Naked City

Throw it at the wall and see if something sticks. That appears to be the new M.O. for Hyde Park Baptist Church, which sued the city last month in Travis County district court over the right to build its five-story parking garage. Now the church has filed yet another suit, this one against the five council members who voted against the site plan -- along with Development Review and Watershed Protection Dept. Director Mike Heitz -- under the Texas Constitution, the Texas Local Government Code, the Texas Religious Freedom Act, the First, Fifth, and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and -- just for good measure -- the recently passed Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which prevents cities from "substantially burdening" churches' free exercise of religion.

The church's complaint, at 19 dense and adjective-heavy pages, isn't exactly poolside reading, but it does say explicitly what neighbors have been asserting quietly for years -- that Hyde Park Baptist, as an evangelical, growth-focused church, wants the parking garage not because its old one is full -- a city study of the church's garage usage settled that question several months ago -- but because the church "has historically conducted its expansion of its facilities based upon faith that if it does expand its physical capacity, then … its membership will grow to fill whatever facility it is able to construct." But that, says neighborhood attorney Rachael Rawlins, is shaky ground for the church to stand on in claiming a "substantial burden" on its right to freely assemble -- even if parking is, as the church claims in the suit, "as integral to the accomplishment of HPBC's mission as would be the actual construction of a new larger sanctuary, a church library, or a prayer room." "It's hard to see how a multi-million dollar church can complain about regulations which grant the church special privileges to build massive institutional structures in the middle of a residential neighborhood," says Rawlins, who is not involved in this lawsuit.

Doug Laycock, a professor at the UT Law School and an expert on religious land use issues, says HPBC's case is "genuinely hard," because -- unlike most of the cases that are currently going through litigation nationwide -- it involves a church that has outgrown its neighborhood and has a questionable need for more facilities. Most RLUIPA cases so far, Laycock says, have involved small, start-up churches that want to move into neighborhoods that don't want them there in the first place. "If I were picking cases to be the first one litigated in this part of the country I wouldn't pick Hyde Park Baptist," Laycock says. However, he added, he doesn't believe the city will be able to stop the garage for "aesthetic" reasons: "Saying we don't like to look at this garage is not a compelling reason to infringe on their constitutional rights," Laycock says. "We don't subordinate constitutional rights to other people's aesthetic judgments." According to attorney David Donaldson, who is litigating the case for the city, the city will have a response to the suit by April 25…

Austin state Rep. Glen Maxey, gearing up for the stretch run at the Legislature, acknowledged last week that he might retire after this session. But, he added quickly, he hopes it doesn't come to that. "I think it's premature for anybody to say they want to walk away from this place," Maxey said, adding that his reason for leaving would be "totally personal and financial."

Maxey is in this predicament thanks to the annual legislative salary of $7,200, which is supposed to ensure that the state will be governed by "citizen legislators," but in practice virtually limits service in the Lege to the independently wealthy. With 10 years of service, Maxey is now eligible for a lucrative retirement package -- $48,000 per year plus health insurance -- which would roughly double his out-of-session income from political consulting.

After the session ends, Maxey told us, "I'm going to see if I can put together consulting contracts between now and the end of the year, and if they are lucrative enough to allow me to come back, I'd love to do so." Known as a prodigious bill passer and a deft floor fighter, especially on health care issues, the Only Openly Gay Legislator in Texas has been a thorn in the side and a frequent target of the hard-right faction at the Lege, another factor in his pending decision. "I guess it's sort of like, you just don't want to let the bastards have it," Maxey said…

Once upon a time there was a quiet, peaceful Central Austin community. Throughout the neighborhood, calm and tranquility reigned. But then one day, along came the great monster, Development, and threatened to devour the little enclave with an ugly, ruinous Parking Garage. And there was discord in the land.

Hyde Park? Nope. This time, the story is in Judges' Hill, a small area just south of West Campus that's bordered by 15th Street on the south, MLK on the north, and West and San Gabriel to the east and west. The culprit in this tale is SR Development, which wants to develop the Goodall-Wooten Mansion (for years occupied by the Austin Recovery Center) into office space. But for that, it needs parking: 149 spaces, or 112 more than it currently has. And for that, it needs land -- specifically, the land across the street, where a former residential treatment center, the El Paso House, sits overgrown and unused.

Two of three adjacent neighborhoods have signed on to the developer's plan, which would provide street-level improvements and limit new building on the site to residential uses. The third, the oddly named Original City Neighborhood Association, still opposes the plan, according to NA President Ben Schotz, on several grounds: a) The garage would be across MLK from the offices, making for a dangerous dash across the four-lane street; b) as an off-site facility, the garage would require general office zoning, setting a "dangerous" precedent in a neighborhood that's almost exclusively residential; and c) the garage would be in a different neighborhood (Judges' Hill) than the one it would serve (West Campus), causing cut-through traffic and other problems for a neighborhood that wouldn't benefit from its presence. "We have problems with using an off-site site for a parking garage to serve a community interest … outside our neighborhood," Schotz says. "We see this as the beginning of the end" for the neighborhood's residential character.

But according to developer Bill Gurasich, the garage would be far "superior" to the site's previous use as a residential treatment facility. "A year ago there were 130 or so alcoholics and drug addicts that lived on these two sites. … This [use] takes a problematic population out of the area." The option of finding a suitable site elsewhere, favored by the neighborhood, was rejected by Gurasich, who determined that "the only feasible alternative for [off-site] parking was this site." Schotz disagrees, noting that the ARC already owned the property at MLK and West, making it "the simplest solution for the developer." The parking proposal, which could still be altered during ongoing negotiations, will get a third and final reading next Thursday…

East side, West side, all around the town, will TxDOT come and tear your house down? Along the route of State Highway 130 -- which, after at least 15 years of controversy, got its all-but-final federal go-ahead last week -- the answer is "yes" for several dozen property owners and "maybe" for several hundred more. Though SH130 will be built well to the east of Lake Walter Long and the city of Round Rock, which is where everyone but the Texas Dept. of Transportation wanted it, that route may actually take out more homes than the dreaded "western alignment."

The Eastside wasn't the only part of town where homeowners were feeling pinched this past week by encroaching roadways. Until well after sundown, more than 900 homeowners along MoPac and U.S. 183 held an organized freakout at the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO)'s monthly meeting. The state is examining options for high-occupancy vehicle lanes and relocating ramps along the MoPac/183 corridor, which CAMPO planners suggest may need to be widened with four additional lanes to meet traffic demand…

Drawing on the successful theme of last fall's anti-rail campaign, anti-growther Mark Tschurr has printed about 1,500 red, white, and black bumper stickers to get across a different message: "Growth: Costs too much, does too little." Tschurr, a businessman and board chairman of the Save Our Springs Alliance, paid for the stickers out of his own pocket. Previously, Tschurr took out newspaper ads chastising the city of Austin for offering tax breaks and other incentives to employers willing to move downtown. His bumper stickers are free and available at various shops around Austin…

Finally, our favorite Jesus video disposal suggestion, courtesy of a reader: Recycle them (and any unwanted video solicitations) by mailing them to Eco-Media Recycling Centers, 5427 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807.

-- Contributors: Mike Clark-Madison, Michael King, Amy Smith