18 C20-2026-003 - Amendments Related to Transit System Projects - Draft Ordinance — original pdf

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PART 1. On March 9, 2000, City Council adopted Ordinance No. 000309-114 to designate a future rail corridor consisting of the Fourth Street right-of-way between Interstate 35 and Rio Grande Street, and West Third Street right-of-way from Shoal Creek to North Lamar Boulevard. The rail itself was not approved. This ordinance repeals Ordinance No. 000309-114. PART 2. On November 15, 2022, City Council adopted Ordinance No. 20221115-048 (the “Original Ordinance”), approving the Transit System Project Regulations to facilitate the construction of Project Connect, the City’s high-capacity transit system expansion. PART 3. The attached exhibits are incorporated into this ordinance in their entirety as though set fully in the text of this ordinance. The exhibits are as follows: Exhibit A and A-1: Transit System Project Map Exhibit C: Preliminary Water Quality Treatment Map PART 4. This ordinance and the attached exhibits amend the Original Ordinance as amended for the Transit System Project Regulations, modifying conditions and replacing any likewise named or identified exhibits in the Original Ordinance as amended. Development of and uses for the Transit System Project shall conform to the limitations and conditions set forth in this ordinance and in the attached exhibits. If this ordinance and the attached exhibits conflict, this ordinance controls. Except as otherwise specifically provided by this ordinance, all other rules, regulations and ordinances of the City of Austin (“City”) apply to a Transit System Project. PART 5. Definitions. (A) Austin Light Rail means the light rail system generally depicted on Exhibit A-1 with any related appurtenances funded by a public entity. (B) Offsite Treatment Area may include adjacent rights-of-way and single-family subdivisions. (C) Unless otherwise specifically defined, all terms in this ordinance shall have the meaning established in City Code Title 25 (Land Development). 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Draft 4/24/2026 Page 1 of 7 COA Law Department WORKING DRAFT. SUBJECT TO CHANGE.18 C20-2026-003 - Amendments Related to Transit System Projects1 of 741 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 PART 6. Code Modifications. The following code modifications apply to development of the Austin Light Rail. (A) General Requirements and Procedures (1) City Code Section 25-1-21(108) (Definitions, Site) is modified to provide that a site may be a noncontiguous area and may cross a public street or right-of-way. (2) The Director of Austin Development Services may allow development to be reviewed and approved in multiple layers within one overall site plan. (B) Transportation (1) City Code Section 25-6-171 (Standards for Design and Construction) is modified to allow Project Connect Design Criteria to supersede any conflicting requirements in Chapter 25-6 (Transportation), subject to final approval by the City Traffic Engineer or Director of Austin Transportation and Public Works. (2) Notwithstanding any provision in Title 25 (Land Development) excluding Chapter 25-2 (Zoning), the planting of street trees in the right-of-way shall follow the criteria of this subsection. (a) Street trees planted in the right-of-way that have a root barrier placed between the street tree and the street curb may have a horizontal clearance, measured from the outer edge of the root barrier to the outer edge of an existing storm drain that runs parallel to the light rail alignment, of: (i) five feet; or (ii) three feet if the sum of the minimum required widths for the utility review zone, separation distances for underground utilities, and required tree planting zones exceeds the available right-of-way width. (b) Street trees are prohibited from being planted in a location where the location and vegetation planting height negatively impacts the visibility of traffic control devices or the sight distance visibility at intersections as determined by the City Traffic Engineer. Draft 4/24/2026 Page 2 of 7 COA Law Department WORKING DRAFT. SUBJECT TO CHANGE.18 C20-2026-003 - Amendments Related to Transit System Projects2 of 7 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 (C) Environmental. (1) Site plans for the Austin Light Rail may demonstrate compliance with Section 25-8-211 (Water Quality Control Requirement) under this subsection. (a) Once the total amount of new and redeveloped impervious cover within the area of a site plan exceeds 8,000 square feet cumulatively, water