Downtown North, Here We Come

The proposed North Burnet/Gateway Area Master Plan may by the biggest urban development project in Austin in decades: an infrastructure and rezoning exercise intended to create a new, second downtown in North Central Austin. Yesterday the council took steps toward adopting it, with a first vote on three items: adding it to the Austin Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan, rezoning the area, and making the appropriate use and development regulation changes. It would have gone straight through to third reading, but there's still some tweaking on the plans, so it just got a 6-0 first approval.

The big question mark about the plan has been UT Austin. In addition to the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in the middle of the map, it also owns a slab of land west of Mopac. Known as PRC West Tract, it's basically unused parkland with a couple of structures. The city had been looking at it for residential mixed use, but UT envisions it as commercial mixed use. The city staff were clear they were OK with that, as long as the rewritten plan still restricted commercial services and destination retail (with the Gateway and Domain shopping centers right next door, the council may be worried about keeping the mix balanced.)

Amending that new balance will be first order of business, plus some tweaking on off-street parking and infrastructure improvement costs. (Hey, someone has to pay for the drains.) Then the masterplan will start its projected 35-year push to housing 80,000 new residents within city limits.