B-06 (NPA-2021-0009.01 - 1612 E. 7th Street; District 1).pdf — original pdf

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Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN AMENDMENT REVIEW SHEET DATE FILED: July 29, 2021 (In-cycle) NEIGHORHOOD PLAN: Central East Austin CASE#: NPA-20221-0009.01 PROJECT NAME: 1612 East 7th Street PC DATE: January 11, 2022 ADDRESS/ES: 1612 E. 7th Street DISTRICT AREA: 1 SITE AREA: 6,210 sq. ft. OWNER/APPLICANT: 1610 JFH, LLC (John Hernandez) AGENT: Drenner Group, PC (Dave Anderson) CASE MANAGER: Maureen Meredith STAFF EMAIL: Maureen.Meredith@austintexas.gov TYPE OF AMENDMENT: Change in Future Land Use Designation (no proposed change) PHONE: (512) 974-2695 Base District Zoning Change Related Zoning Case: C14-2021-0132 From: Corridor Mixed Use (CMU) Subdistrict (TOD-CMU) To: Mixed Use (MU) Subdistrict (TOD-MU) NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN ADOPTION DATE: December 13, 2001 CITY COUNCIL DATE: To be scheduled PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION: January 11, 2022 - ACTION: 1 From: Specific Regulating District To: Specific Regulating District 1 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 STAFF RECOMMENDATION: To support the applicant’s request for Mixed Use (MU) Subdistrict (TOD-MU). BASIS FOR STAFF’S RECOMMENDATION: The property is within the Central East Austin Neighborhood Plan and the Plaza Saltillo TOD Station Area Plan. The property is a 6,210 square foot lot on the north side of East 7th Street between Comal Street to the west and Concho Street to the east. There is a single-family home on the lot, with vacant land to the north owned by Huston-Tillotson University. To the east is a restaurant across Concho Street. To the south are single family homes, and several commercial buildings. The applicant proposes to build a boutique hotel on the property that will include the three lots directly to the west. The three lots to the west have a Base Maximum Building Height of 60 feet. The applicant’s request for TOD-MU would allow for a Density and Height Bonus to achieve the 60 foot height allowed by right for the properties to the west. Staff supports the applicant’s request for a Base Maximum Building Height of 60 feet to be consistent with three lot to the west and because the property is on E. 7th Street which is an activity corridor and within the Plaza Saltillo Activity Center. Below are sections from the Central East Austin Neighborhood Plan that staff believes supports the request. 2 2 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 LAND USE DESCRIPTIONS EXISTING AND PROPOSED LAND USE ON THE PROPERTY Specific Regulating District - This map designation is intended for areas that have an adopted regulating plan. This district will be identified on the Future Land Use Map, but is not considered a typical land use category. The purpose of this designation is to make the user aware of the Regulating Plan and that it should be reviewed for development regulations. Approved Regulating Plans: 1. Plaza Saltillo TOD Station Area Plan 2. Martin Luther King (MLK) Boulevard TOD Station Area Plan 3. Lamar/Justin TOD Station Area Plan IMAGINE AUSTIN PLANNING PRINCIPLES 1. Create complete neighborhoods across Austin that provide a mix of housing types to suit a variety of household needs and incomes, offer a variety of transportation options, and have easy access to daily needs such as schools, retail, employment, community services, and parks and other recreation options. • The proposed development is a small boutique hotel and not a residential development that will expand housing types, per se. However, it is in an area with numerous businesses and along the E. 7th activity corridor and within the Plaza Saltillo Neighborhood Center as identified on the Imagine Austin Growth Concept Map. 2. Support the development of compact and connected activity centers and corridors that are well-served by public transit and designed to promote walking and bicycling as a way of reducing household expenditures for housing and transportation. • The property is located in an area with numerous businesses and along the E. 7th activity corridor and within the Plaza Saltillo Neighborhood Center as identified on the Imagine Austin Growth Concept Map. 3. Protect neighborhood character by ensuring context-sensitive development and directing more intensive development to activity centers and corridors, redevelopment, and infill sites. • The property is located within the Plaza Saltillo Neighborhood Center and on the E. 7th Street activity corridor as identified in the Imagine Austin Growth Concept Map where this type of development would be supported. 3 3 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 4. Expand the number and variety of housing choices throughout Austin to meet the financial and lifestyle needs of our diverse population. • The proposed development is a boutique hotel. 5. Ensure harmonious transitions between adjacent land uses and development intensities. • The request is to increase the building height from maximum 35 feet to maximum 60 feet, which would be consistent with surrounding properties. 