of a fair amount of neighborhood concern about whether the lot (and the surrounding neighborhood) could support the amount of activity the cafe would bring in.