It’s Baker Center, Not Baker Homes

By the Chronicle Art Staff

The Alamo Drafthouse appears poised to buy the Baker Center from the Austin Independent School District, though the zoning application on which the deal hinges hit a snag at the Planning Commission a few weeks ago when Richard Weiss, whose architecture firm works for the Alamo, asserted that the company hadn't necessarily promised that affordable housing would be built on the Hyde Park site – only that any housing built would include a percentage of affordable units. The company has no immediate construction plans. For now, it's focused on securing zoning for the previously unzoned site and installing its headquarters in the existing building.

That was a big shock to many in the city who understood any new project as being purely residential, including some affordable housing for teachers and AISD staff. The Hyde Park Neighborhood Assoc­i­ation in particular had hedged its support of the project on the affordable units it would produce. The HPNA and some Planning commissioners were dismayed by the apparent loophole in the language, and the commission postponed the case until the two sides could work things out. Which apparently happened at a follow-up meeting between HPNA and Weiss on March 5.

In an amended letter, the HPNA announced it will continue to support zoning the property CS-HD-NCCD-NP (making it part of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Conservation Com­bin­ing District), so long as the Alamo agrees that anything built above the first floor would be residential, quelling concern that the new construction might be a commercial building. "That postponement was productive," said Planning Commissioner Karen McGraw after recommending the zoning application on March 12. "Everybody got back together; everybody got back in agreement."

Weiss agreed, describing the holdup as a brief hiccup. "I think Alamo's goals for the project and the neighborhood goals are in alignment, it was just making sure the details were all hammered out," he said. The redevelopment of the site will happen in phases, so while there aren't any plans for housing right now, that could change. McGraw reminded that zoning can't be used to make anyone build; it just sets the conditions for any builds.

HPNA Steering Committee President Reid Long confirmed both assessments; the group is satisfied that the deal would result in Alamo either bringing affordable units to Hyde Park or allowing things to stay the same. The HPNA is working out a restrictive covenant with the Alamo to enshrine affordability components that can't be governed by zoning.

But some in the area remain skeptical of that deal, including HPNA counterpoint organization Friends of Hyde Park, and their chairman Pete Gilcrease. "My fear is the Alamo doesn't really care about the restrictions in the housing, because they might not actually ever have a plan to build housing," he said, a reasonable conclusion based on Weiss' efforts to date. "But they put it in their plans in order to buy the property from AISD." FHP views the property as a spot ripe for dense multifamily housing. The group hopes City Council will go against the Planning Com­mis­sion recommendation and "not zone the property into antiquated NCCD."

Rezoning the Baker School is Item 84 on Thursday’s agenda at City Council.