6. Protect Austin’s natural resources and environmental systems by limiting land use and transportation development over environmentally sensitive areas and preserve open space and protect the function of the resource. • The property is not located in an environmentally sensitive area such as the Drinking Water Protection Zone. 7. Integrate and expand green infrastructure—preserves and parks, community gardens, trails, stream corridors, green streets, greenways, and the trails system—into the urban environment and transportation network. • Not applicable because the proposed development is not green space, but is within walking distance to Kealing School Park, College Row Park Park, and Rosewood Neighborhood Park. 8. Protect, preserve and promote historically and culturally significant areas. • To staff’s knowledge there is no historic or cultural significance to this 9. Encourage active and healthy lifestyles by promoting walking and biking, healthy food choices, access to affordable healthcare, and to recreational opportunities. • The property is in a walkable and bikeable area with access to numerous property. businesses. 10. Expand the economic base, create job opportunities, and promote education to support a strong and adaptable workforce. • The proposed hotel could provide a limited number of jobs. 11. Sustain and grow Austin’s live music, festivals, theater, film, digital media, and new creative art forms. • The property is located near downtown and in an area where there is live music and creative businesses that could benefit from this use. 12. Provide public facilities and services that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, decrease water and energy usage, increase waste diversion, ensure the health and safety of the public, and support compact, connected, and complete communities. • Not applicable. 4 4 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 Proximity to Imagine Austin Activity Corridor and Activity Center 5 5 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 Proximity to Park Facilities 6 6 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 Proximity to Public Transporation 7 7 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 IMAGINE AUSTIN GROWTH CONCEPT MAP Definitions Neighborhood Centers - The smallest and least intense of the three mixed-use centers are neighborhood centers. As with the regional and town centers, neighborhood centers are walkable, bikable, and supported by transit. The greatest density of people and activities in neighborhood centers will likely be concentrated on several blocks or around one or two intersections. However, depending on localized conditions, different neighborhood centers can be very different places. If a neighborhood center is designated on an existing commercial area, such as a shopping center or mall, it could represent redevelopment or the addition of housing. A new neighborhood center may be focused on a dense, mixed-use core surrounded by a mix of housing. In other instances, new or redevelopment may occur incrementally and concentrate people and activities along several blocks or around one or two intersections. Neighborhood centers will be more locally focused than either a regional 8 8 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 or a town center. Businesses and services—grocery and department stores, doctors and dentists, shops, branch libraries, dry cleaners, hair salons, schools, restaurants, and other small and local businesses—will generally serve the center and surrounding neighborhoods. Town Centers - Although less intense than regional centers, town centers are also where many people will live and work. Town centers will have large and small employers, although fewer than in regional centers. These employers will have regional customer and employee bases, and provide goods and services for the center as well as the surrounding areas. The buildings found in a town center will range in size from one-to three-story houses, duplexes, townhouses, and rowhouses, to low-to midrise apartments, mixed use buildings, and office buildings. These centers will also be important hubs in the transit system. Job Centers - Job centers accommodate those businesses not well-suited for residential or environmentally- sensitive areas. These centers take advantage of existing transportation infrastructure such as arterial roadways, freeways, or the Austin-Bergstrom International airport. Job centers will mostly contain office parks, manufacturing, warehouses, logistics, and other businesses with similar demands and operating characteristics. They should nevertheless become more pedestrian and bicycle friendly, in part by better accommodating services for the people who work in those centers. While many of these centers are currently best served by car, the growth Concept map offers transportation choices such as light rail and bus rapid transit to increase commuter options. Corridors - Activity corridors have a dual nature. They are the connections that link activity centers and other key destinations to one another and allow people to travel throughout the city and region by bicycle, transit, or automobile. Corridors are also characterized by a variety of activities and types of buildings located along the roadway — shopping, restaurants and cafés, parks, schools, single-family houses, apartments, public buildings, houses of worship, mixed-use buildings, and offices. Along many corridors, there will be both large