Shilli points us to Council's impending vote to exclude virtually all of West Campus from the VMU district. The area at issue actually includes much more than West Campus -- it's the area bounded by MLK, Lamar, I-35 and 45th. This is Austin's central core, the area where VMU is most appropriate.
Here are the grim statistics:
The VMU Overlay District in the Central Austin Combined Neighborhood Planning Area includes 57.95 acres. The Council will exclude 49.1 acres -- 85% of the total acreage.
Of the remaining few acres, it will opt 5.55 acres out of the parking reduction incentive and 3.30 acres out of all of the relaxed dimensional standards.
It will opt in 7.58 acres, but, again, will opt them out of either parking or dimensional incentives or both.
Thus, none of the tracts in Austin's central core will be eligible for the full set of VMU incentives.
Here's the map of the West Campus/Medical Center area. Note that the neighborhood wants to exempt Guadalupe, including the segment through the heart of campus. It simply decided it didn't want to play, bargain be damned.
Guadalupe illustrates a point I've tried to make before: Some of our corridors are too important, and serve too many city residents (or students), to be delegated to a single, parochial neighborhood. City Council has no business giving CANPAC control over Guadalupe through UT's campus. That's no more CANPAC's concern than the university's, its students, or the rest of ours, for that matter.
Needless to say, by drawing out its VMU application for two and a half years, CANPAC has managed to bring it up for vote when city council members -- McCracken and Leffingwell, in particular -- are jockeying for votes. But this is an utter capitulation by Council. VMU was Brewster's baby. He's thrown up his hands, sunk to his knees, and begged ANC for mercy. I figured Brewster would understand that the ANC types won't be voting for him anyway; he might as well take a stand to defend his legacy. Martinez and Wynn have nothing to lose, either -- Martinez is unopposed and Wynn's not running for reelection. They've both supported VMU in the past and should stick to their principles. Who knows, they might be able to sway one other Council member.
PS: M1EK reminds me that the University Neighborhood Overlay already loosens restrictions along Guadalupe between UT and West Campus, and along a segment of MLK. The UNO already provides the benefits of VMU. City Council's action therefore will not impact this part of town.
The UNO does not control the east side of Guadalupe, Guadalupe north of 30th street, 38th Street, or Lamar. Here CANPAC's opt-out has real bite. Council did not tolerate such wholesale opt-outs south of Town Lake, even from Zilker.
See the posts below for VMU's tortured course since it was approved in August 2006:
- Apartment Complex Mentality (Aug. 27, 2008)
- Council caves to Allandale (June 23, 2008)
- VMU on South Lamar (June 25, 2008)
- Props to Council (March 18, 2008)
- VMU at City Council: This is very encouraging (Feb. 1, 2008)
- VMU: Time for City Council to enforce the bargain (Jan. 31, 2008)
- Vertical Mixed Use: Not everyone is a grown up (Dec. 3, 2007)
- Vertical Mixed use: The grown-ups go first (Nov. 30, 2007)
- A VMU primer (Nov. 30, 2007)
- Breaking the VMU bargain (Feb. 14, 2007)
