City Council tentatively approved height limits for Lady Bird Lake Thursday night. Very tentatively: it approved the ordinance on first reading only, required courtesy notice to all affected property owners before second reading, and kept the public hearing open. A couple councilmembers said the ordinance needs more work. The ordinance thus might change significantly before final approval.
Somewhat surprisingly, Council exempted planned unit developments (PUDs) from the ordinance. The Planning Commission had recommended the exemption two nights earlier, but its recommendations seem to have little pull with Council for whatever reason.
PUDs allow the city and developer to customize zoning and other land-use regulations for a specific site. Typically, a developer asks for greater density or height or mixed-uses in return for providing public benefits and giving the city a say in design. Council essentially adopted a "hard" height limit except for projects over which it would retain significant control. It thus left itself the option of incentivizing developments that provide green space or trail access for the public.
There is a lot to dislike about the ordinance on the table. It imposes hard height limits without working out the system of bonus incentives, which are important for developments that won't or can't go through the PUD process. And the height limits in some of the subdistricts are unreasonable.
But this ordinance is better than the alternative pushed by Save Town Lake. A lot better. If you want proof, just consider STL's reaction:
Jeff Jack, a director of Save Town Lake, a citizens activist group formed in 2006 to fight what it sees as overdevelopment along the lake, said the council did not do much to demonstrate its values. He said the limits should be absolute. Dense development, he said, can go elsewhere in town.
"This (council vote) leaves the door open," Jack said. "It doesn't solve our problem."
Since STL seems to care more about limiting height than restoring green space along the trail, its disappointment is reassuring.
