Austin's neighborhood groups are gearing up to fight another development on Town Lake. CWS Capital Partners has proposed building three 18-story towers on Riverside just east of Congress. It will be a big development: 840 apartments and condos. (That's about twice the size of Novare's 360, the biggest project downtown.)
CWS wants a variance to build to within 80 feet of Town Lake; setback regulations require it to stay at least 150 feet away. As a quid pro quo, it's offering to extend the hike-and-bike trail another third of a mile beyond its current dead end near the Statesman building.
No other details of the project have been published. The neighborhood groups, predictably, don't need to know any more to know they oppose it. Their rallying cry? "Save Town Lake!" According to the Statesman, a South River City [i.e., Travis Heights] neighborhood rep already has announced the group's intention to fight: "[T]he setback rule was designed to protect parkland along the shore for public benefit and should be sacrosanct."
Well, that sounds reasonable. We certainly ought to protect our Town Lake parkland. And who would dispute that property along the shore should be maintained for the public's benefit?
Except the "Save Town Lake!" slogan is just a pretext. By any objective measure, Town Lake and the hike-and-bike trail will be better off with this development than without it.
The property is now occupied by several low-rise apartment buildings. According to the developer's attorney, some of the buildings sit within 20 feet of Town Lake. I walked the property myself today. Twenty feet is conservative; the buildings in places sit within a couple car lengths of the lake's banks. In fact, at one point I found myself standing on a parking lot just four feet from the banks. There was not enough room between that parking lot and the banks for a trail, even if there were any money to build it. The shore behind the complex is so narrow and cramped it is off-limits to the public for all practical purposes.
So though the developer is asking for a nominal variance from the 150-foot setback requirement, what it's really proposing is to move all development 60 feet farther inland. This stretch of Town Lake will have a bigger buffer. And it will be truly accessible to the public, who will be able to enjoy it from the new hike-and-bike trail.
While I admit I don't know the financial details, I don't see how this project will be feasible without the variance. The property consists of two irregularly shaped parcels. Most of the western parcel is within 150 feet of the shore, as is a large chunk of the eastern parcel. I doubt a project of this scale can be done on just the sliver of remaining land.
I suspect the neighborhood groups have sized things up the same way, that no variance means no high rises. But then they must also undertand that without the high rises, the old complex stays. And if the old complex stays, this stretch of Town Lake will have no buffer, making a hike-and-bike trail or public access impossible. The neighborhood groups, in other words, are perfectly willing to sacrifice these amenties -- which could be enjoyed by the entire city -- just to fight off this development.
Something is certainly "sacrosanct"; that something's just not Town Lake.
