A piece of Southwest Austin that's been offices and a parking garage is a step closer to becoming a lot of new homes. Austin City Council voted Oct. 8 to rezone a site on the west side of Loop 360 for a denser, mixed-use development, and the neighbors next door aren't happy about the traffic.
Bailey Meyers covered the decision for Community Impact, and it's a familiar kind of infill fight.
What's planned
The proposed development would have 475 multifamily units with an affordable housing component, plus possible ground-floor retail and commercial space. The site covers more than 15 acres and is currently developed with office uses and a parking garage.
City staff recommended approval. Staff said the project lines up with council goals by allowing more residential density and adding affordability.
Council member Paige Ellis backed the rezoning. "We need to have our piece of making sure that housing is being built and smaller footprints are being built for people who want to have that type of housing in Southwest Austin," she said.
The vote passed with council member Marc Duchen voting no.
The neighbors next door
The project site is inside Austin city limits. But the properties just west of it, including the Lost Creek neighborhood, aren't anymore. They were deannexed through an election allowed under House Bill 3053 and are now in the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The entrances to the new development and to Lost Creek are both on Loop 360, and several Lost Creek residents told council they're worried about what more traffic will mean on that road.
Travis County Commissioner Ann Howard sent council a letter asking it to hold off on the rezoning until a traffic impact analysis could be done. "I have been told that it is known that this stretch of 360 has more crashes than others and is considered one of the most dangerous sections of 360," she wrote.
The city's answer was that no traffic impact analysis was required. Under Austin's Land Development Code, zoning cases don't need one if the project is expected to generate fewer than 2,000 vehicle trips per day, and the city said this one didn't cross that line.
Residents pushed back on that number. "The traffic analysis waiver rests on a baseline that does not reflect conditions on the ground," said Lost Creek resident Scott Smith. "We need to really understand peak hour congestion, turning movements, U-turns … . This is a very dangerous intersection."
Some neighbors also raised environmental concerns, including more vehicles in the Eanes Creek Watershed.
A safety to-do list for the site plan
Ellis voted yes but added a motion. She asked that during the site plan process that follows, the city, the Texas Department of Transportation and other government partners work together on safety improvements along that stretch of Loop 360.
The list includes safe routes to schools, signal timing, illegal U-turns, crosswalk safety and a sidewalk along Westbank Drive to Westlake High School.
"My first and foremost concern is to make sure that the traffic safety issues are handled," Ellis said. "There are a lot of issues to be addressed here, and my main commitment is to make sure that people in Southwest Austin are safe, regardless of whether they live in the city limits or not."
What happens next
The project still has to go through site plan review, and that's where Ellis' safety motion is aimed. No construction timeline or builder was mentioned in the coverage, so it's too early to say when work might start or who will do it.
What is clear is the direction. Austin is willing to swap an office site for hundreds of homes, even with neighbors objecting, and it's leaning on the site plan stage to work out the road safety issues instead of stopping the zoning.
Why it matters for Contractors
A 475-unit project with possible ground-floor retail, on a site that's offices and a parking garage today, is a big job by any measure. For contractors in Southwest Austin, this is one to watch as it moves into site plan review. It also carries a lesson for anyone building infill near a busy road: the rezoning may clear, but traffic and pedestrian safety work can follow the project into the site plan. Sidewalks, crosswalks and signal work tied to TxDOT and county partners can add scope and coordination, so it pays to ask early who's on the hook for what.