quality treatment will be required before a site plan layer may be approved. This includes impervious cover that was constructed under a previously approved site plan layer. (b) The first site plan layer that requires water quality treatment under subsection (a) must include a Water Quality Treatment Plan for the Austin Light Rail that is reviewed and approved by the Director of Austin Watershed Protection. The Water Quality Treatment Plan shall include, at a minimum, the following information: (i) a water quality treatment map; (ii) impervious cover exhibits and calculations; (iii) calculations for proposed off-site treatment areas and any amount of proposed payment in lieu; and (iv) a water quality tracking table. (c) Subsequent site plan layers must include any updates or changes to the Water Quality Treatment Plan for the Austin Light Rail. These updates or changes are required to be reviewed and approved by the Director of Austin Watershed Protection Department. (d) Site plans may demonstrate compliance with water quality treatment requirements across multiple watersheds. (e) The “Preliminary Water Quality Treatment Map” attached as “Exhibit C” generally describes the location and number of proposed water quality control ponds. The Director of Austin Watershed Protection may amend the exact locations and number of ponds as applications are submitted. Draft 4/24/2026 Page 3 of 7 COA Law Department WORKING DRAFT. SUBJECT TO CHANGE.18 C20-2026-003 - Amendments Related to Transit System Projects3 of 7 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 (f) The Director of Austin Watershed Protection may allow payment instead of construction of water quality controls. The amount of payment required is based on a formula in Appendix U of the Environmental Criteria Manual. Any payment collected shall be deposited in the Urban Watersheds Structural Control Fund or the Suburban and Water Supply Structural Control Fund based on the watershed designation in the site plan area. (g) The Director of Austin Watershed Protection may allow an off-site treatment area to demonstrate compliance with water quality requirements if the off-site treatment area is: (i) treated by a permitted or constructed water quality control regarding or related to Austin Light Rail; and (ii) not used to demonstrate compliance for another site plan. (h) The Director of Austin Watershed Protection may agree to reimburse a public entity constructing the Austin Light Rail for any water quality treatment provided that exceeds regulatory requirements for development approval. (2) City Code Section 25-8-604 (Development Application Requirements) is modified to allow the use of tree surveys up to 10 years from date of survey to align with the extended site plan, applying agreed-upon proxy growth rates accordingly if the survey is certified by a registered professional land surveyor in the State of Texas and conducted in accordance with the most current land surveying practice pertaining to topographic, easements, and boundary surveys. (3) City Code Section 25-8-604 (Development Application Requirements) is further modified to allow site plans that include parkland that has received City Council approval for a permanent change of use for non-park purposes, the tree survey will follow the standards outlined in Section 3 (Tree and Natural Area Preservation). (4) City Code Section 25-8-643 (Land Use Commission Variance) is modified to grant the City Arborist the administrative authority to consider and approve removal of a heritage tree that has at least one stem that is 30 inches or larger in diameter measured four and one-half feet above natural grade based on criteria in City Code Sections 25-8-642 and 25-8-643. Draft 4/24/2026 Page 4 of 7 COA Law Department WORKING DRAFT. SUBJECT TO CHANGE.18 C20-2026-003 - Amendments Related to Transit System Projects4 of 7 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 (D) Drainage. (1) Notwithstanding any provision in Title 25 (Land Development), excluding Chapter 25-2 (Zoning), streets that have a light rail guideway and no more than a single vehicular lane, in each direction and are unable to accommodate a minimum clear width of 12 feet in each direction during the 25-year storm shall have the flow of water that meets the requirements in this subsection. