Austin eyes new approach to planning along Airport Boulevard

For some time, residents living near Airport Boulevard between the I-35 interchange and Lamar Boulevard have been calling for denser development. According to city officials, one development option for the corridor is a building code enshrining process known as “form-based code.” If completed, such a redesign could result in a much different feel for the area.

 

The advent of a form-based code may come down to whether city officials can scare up between $400,000 and $700,000. Those funds would be used to hire a consultant to assist the city in a pilot effort along two-and-a-half miles of Airport.

 

Jim Robertson of Austin’s Planning and Development Review Department told a City Council committee this week that Airport Boulevard could benefit from a form-based code approach. Still, he cautioned the committee that the use of a new planning strategy, however suited to the situation, would not guarantee that development would appear.

 

“It probably would be overreaching to think that you could simply do a form-based code and magically redevelopment would occur,” he said. “(It would probably) require the presence of a form-based code as well as maybe some strategic public investments along the corridor.”

 

Form-based code is a holistic approach to urban planning. According to officials, that type of modeling looks at the interrelationship of structures and spaces in a given place. Robertson told the Council’s Comprehensive Planning Committee that the practice “has tools in it that actually begin to identify the built form of development that could occur in an area.”

 

“Form-based codes also typically identify improvements to the public realm … kind of looking at the entire public realm as one cohesive whole.”

 

Robertson further added that the practice “tends to look at physical form rather than use.” As the name indicates, the planning that results from this approach eventually leads to formal building regulations.

 

As opposed to the current, segmented zone-mapping approach, this sort of planning allows for a more dynamic view of future development. Because form-based code writing would represent something of a shift for Austin’s planning department, officials insist that the city would need to hire an outside consulting firm to assist in that effort.

 

Budget Officer Ed Van Eenoo told the committee that the financing for that consultant would have to come from Austin’s General Fund. In the midst of a continuing budget crunch, Council might consider phasing the project. Other funding options include grants or city bonds.

 

Council members expect to receive a memo detailing their funding options sometime soon.

 

At the hearing, Council Member Chris Riley told his colleagues that this section of Airport Boulevard had been singled out for the project because there has been “a lot of neighborhood interest in seeing … a lot of mixed-use and density (development).” He specifically cited the Highland and North Loop neighborhood plans.

 

“On top of that we now have a rail line — an active rail line — running down the whole corridor. It’s also a very important bus corridor,” Riley added. “So it really is a core transit corridor in every sense.”

 

He also noted that there was resident interest in building bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly improvements around the rail stations and the creation of a space that would be generally more walkable.

 

“I spoke to the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association about this, and I was amazed at how many folks … living in Hyde Park actually walk to business along the Airport corridor. And the one reason they don’t do this more often is that they have to cross this chasm,” he said.

 

Riley further suggested that the Airport corridor refit could result in a regional vibe that echoes the very successful rebuild of the South Congress Street area. “There are really a surprising number of small, local businesses that have managed to take hold over in this area. So the corridor really is actually very well positioned to become a place that reflects a lot of local character in much the same way that South Congress does now,” he said.

 

“Except that the one thing it lacks is that pedestrian streetscape. … So there’s a huge potential for creating a place that is authentically Austin.”

 

Even so, just how the project might be funded remains in question. Council Member and committee Chair Sheryl Cole said that she and her colleagues would continue to brainstorm about funding solutions.

 

“I’m thinking that we may do a little bit more thinking among us and visit with the city manager,” she said. “I’m thinking that Council Member Riley, or both of us, or some combination of us, will get back with (city staff).”