One Two East: Let's postpone

[Christopher Hutchins]

Council Member Houston would like to request a postponement for Item 31 on the February 11th Council Meeting Agenda to the April 14th Council Meeting. Item 31 is the project known as One Two East.

The proposed development is located at the southeast corner of the access road on the site of the former Safeway (now a pink bingo hall and community meeting space), a Speedy Cash and a CVS pharmacy. The applicant is asking for an increase in height and in floor-to-area ratio. The current entitlements allow for 150 feet in height and a floor-to-area ration of 3.75 to 1. The applicant has said that he will go with staff’s recommendation of 185 feet in height (down from his request of 200 feet) and a floor-to-area ration of 5 to 1.

The current entitlements of 150 feet and 3.75-to-1 floor-to-area ratio were granted with a zoning change that occurred in 1991. There was no community outreach at that time and many didn’t even know there had been a zoning change or what the change meant or would mean 25 years later.

C14-2014-0198 was filed toward the end of 2014, days before the new year, and has taken the applicant this long to bring to Council because the project itself has had so much difficulty meeting City regulations. Even now, the project that takes full advantage of the current entitlements on those two tracts may not meet the City regulations.

The neighborhood hasn’t had enough time to review the information in this case since the latest staff report and as the Mayor pointed out yesterday at work session it’s untimely to have a decision from Planning Commission and then bring a case like this to Council. More time is needed.

The date of April 14th was chosen because Mr. Rusthoven indicated that it could take up to 1 month or 1 ½ months, and that will be the next “zoning meeting” for Council after 1 ½ months which should give the neighborhood plenty of time to review these final changes to the traffic impact analysis if indeed no more are needed.

Council Member Houston would also like to note that the neighborhood has not requested a postponement yet, even though that it says otherwise in the current staff report. The video of Planning Commission is January 12th 2016. Staff requested for postponement on the agenda and the neighborhood’s opinion was considered. Not unlike when the situation is reversed.

This project will set a precedent for further development on the east side of the access road. It will be in fact a vertical barrier that will marginalize and negate the neighborhoods and communities that exist today in central east Austin.