Austin | South Austin Projects
 

Curious what others see happening in '45 in the next several years. (Full disclosure: that's where I live now and the previous house was in '45 too.)

I've always been surprised it's seen so little redevelopment and gentrification. I guess on some level, part of that is that it's so huge it's hard to make generalizations. But Stassney is about as far from 6th and Congress as Highland Mall and even William Cannon is about the same as Crestview from 6th and Congress, yet those areas are treated as 'central' and '45 is the hinterlands...

But I've always thought South Congress would have shifted a bit, but it pretty much looks like it has for years. It does seem on average east of the RR tracks is a little more run down (though there are nice spots and less nice ones all across the zip code).

Also, I would have expected the northern part around Westgate and Manchaca to have gentrified more. There are a few new infill projects but not what I would have expected, especially as close at it is to 78704.

One thing I'd love to see is some of the old dying strip malls to be turned into walkable town centers. I can walk to a fair amount of stuff (and sometimes walk with the kids to Westgate Lanes) but it's mostly not stuff I have any desire or need to go to...

Anyway, just curious what others opinions are.

My grandparents built their house there post-WWII. My grandpa built an addition onto it. Those neighborhoods are mostly medium sized houses with good sized backyards and mature trees. I basically grew up there up to HS as my grandma kept us kids before and after school while our parents worked. The house was on the Philco cul-de-sac, just west of the tracks.

I think it will eventually gentrify a bit. The older generations are unfortunately passing away. The houses get left to the kids and grandkids. They either get sold or renovated. We are in that boat right now. I don't know if it'll ever be all young single couples, which will keep it from being hip. I think it'll remain a family neighborhood. It seems Ben White is as far south as many are willing to go.

Hey Im from and still live in that neighborhood, im on Jinx Ave.

I live in 78745, and it feels more central to me than those northern neighborhoods. The access to downtown from our neighborhood cannot be beat. I can ride my bicycle to downtown in as little as 20 minutes, traffic and weather permitting. I can see Crockett HS from our patio, ACC is a 5 minute bike ride, the library is only 2 minutes further.

Our street has gone through a demographic change. I grew up here with a lot of families with kids. Those kids are grown up now and moved away, and most of the couples here now are middle aged. Most of the older people have passed away. My grandparents lived next door, they both passed away, and there's a young couple there now who renovated the house. And the house across the street from that house, the lady there also passed away a few years ago. It was bought by a house flipper, renovated, and was recently moved into. So right now it seems the bulk of our neighborhood is young to middle aged. The houses are being restored/renovated and added onto. There aren't too many kids anymore. I can think of maybe 2 houses on the street that I know of with young kids.

How old are you?

Did you know a Heather or Lacy? They'd be 29-30 now. I think they lived on that road. Either there or Hank.

Just to be clear - I'm totally OK with it remaining family-oriented, I'm raising my kids here after all. Just would like more stuff to walk to, a neighborhood pub or two, some better restaurant and coffee shop choices, etc.

And I still think some of the stuff that hasn't been redeveloped is surprising, like the really rundown stuff on the west side of Westgate that's literally walking distance to million dollar homes in Sunset Valley.

Redeveloping old strip malls is just one of my pipe dreams to create little bits of walkability in older suburbia...

My cousin lives in the house there now. For food in that neighborhood, she really likes that little place by Randalls called Live Oak Market. It used to be a gas station. She says they have great sandwiches. The other place is the trailer Ah La Cart on Pack Saddle Pass.

I get your point about walkability though. That neighborhood has a ton of potential.

The first house I bought was in '45 and I lived there from '00 to '09. I lived off of Cooper lane between Mathews and W. Cannon.

I really like my street but as a while the area let me down. I was hoping for a faster rate of change but the only retail improvement in almost a decade was the opening of the Newflower grocery store. The area is still dominated by huge 6 lane mini highways like W. Cannon and Slaughter that are not pedestrian or bike friendly at all. My bike ride to work was only 5 miles as the crow flies but over 6 taking the bike routes. I did love the 110 express going north on S. First Street and into Downtown.

Gentrification has occurred but it is a mild form and much more transitional. A lot of the old timers worked at the old Bergstrom base, and are much more redneck (not a bad thing) than the younger generation. One of my best friends in the old neighborhood was an Aggie, something that probably wouldn't happen in Hyde Park. My Aggie friend still can't believe that he has two lesbian couples living close to him so I guess the neighborhood has changed.

The houses in '45 were "family-sized" when built in the 60s and 70s, but right now they are perfect for singles and couples who don't have a lot of stuff and kids and want to live more simply.

I do not regret moving to the Holly neighborhood. Only downsides are all the loose dogs and lack of a good Chinese restaurant..............Your first house should probably never be your last one.

I think gentrification happens in waves in one or two subareas of a city at a time. Right now it is East Riversides turn, but '45 and "LoCo" shouldn't be more than a decade behind.

LoCo?

SoCo = South Congress
LoCo = Lower Congress, the length south of Ben White.

Example: "Yeah I bought a condo near Hill's Cafe in the LoCo area."

