Naked City

By Doug Potter

As the City Council begins its much-awaited public hearings today on the city's proposed settlement with Stratus Properties -- formerly Freeport-McMoRan Properties -- get ready for a fight. Old-school environmentalists like Save Our Springs Alliance executive director Bill Bunch are grimly comparing the proposed deal with Stratus to the development deal with Freeport that started the SOS fight nearly 10 years ago. (For more detail, see the cover stories starting on p.26.)

As Freeport-McMoRan, the company proposed extensive development over the environmentally sensitive Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, and waged a long legal battle with the city. The most significant result was the SOS Ordinance, adopted in 1992.

As the Stratus proposal loomed, Bunch and SOS requested a postponement of public hearings -- originally scheduled for Nov. 2 and 9 -- to give neighborhood associations time to look over the proposal, and perhaps to marshal forces for a filibuster Thursday night. (It will be hard to rival the famous public hearing in 1990, when nearly 800 speakers, almost all of them against the deal, held the floor well into the small hours of the morning, and the council responded by unanimously turning down Freeport's proposal.)

If the council approves the proposed settlement, Stratus will begin a 4,000-acre development that could include as many as 1,400 single-family homes and nearly 5,000 apartments, as well as 6.5 million square feet of commercial development and a new golf course. A substantial amount of the land Stratus proposes to develop lies over the aquifer's recharge zone.

If, on the other hand, the city turns Stratus down, the proposal's supporters say the recently passed, developer-friendly House Bill 1704 may allow the company to develop anyway, under much less restrictive conditions.

It's a tricky call for the city, and there might still be another way out: Stratus has shown interest in swapping development rights over the aquifer for development rights at the former Mueller Airport site, the site of one of the city's vague but treasured "Smart Growth" redevelopment initiatives (for more on that, see "Mueller: The Art of the Deal," p.38). Council Member Daryl Slusher, who has expressed doubts that even the best-intentioned Stratus project should go over the aquifer, has lent tentative support for a Mueller/Stratus swap; but Council Member Beverly Griffith, a key player in Mueller's redevelopment, has led the criticism of the concept.

The public hearings are the next two Thursdays at 6pm: today, Nov. 30, at Town Lake Center, 721 Barton Springs Rd., and Dec. 7 at the Hancock Building at the Lower Colorado River Authority, 3700 Lake Austin Blvd.

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Ped Plan Walking

The council will vote Thursday to approve a Pedestrian Plan whose principles aim to guide everything from educational programs for children to future construction projects toward encouraging Austinites to walk. The Plan cites the results of the Austin Transportation Study's 1997 Travel Survey, which found that only 3% of Austin residents walk from home to work or school. "The facts about travel in the U.S.," the study says, in a piece of classic understatement, "suggest that walking could be used more widely than it currently is." Another study referenced in the Pedestrian Plan lists bad weather, limited time, and fear of crime among the reasons people don't walk more. The plan proposes no measures to put an end to bad weather, but it does contain guidelines for the city to construct safer and more comfortable sidewalks and crossings, and financial incentives like parking buyouts to encourage people to use them.

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Downtown Developments

Vignette's proposal to build its company headquarters downtown, which was to have been heard Thursday, has been postponed for two weeks so the software maker can continue negotiations on an estimated $25 million in city incentives. Planning Commissioner Sterling Lands has praised the software company's plans to purchase a site in the 500 block of East Cesar Chavez as a promising first step toward moving more businesses into a long-neglected downtown area. Vignette has also talked about setting aside funds to clean up the lower end of Waller Creek -- a much-needed project that the city has been postponing for 20 years -- although the company's reputation for largesse was dented when it became clear last week that it plans on being reimbursed by the city for any funds spent on the creek.