and small redevelopment sites. These redevelopment opportunities may be continuous along stretches of the corridor. There may also be a series of small neighborhood centers, connected by the roadway. Other corridors may have fewer redevelopment opportunities, but already have a mixture of uses, and could provide critical transportation connections. As a corridor evolves, sites that do not redevelop may transition from one use to another, such as a service station becoming a restaurant or a large retail space being divided into several storefronts. To improve mobility along an activity corridor, new and redevelopment should reduce per capita car use and increase walking, bicycling, and transit use. Intensity of land use should correspond to the availability of quality transit, public space, and walkable destinations. Site design should use building arrangement and open space to reduce walking distance to transit and destinations, achieve safety and comfort, and draw people outdoors. BACKGROUND: The application was filed on July 29, 2021 which is in-cycle for neighborhood planning areas located on the east side of I.H.-35. 9 9 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 The property is within the Central East Austin Neighborhood Planning area and the Plaza Saltillo TOD Station Area Plan and the Plaza Saltillo TOD Regulating Plan. The existing land use on the future land use map is Specific Regulating District. There is no proposed change to the future land use map. The applicant proposes to the Land Use Plan in the Plaza Saltillo Station Area Plan and Regulating Plan from Corridor Mixed Use (CMU) Subdistrict (TOD-CMU) to Mixed Use (MU) Subdistrict (TOD-MU) to be able to apply for a Density and Height Bonus to achieve the 60 foot height allowed by right for the adjacent properties. Because the property is within a neighborhood planning area, the Land Development Code requires that changes to a TOD go through the neighborhood plan amendment process. 25-2-766.23 AMENDMENTS TO STATION AREA PLAN. (A) Council may, by zoning ordinance, amend a station area plan at any time. (B) Amendments to a station area plan may be proposed by land owners not more than once each calendar year for each property owned. (C) For a station area plan that is within an adopted neighborhood plan area, an amendment to the station area plan must be reviewed and approved in accordance with the neighborhood plan amendment process established by council. For more information on the proposed zoning, please the associated zoning report C14-2021- 0132. PUBLIC MEETINGS: The ordinance-required community meeting was virtually held on September 9, 2021. The recorded meeting can be found at https://www.speakupaustin.org/npa. Approximately 941 meeting notices were mailed to people who rent or own property within 500 feet of the subject tract. Two staff members attended the meeting, Maureen Meredith and Jesse Gutierrez. Dave Anderson and Aneil Naik from Drenner Group, the applicant’s agents attended, in addition to Tyler Boykin, Keith Buchanan and Luke Thompson who were there to answer engineering, transportation and general development questions. Three people from the neighborhood attended. After staff gave a brief presentation outlining the applicant’s request, Dave Anderson from Drenner Group made the following presentation. His full presentation is provided near the end of this report. The presentation has been updated since the September 9, 2021 community meeting to provide updated information. Here’s a summary of Dave Anderson’s presentation: • The request is to change the zoning on the property from Corridor Mixed Use (CMU) to TOD-MU. • Proposed five-story boutique hotel with 132 keys and 89 parking spaces. • The current maximum height is 35 feet. • Property is on a TOD Core Transit Corridor 10 10 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 • Site is 0.523 acres (22,806 sq. ft.) • Property is currently zoned TOD-Corridor Mixed Use • Property is within ¼ mile of Saltillo Plaza Transit Station • The proposed hotel will sit on four tracts – 3 of which already have 60 ft. height by • The adjacent lot to the west will preserve a Heritage Tree, which will significantly right reduce the developable area. • The 60-foot height limit is consistent with the three tracts immediately to the west, two tracts across Concho Street to the east and the majority of the tracts across E. 7th Street to the south. • The tracts to the north are vacant and have a maximum height of 60 feet. • We would like the opportunity to apply for a height bonus for only this one lot to achieve the 60-foot height. To do that, we would need to pay into the Housing Trust Fund, fee-in-lieu to achieve the height bonus. • Applicant is investigating a potential partnership with Huston-Tillotson University for a hospitality/internship program. A Memorandum of Understanding has been sent to them for consideration. [Note: This information was removed from the updated presentation provided by the applicant on December 27, 2021] After his presentation, the following questions were asked. Q: To create a change of zoning or to add height there's has to be community benefits and I'd like to know what those are. For example, bike shower facilities at the hotel for the community to use, or a place for children to