Report - Second TOD (Transit-Oriented District) Charette - June 28th
The turnout was great - thanks to all who gave up their Thursday evening to attend and contribute their feedback in the interest of being active participants in planning the future of our neighborhood - hopefully everyone felt good about their involvement at the end of the night.
I noted participants (including residents, business owners and property owners who are not residents) from all 3 surrounding neighborhoods (Crestview, Brentwood and Highland) and maybe a few others as well (a fellow from Skyview was at my table). I was pleased to make a few new acquaintances, and I hope others were able to do the same.
Here’s a link to the city webpage on TOD planning
(www.ci.austin.tx.us/planning/tod)
and info on the Lamar Blvd. / Justin Lane ‘neighborhood center TOD’
(www.ci.austin.tx.us/planning/tod/downloads/Crestview.pdf)
Take a look there for the TOD planning area boundaries and lots more information!
Here’s a description of general TOD planning efforts and goals - from the City webpage
TOD is a way for Austin to make long-range coordinated transportation andland use decisions that will provide a variety of housing and mobility options and create active places where people can live, work, shop, interact and recreate.
The City's mission with respect to Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is to create transit-supportive communities by optimizing the use of land around high quality transit and help Austin achieve some of its social, environmental and economic goals:
- Support publicly funded transit investments and enhance transit ridership.
- Create greater mobility choice through improved travel options (walking, bicycling,transit, etc.).
- Decrease auto use and lessen the negative impacts of the automobile: contribution to traffic congestion and air pollution, high household spending on transportation, consumption of fossil fuels, and excessive parking needs.
- Create interesting and active places to live, work and play.
- Improve the design quality of the built environment.
- Increase housing options suited to a mix of generations and incomes.
- Achieve healthier lifestyles due to increased walking and bicycling.
- Foster economic development, an enhanced tax base and the potential for Revenue from public-sector real estate assets.
- Increase the predictability and consistency of the development process
While there are advantages to linking development and transit, it is necessary to recognize that TOD is not a panacea to solve some of Austin's most challenging issues like traffic congestion, air quality and housing affordability; there is no singular solution for these issues. Transit-oriented development is one part of the solution to a range of transportation, social, and environmental problems, with potential to contribute to improving the quality of life in both Austin and the Central Texas Region.
The June 28th session began with a welcome from Sonya Lopez (City of Austin) and Tom Ryden (PB Placemaking - a Portland-based planning firm). Donna Carter (Carter Design Associates of Austin) and Camille Pahwa (Diana McIver & Associates of Austin) talked about various aspects of plan implementation. Then Brian Newman (PB Placemaking) stepped up to recap the first charette and to present the schematic plans that were generated as a response to the neighborhood input collected at that event.
The central problem that planners set out to address was the challenge of connectivity across Lamar and Airport, 2 very busy streets - as we all know. 3 conceptual plans were presented, but discussion soon focused on one, the ‘street grid’ plan which proposed a network of smaller scale streets around this intersection which could be used by folks on foot or bicycle to move around and through the TOD district.
The plan also proposed future land uses for a number of parcels in the TOD district, again culled from input gathered at the first charette event. There are a number of ‘menu options’ for uses and building types (live / work buildings, mixed-use retail, various density types of housing units, etc.) which are part of the TOD land-use palette.
A realignment of the Airport / Lamar intersection was presented which proposes to reconfigure the current Y-shaped formation (with sketchy pedestrian crossings) into a more conventional T-shaped intersection with proper crosswalks and refuge areas. The free lane traveling north onto Airport from Lamar would be eliminated. (along with the high-speed cars that currently travel without any impediment making pedestrian crossing risky at best) It seems that this would be a major improvement in terms of safety and pedestrian usage and as it turns out, the right-of way is already in place to allow for this reconstruction, so it could be one of the easier elements to realize.
Another item that was discussed was the current Austin Energy property on Justin Lane and Ryan. Apparently there are talks in the works to do a swap. That is, the Justin Lane property would be included in the Crestview Station development, and in return, Trammel Crow would provide a parcel within the Huntsman site for a new Austin Energy substation. We also heard a little bit about various affordability incentives and goals, although it is my understanding that affordability benchmarks cannot be required (by law?) but may be implemented as part of the overall scheme at the discretion of the developer. (Trammel Crow).
So, after all the introductions / presentations, we all got to work. There were 10 tables, each with a note-taker and a facilitator. The purpose of this charette was to get neighborhood reaction to the ‘street grid’ plan. The Planners wanted to know what we liked, what we did not like, and also invited any new ideas or additional comments.
Here’s a summary of the results:
Definitely the most discussed element of the plan was the extension of Justin Lane east across Lamar to Cannion Drive and the grade connection (across the tracks) from the Crestview Station development south to Justin Lane. The purpose of this connection was to allow secondary circulation around the TOD district, circumventing the Lamar / Airport intersection. Many Justin Lane residents were in attendance and expressed their opposition to this element of the plan because of the worries over increased traffic on their street.
Participants were generally in favor of the Airport / Lamar intersection reconstruction.
Several tables suggested that the inclusion of a greenbelt / trail along the RR tracks was an important park / recreation element and would facilitate pedestrian connectivity from the Crestview neighborhood to the rail stop. Currently there is not adequate right-of-way to accomodate this, so perhaps some appeals to the developers are warranted in order to obtain the land necessary to implement this feature.
Overall, participants were in favor of the inclusion of the Austin Energy property in the Crestview Station Development, and many suggested it would be a good place for a small park along with some live/ work building types.
Some tables expressed that they would like to see residential affordability standards included in future development.
Next Steps?
It’s important to note that we are at the midpoint of this process, there are still opportunities for input and review, nothing has been finalized.
The planning teams will review the feedback from this latest charette and produce another round of documents / draft plan.
There will be another meeting to review these documents and get more feedback. Additionally, lots more work will be going on in the background - feasibility studies for affordable housing components - market assessments - transportation, parking, infrastructure and financing analysis.
Eventually - and I am unsure of the timeline for this - the complete package will go before the Planning Commission and finally the City Council for approval, but certainly this is months away.
You may get on the notification list for announcements (regular mail / email) by contacting Sonya Lopez at 974-7694 or sonya.lopez@ci.austin.tx.us And of course meeting reminders will be published on the Crestview website (http://www.crestviewna.org/) and on the listserv: crestview-neighbors at Yahoo Groups (requires registration).
FYI
Some of you may be wondering about the term charette - here’s what it means in this context:
The term “charette” evolved from a pre-1900 exercise at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in France. Architectural students were given a design problem to solve within an allotted time. When that time was up, the students would rush their drawings from the studio to the Ecole in a cart called a charrette. Students often jumped in the cart to finish drawings on the way. The term evolved to refer to the intense design exercise itself. Today it refers to a creative process akin to visual brainstorming that is used by design professionals to develop solutions to a design problem within a limited timeframe.
