Downtown North, Here We Come

Austin took a step closer to developing a second downtown last Thursday when council adopted the North Burnet/Gateway Area Master Plan. The proposal gives the city the zoning tools to encourage the development of 2,300 acres around Burnet and Braker as a mixed-use residential and commercial area, intended to deal with some of the projected doubling of the city population over the next 20 years.

The plan was originally going to be adopted on Oct. 19, but that was delayed to allow staff to amend the plans for the "west tract," the area west of Mopac owned by the University of Texas. The original plan had designated the area as neighborhood mixed use, with a maximum building height of 10 stories, but UT wanted that changed to commercial mixed use, pushing that to 15 stories. In a concession decision, the city made the change, but with the codicil that it would not become a destination shopping center, to ensure a real mix over the area and prevent too much competition for the Domain and Gateway shopping complexes.

Next, city staff will develop phase two regulations, turning the rough plan into code and developing a "density bonus" system, under which developers could exchange development scale for building extra public amenities.