Naked City

Poor Will Wynn. The earnestness and excitement he brings to the mayor's office is obvious, but one wonders if he's not sore, or maybe slightly saddened, at his lot so far in mayorin' life. While Kirk Watson ubiquitously loomed over all when the city was flush with cash from the dot-com delirium, all Wynn's had so far has been the crash, followed by the cinching of the city's purse strings, which prevented him from doing some of the big, important mayoral things that Watson accomplished. He's basically had that, the smoking ban, and toll roads.

Until now, that is. Being the proactive type, Wynn has found his big mayoral thing, and, to his credit, it makes decent sense. Wynn called last week for relocation of the Thomas C. Green Water Treatment Plant. Green is the city's oldest plant, processing water from Town Lake since 1925, and you wouldn't be remiss in assuming it's not the most high tech facility. Green still uses a sedimentary form of purification, where the water's dregs settle to the bottom of huge reservoirs; a heavy rain will shut down operations for a day or two. The location of a new Green plant has yet to be selected, but a spot south of Longhorn Dam seems most likely, from the mayor's interviews and press releases.

The move lets Wynn create that most coveted of political trinkets – a legacy in environmental issues and downtown development, two of the bookends of Austin politics. On the former, Wynn repeatedly spoke of the need to keep "a straw" into Town Lake. Drawing water from the lake, especially if the new plant is located past the Longhorn Dam, "makes even better environmental arguments for protecting Barton Springs and the Edwards Aquifer, but also [for] raising the awareness about the rest of our urban creeks," Wynn said. This is because locating further downstream lets the plant catch that creek runoff, literally putting the city's water where its mouth is with regards to creek protection. To ensure their cleanliness, Wynn wants an Austin Clean Creeks initiative to accompany the relocated plant, raising awareness of "environmental stewardship throughout the urban core." Another advantage in locating downstream is the possibility of service to Buda and the rapidly expanding SH 130 corridor.

On another front, Wynn, former chair of the Downtown Austin Alliance, is looking at making some big inroads in development – one being the extension of Nueces Street south to Cesar Chavez, as the 6 acres of prime downtown real estate the plant sits on are freed up. Exactly how Green will fit in with the construction on Block 21, the repurposing of the Seaholm power plant, and the reurbanization of southwest downtown in general remains to be seen, but Wynn has made one large proposal so far: The creation of a new central public library on part of the site, a project once slated for Block 21. The mixed-use development at Green would be a boon to city coffers, garnering "millions and millions of dollars of valuable land for hundreds of millions of dollars in tax base, public and private uses," promised the mayor.

Elliptically alluded to is Water Treatment Plant 4, a long delayed and oft-maligned plant proposed west of town at the headwaters of Bull Creek by 2222. The city has owned the land for 20 years, but financial and ecological setbacks have prevented the water utility from going forward with development. Wynn acknowledges that his proposal for Green moves WTP4 even further back, a move Save Our Springs Alliance Executive Director Bill Bunch applauds. Calling the proposed WTP4 a financial and environmental "boondoggle," Bunch says his main concern is the city pulling a "bait and switch" – promising Green relocation, and giving the city WTP4. "In short, the city needs to be able to demonstrate that a different site for Green is financially viable and fully feasible before there's any move to shut down the current Green," Bunch said.

"As big and bold and fun as this is, this is just another step [in] a continuous march towards better utilization of taxpayer property," Wynn said.