Hello all – since I lurk here enough I figured I'd just open an account and try to add directly to the great conversation here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hill Country
Sticking with a 12:1 FAR (at least for now) is disappointing. Had they not announced such an ambitious project in the beginning and shown a rendering for buildings with a 12:1 FAR we'd probably still be happy.
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Anyway, I wanted to urge some caution about the 12:1 FAR – I'm unsure of all the specifics that will go into developing the Waller Center site. 12:1 is VERY general estimate about other downtown standards, and as I say, it's unclear how tall this building will be. Really, what I have firmly is that the developer wasn't aiming for the tallest building in Austin mark at this point.
The closest I've got to specifics on allowable height for this project is an old city ordinance NO. 001214-102, passed on a Dec. 2000 meeting and provided to me by the city.
Here's the agenda it passed on:
http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=58030
If you guys are interested I can try to figure out how to host the PDF of the ordinance itself.
The ordinance shows a maximum FAR of 10:1. But with the all the complexity introduced by downtown density bonus program standards for FAR increases and the vagueness about exactly how the lots would work for this project, I really didn't feel conformable reporting a 10:1 FAR. I'm unclear on – I think a lot of people are – exactly how the DDBP will interact with the existing city code. I'm also unsure if it applies to this project at all, or if that ordinance covers even the entire project's area. I'd love to hear any information you all might have on this subject.
Given how uncertain I was about height, I provided the 12:1 benchmark that I understand to be the standard free FAR for most development downtown under DDBP. But that's all that figure is – a benchmark.
Hopefully, we'll have more specifics as the site plan firms up. My impression from speaking with developers here is that the site plan will actually firm up, but that's only instinct at this point.