An illustration of potential new building heights in the South Central Waterfront area. Image: Stephanie Bower / City of Austin
In 2016, the City of Austin adopted a planning framework envisioning a more urban and connected development pattern for the roughly 118-acre collection of adjacent properties directly south of the river from downtown, a district freshly dubbed the South Central Waterfront. The South Central Waterfront Vision Framework Plan — you know, the S.C.W.V.F.P. we all know and love! — was the blueprint, as they say, but after eight years and a handful of new developments in the region the city still hasn’t officially adopted the district’s regulating plan, which would finally codify the basic requirements for new projects opting into the planning framework. (As implied by the name, the 2016 Vision Framework Plan was more of a vibes-based design document, whereas a regulating plan would presumably, you know…)
An older illustration of the SCW planning area and its development potential. Image: Asakura Robinson / City of Austin
But after spinning its wheels for the better part of a decade, there’s a renewed sense of urgency around getting the South Central Waterfront’s development regulations implemented, and that’s got everything to do with the pending light rail lines set to be constructed through this area as part of Project Connect — to secure federal grant funding for mass transit, the city must demonstrate efforts to unlock dense, transit-oriented housing and commercial land use near the rail line’s stations, easier said than done in a city so historically captured by the interests of suburban NIMBYism.
Since the prospect of a full land development code rewrite doesn’t appear to be on the table at the moment, allowing any sort of meaningful urban life in key regions of the central city requires an all-hands approach, with citywide tweaks like the HOME Initiative and the axing of parking mandates joining more specific regional injections of density including the Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Overlay allowing taller buildings within a half-mile of Project Connect’s pending light rail stations.
A view of new tracts being added to the SCW planning area, and how they interact with Project Connect’s planned light rail lines through the region. Image: City of Austin
The city’s latest push in this direction now turns its attention to the long-neglected South Central Waterfront, with plans kicking off this spring for the creation of both a Combining District and Density Bonus Program for the region — in short, we’re talking about an optional set of regulations that allow developers to build larger projects if they choose to opt in, just like the Downtown Density Bonus Program established in 2014 and utilized by nearly every new tower downtown. The carrot and stick setup of these density bonus programs exchanges relaxed height limits for required community benefits like affordable housing, pedestrian-friendly urban design, and environmental protection measures — when these programs are properly aligned with market incentives, the result is ultimately bigger, but better buildings.
New floor area ratio limits planned under the South Central Waterfront’s new density bonus program. Image: City of Austin
The current plan for the program drafted by the city’s Planning Department would allow buildings to reach a maximum floor area ratio of 24 to 1 near the waterfront, which could enable downtown-style building heights of 50 floors or more throughout much of the region. The plan includes a gatekeeper requirement for five percent of residential units developed under the density bonus to be affordable at 60 percent of the Median Family Income for rentals, or 80 percent for condo ownership — once the district is fully built out, the city estimates this program would create approximately 481 fully subsidized affordable housing units in the planning area. The program also reinvests fees paid by developers as part of the density bonus process into affordable housing, park space, and infrastructure upgrades within the South Central Waterfront.
A breakdown of the fee structure and requirements for the potential South Central Waterfront Density Bonus Program now in review with the City of Austin’s Planning Department. Image: City of Austin
With the Planning Department set to present these potential changes to a number of city commissions this week and now seeking community feedback on the future of the district, it appears we’re suddenly going to start hearing a whole lot more about the South Central Waterfront. A lot can change after eight years in Austin, coincidentally the same stretch of time I’ve been writing on this blog, and there is no better example of how our standards of height and density have changed during that period than the images of potential growth here provided by the city itself. I’ll prove it to you — in 2016, the city hired illustrator Stephanie Bower to sketch a fully built-out view of the district for the vision plan, and it’s a drawing you’ve probably seen a few times:
Image: Stephanie Bower / City of Austin
In this week’s presentation from the Planning Department, you’ll now find an updated version of that same drawing, featuring new goodies like Project Connect’s planned rail bridge and some pretty eye-popping tower height on the waterfront:
Image: Stephanie Bower / City of Austin
Like we said a year ago about the development planned for this part of town, it’s important to consider the possibility that height can indeed solve all your problems. Based on the drawing above, we were only half joking. Anyway, go fill out the survey and tell them what we told them — “I’ll take all of that you got!”
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