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), the flow of water shall meet the following requirements: (i) be contained below the top of the curb; and (ii) maintain a minimum clear width of three feet in each vehicular lane. (b) If a minimum clear width of three feet cannot be achieved as determined by the Director of Austin Watershed Protection, then a clear width of zero feet is permissible if the vehicular lane cross slope is a minimum of 1.5% and the gutter flow depth does not exceed four inches. (2) Vertical utility stacking within a common open-cut trench or excavation is allowed if the lower utility is installed by tunneling, boring, or another trenchless method that does not create overlapping embedment or excavation zones and is not intended to be accessed by open trench in the future. (3) Section 25-7-64 (Design and Construction of Facilities and Improvements) is modified to allow a reduced minimum horizontal separation of three feet between Austin Watershed Protection infrastructure and all other non- Austin Watershed Protection infrastructure if: (a) (b) the storm drains have diameters of 42 inches or less and depths of no greater than nine feet as measured from ground to bottom of pipe; the Director of Austin Watershed Protection has approved the type of backfill or flowable fill used; Draft 4/24/2026 Page 5 of 7 COA Law Department WORKING DRAFT. SUBJECT TO CHANGE.18 C20-2026-003 - Amendments Related to Transit System Projects5 of 7 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 (c) (d) any pipe embedment complies with Standard Specification 510, unless otherwise approved by the Director of Austin Watershed Protection; the storm drain pipe joints are watertight and designed to withstand a minimum hydrostatic head of 25 feet (10.8 psi) without leakage per ASTM C443 when the storm drain is located adjacent to pressurized utilities; and (e) the design of the storm drains does not include any of the design elements described in paragraph (4) below. (4) A reduced minimum horizontal separation authorized under paragraph (3) is prohibited if the design includes one or more of the following design elements: (a) trenches encountering groundwater conditions; (b) (c) excavations that encroach into the embedment zone of adjacent existing utilities; or installations adjacent to structures, building foundations, storm inlet boxes, traffic signal pedestals, light rail platforms, and retaining walls. (E) Utility Services. (1) Notwithstanding any provision in Title 25 (Land Development) excluding Chapter 25-2 (Zoning), communication conduits may have joint trenching if: (a) (b) the communication conduits are not above an Austin Energy main line duct bank; the communication conduits are constructed with separate manholes and pull boxes from those used by Austin Energy; and (c) the proposed design has been approved by Austin Energy. Draft 4/24/2026 Page 6 of 7 COA Law Department WORKING DRAFT. SUBJECT TO CHANGE.18 C20-2026-003 - Amendments Related to Transit System Projects6 of 7 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 (2) Vertical utility stacking within a common open-cut trench or excavation is allowed if the lower utility is installed by tunneling, boring, or another trenchless method that does not create overlapping embedment or excavation zones and is not intended to be accessed by open trench in the future. (3) Notwithstanding any provision in Title 25 (Land Development) excluding Chapter 25-2 (Zoning), a reduced minimum horizonal separation of three feet from outside edge of pipe to outside edge of pipe between Austin Water infrastructure and all other Austin Water infrastructure is allowed if: (a) the proposed Austin Water pipes have diameters less than 24 inches; (b) (c) (d) any controlled low strength material or Austin Water approved alternate backfill material is used for the Austin Water infrastructure and parallel non-Austin Water infrastructure; any pipe embedment complies with Standard Specification 510 unless otherwise approved by Austin Water; the design meets applicable Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) rules and guidelines or documentation that approved TCEQ exceptions apply; and (e) the design of the water or wastewater pipes does not include any of the design elements described in paragraph (4) below. (4) A reduced minimum horizontal separation authorized under paragraph (3) is prohibited if the design includes one or more of the following design elements: (a) trenches encountering groundwater conditions; (b) (c) excavations that encroach into the embedment zone of adjacent existing utilities; or installations adjacent to structures, building foundations, storm inlet boxes, traffic signal pedestals, light rail platforms, and retaining walls. Draft 4/24/2026 Page 7 of 7 COA Law Department WORKING DRAFT. SUBJECT TO CHANGE.18 C20-2026-003 - Amendments Related to Transit System Projects7 of 7