The City Council rushed through their brief agenda Thursday, eager to hobnob with the rich (and richer) at the Fortune 500 reception downtown. They did make time to sign a lease granting the Austin Film Society permission to set up a production studio in two hangars at the former Robert Mueller Airport. The film society plans to use the 18-acre site for inside sets and prop storage for films, television shows, and commercials. AFS executive director Rebecca Campbell, who was unsurprisingly ecstatic about the vote, called the Mueller facility “the missing ingredient in a locale that is physically attractive and offers experienced film crews, but where short-term office and warehouse rental space has become increasingly hard to come by.”
While it may not look like a controversial land deal to the casual observer, anything involving the former Mueller airport — future home to one of the city’s as-yet-undetermined major redevelopment projects — is guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows. Foremost among those was Council Member Beverly Griffith, who had originally requested that the item be pulled from the agenda for discussion. While Griffith did eventually request that the item be returned, she stressed the temporary nature of the lease, which the city can terminate with six months’ notice at any time, when and if they move on the Mueller redevelopment.
Bennett Delayed: Part 12
The council also made time to postpone a vote on the development of the Bennett tract, just east of downtown on 11th Street and I-35. In 1991, the tract was zoned for development of a million-square-foot shopping mall, but the developer on that project failed to break ground by a two-year deadline imposed by the council. Riata, the development firm that now holds an option to buy the land, proposed an office park on the property last spring. Some neighborhood leaders would prefer a deal that includes affordable housing, but Riata says that housing won’t enable it to turn a profit on the land. The council gave the neighborhoods more time to negotiate with Riata; and, with the number of postponements on the vote pushing into the double digits, the vote was put off until January 11, 2001.
Watershed Moment
After a public hearing that drew little outcry, the council granted developers Post Properties a variance allowing their proposed condo development at 801 W. Fifth to encroach on the 25- and 100-year floodplains of Shoal Creek. The Watershed Protection Department recommended that the council grant the variance for the site, on the condition that Post foot the bill for modifications to the site to prevent increased flooding.
This article appears in October 20 • 2000.