B-01 Late Backup.pdf — original pdf

Backup

June 14, 2021 Zoning and Platting Commission City of Austin RE: Letter of Opposition to Item B-3, 11705 Research Blvd.; Rezoning Case C14-2020-0146 Dear Commissioners: We are opposed to the rezoning of 11705 Research Boulevard until there is a plan to solve the serious traffic congestion and safety issues on the adjacent portion of the US Highway 183 NB service road. The headquarters of our organization, the Texas Association of School Boards, Inc. (TASB), is located just 0.3 miles northbound from the subject property, adjacent to the same service road. Our employees, tenants, and visitors already have a difficult time safely entering and exiting the parking lot with the high traffic volumes and crossing three lanes of traffic to get onto the on-ramp for the highway, and this situation will worsen if the proposed rezoning were approved. In 1990, the City Council approved the rezoning of the property to LI-CO, with conditions that reflected traffic concerns at that time. Now, nearly 30 years later, those concerns are substantially worse, and yet the applicant is requesting to lift much of the conditional overlay even though the population of the metropolitan area has increased from 846,227 in 1990 to 2,295,303 as of 2020. To summarize our concerns: 1. The General Warehousing and Distribution, Equipment Sales, and Equipment Repair Services uses should be prohibited on the entire property, since these uses would likely increase the volume of large trucks on the frontage road. 2. The projected traffic from the redevelopment of the larger overall 3M property is 16,136 trips per day. Because the property is just one portion of the overall 3M property, a decision on the proposed rezoning should consider the impact of the redevelopment of the entire 3M property, and there should be increased protections against traffic issues—not fewer. 3. The conditional overlay setting a maximum height of 40 feet should remain in place; otherwise there could be a more intensive development, which would further exacerbate the traffic issues. 4. We have seen no plan that would actually address the traffic issues, and the rezoning should be denied until there is a proven solution that is required to be implemented. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, James. B. Crow Executive Director