play. These are benefits that are not required, but you are giving to the community. A: The preservation of the Heritage Tree would be one benefit. Another benefit would be the bike and pedestrian facilities that will be provided along the right-of-way along East 7th Street. There would be a five-foot clear zone for pedestrian access between the building and the curb and a furniture zone for benches and bike rack, for example, and tree zone and then a bike lane running parallel to the street. But also, meetings like this is an opportunity for us to hear ideas from the community. However, what the Regulating Plan says, for a community benefit if you want 60 feet of height is to pay $12 a square foot for this bonus area to the Housing Assistance Fund. Q: How much money will be in the Housing Assistance Fund? A: I’m still working to get this final number. I don’t have it at this time. Q: What is the square foot amount for the bonus area? A: It’s not straightforward, but it would be on the bonus area. I’ve been working with staff on this amount, and I don’t know the final number. It’s complicated. Q: Will there be a restaurant and/or bar in the hotel? A: I believe there will be, but I don’t know the type or the size. Q: Will there be amplified sound and outside events? 11 11 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 A: We intend to have lobby bar and with programming, but it is still up in the air. As far as events, the area has limited outdoor area. I don’t see there being events or concerts there. Q: One concern is the precedent this would set. If it happens here, developers will want to develop the rest of north of E. 7th Street like. Would you have interest in Restrictive Covenant (RC) to maximum height to 60 feet? A: We would be interested in a private RC because we understand where you’re coming from. Q: Do you get a break on car parking if you provide bike facilities? A: Yes, to a point. The parking will have to be below-grade, so parking will be expensive. There will be no on-street parking and we don’t want overflow parking in the neighborhood. We will take advantage of parking reductions that we can. Q: What is the type of hotel? Price of rooms in season and out of season? A: We’re at the beginning of this process and we don’t know the specifics at this time. Compared to upper-price scale hotels that are on the east side, we would be upper mid-scale in pricing. It won’t be a budget hotel. Q: Will there be parking meters on the north side of E. 7th Street? A: No, we won’t do that. The City charges for parking meters. We must provide parking on our property. Q: Is John Hernandez the owner of the development or is this a scenario that if the zoning change happen the lot is sold to someone else? There’s a pride in ownership when the property owner is local. A: John Hernandez is the owner and will be a partner in the vertical development. We’ve been working with John on this property for a couple years now. It’s his option to be a partner in the project. We are all local people working on this project. It’s the local people who own and work on this these projects that make them cool. Comment: • The driving force of development in this area is gentrification. Let’s just call it what it is. We are losing our culture, our families, and our character and we’re losing our way of life in this area. My goal is to figure out an avenue so people who live here can still enjoy their neighborhood. 12 12 of 36B-6Applicant Summary Letter from Application Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 13 13 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 14 14 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 Letter of Recommendation from the Neighborhood Plan Contact Team (NPCT) (No letter as of January 4, 2022) 15 15 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 Site 16 16 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 17 17 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 18 18 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 19 19 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 20 20 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 21 1612 E. 7th Street – Subject Property 21 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 View east on E. 7th Street View south on E. 7th Street 22 22 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 View west on E. 7th Street View on the west side of the property Site 23 23 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 Applicant’s Presentation at Sept. 9, 2021 Community Meeting (Updated December 27, 2021) 24 24 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 25 25 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 26 26 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 27 27 of 36B-6 Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 28 28 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 29 29 of 36B-6 Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 30 30 of 36B-6 Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 31 31 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 32 32 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 33 33 of 36B-6 Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 34 34 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 35 35 of 36B-6Planning Commission: January 11, 2022 36 36 of 36B-6