open letter to the city council

This Thursday, the Austin City Council will vote on whether to approve a change in zoning for the Spring Condominiums at 3rd and Bowie. This blatant display of favoritism and developer welfare has moved me to a rare public statement of protest. I sent the following letter to the Mayor and Council members. You can voice your opinion (on this or any subject) here.

Honorable Mayor and Council members,

I wish to voice my extreme disapproval of the Spring project, and encourage you not to subject Austin to such a poorly-conceived and inappropriate response to the important issues of growth and densification.

Briefly, my concerns are this:

* The Spring is an inequitable project. Granting a massive windfall to one development group is patently unfair to every other group who attempts to develop projects in the DMU, or under any other zoning for that matter. It is also unfair to local residents who have made personal and financial decisions about living in the area based on the presumed zoning limitations of nearby structures.

* The Spring is a misdirected application of density. While it does add residential options to a (relatively) central location, it creates an island of density surrounded by neighborhoods, parks, and low-density businesses. The city should be emphasizing such developments in areas that offer the greatest promise and synergy with density: the CBD. The Spring is essentially a "mini-sprawl" development that hinders rather than helps develop a concentrated living area around shopping, public transportation, and services.

* The Spring subverts the entire planning process. Planting a skyscraper in the middle of the DMU promotes confusion by sending the message that zoning doesn't matter. Requests for DMU zoning are bound to crop up in the surrounding areas in the hopes that each one will be next to win the skyscraper lottery.

* The benefits of the Spring can be better derived from better projects. Density, affordability, taxable revenue: all these claims are tangential to the project. There is plenty of land that is already zoned for equal or greater density in the CBD. It is unclear how affordable the Spring will be for how many locals, but the city has other avenues to create truly affordable housing (if it chooses). And while the Spring land value would certainly be increased by this decision, will the revenues offset the increase in congestion, infrastructure and services created from its existence?

* The Spring is ... well ... ugly. Austin's skyline is defined by the Capitol and the UT Tower. We can take pride in a city that grows up and evolves around these landmarks. But now we're looking at the prospect of a bare skyscraper with no visually comparable buildings nearby, sullying the lakefront no less. This is an eyesore and a joke waiting to happen, and I am saddened that I might have to look at this every time I run along Town Lake or walk downtown (which is often).

I will be present Thursday to speak against this project, and hope that you hear the valid concerns that myself and other constituents bring forth.

Respectfully,
waePoint