Things you'll never hear me say for $100, Alex. :D

West Gate and William Cannon give me the creeps as a cyclist or pedestrian. I pretty much never ride along those streets and try to find an alternate route instead. Way down West Gate it's a nice place to ride for recreation, but I don't ride strictly for recreation. Neither of those have bike lanes in those areas. West Gate does along the new section way down south, but there's so little traffic down there it doesn't matter much. William Cannon doesn't have bike lanes either from I-35 to Mopac. There are bike lanes on it west of Mopac headed towards Oak Hill. South First doesn't have bike lanes either, and one of our grocery stores is on it. When I ride my bike over there, I have to ride on the sidewalk, which I hate doing. And it's difficult when there are pedestrians since it's only about 3 feet wide. And of course there are none on Manchaca either, which is less of an issue because the sidewalks between William Cannon and Stassney on Manchaca are about 8 feet wide.

Meanwhile, they have widened the bike lanes on Stassney, at least putting down a double stripe to create a barrier. Same on Emerald Forrest, and they even put them way out from the curb since parked cars were making it hazardous to ride on that street, especially north of Stassney where it's all down hill.

Yeah, our first house was in Greenwood Hills across from Hill's Seems like some people started moving in and fixing up houses there about 10 years ago, but it has really stalled. We had some great neighbors, but there were enough bad ones that I'm really glad I don't live there any more...

I always avoided the larger roads in '45. It takes awhile but I found backstreet routes to get where I needed to go. Emerald Forest isn't bad, but the section at the RR xing is terrible.

After living in '45 for awhile I realized the decade the neighborhood was developed is as important as the city it is in. Put it in other words I would probably take a pre-WWII neighborhood in another Texas city than an 80s/90s neighborhood in Austin. The car-first assumption is anathema to quality of life.

The funny thing is our vet is in Hyde Park, and I always feel like our neighborhood is more bike friendly than that area, despite the consensus being otherwise. They have a bike shop and there's a (narrow) bike lane along 51st Street, but the traffic in the area always seems so hectic, and Airport Boulevard is definitely not bike friendly. And we did have a bike shop on Manchaca near Stassney, but they moved to South Congress near Live Oak.

I'm not a bike guy at all, but I can see the positives of having a bike lane. Stassney and William Cannon can have them with just a little bit of work. As a driver, bikes can sometimes get in the way, but mostly it's just a safety thing. I'd rather them have that than riding in a car lane (dangerous for cyclists) or riding on the sidewalk (dangerous for pedestrians).

I love cycling on Duval but not on 51st St. Central areas in Austin, and probably most cities, adhere more to a grid system which gives you lots of options.

Yes, Airport Blvd. isn't great to cycle on but keep in mind you have put your bike on the train at Highland Mall and avoid it. I go from Holly to the Triangle using the Highland Mall stop, bike-train-bike.

Is there a bike shop in 78745? I always went to Bicycle Sport Shop on S. Lamar when I lived there.

Yeah I can't imagine COA taking away a car lane on say W. Cannon to provide a bike lane. Same thing with S. First and parts of Manchaca. Even Davis Lane can get hairy sometimes.

http://www.bikealotaustin.com/

On Pack Saddle Pass where I mentioned the Ah La Cart food trailer.

The only two bike shops showing up on Google that are in 78745 are near Ben White, so basically in 78704. I've been going to Performance Bike on South Lamar for a few years. There used to be several shops on South First north of Ben White that we used to go, but they've since closed. The nearest one to me now is Bikealot on Pack Saddle Pass near Ben White. I haven't been to that one actually.

Im 32, names sound familiar im thinking back trying to remember lol

Just noticed yesterday on my way to pick up my daughter from SSVE that right on Jones between the row of really, really run down duplexes on Westgate and the ones that appear to be well maintained over by the Montessori school was a duplex that appeared to be very new and modern. Interesting that the stuff on Westgate didn't deter them from building it....

I think there's a few reasons behind this.

1. UT. Historically UT has been such a big part of Austin that the true "center" of town isn't 6th and Congress, it's somewhere further north between downtown and UT(the percentage has decreased recently as Austin has grown, but it's still a respectable portion).

2. The river/town lake/ladybird lake. Even today there's just a few connections across the lake. It's been easier for Austin to stretch North than South.

3. Environmental/Developmental restrictions. There are more in the south of town. SoS/Recharge Zone/Karst. Helps to limit density.

Well here's one for 78745. A few months ago I noticed the trees were cleared from a lot at 6500 Manchaca Road. This is located between William Cannon & Stassney.

I had searched for anything related to it on the city's site plan review website, but didn't find anything. Yesterday, though, I was riding past the lot with my camera and snapped a few photos. Today I did a search for the property again, and there's an updated site plan review from this month. It also has a link to the older site plan, which I didn't realize existed, but apparently this project goes back to 2009.

Anyway, from the site plan it has a building elevation that shows the height as 59 feet 6 inches with 4 floors. The site plan says they're planning 4 vertical mixed use buildings. The property is 6.3 acres, so it's pretty big and has approximately 600 feet of frontage along Manchaca Road.

That's comparable to what's already in the area. The South Austin ACC Campus is just north of there on Stassney and is 55 feet with 3 floors. That building was even supposed to be taller, 62 feet with 4 floors, but they scaled it down.

Site plan review is here. The building elevation is in the first link. I'm wondering if they'll stick with that plan. This says they're asking for a revision to the original.

https://www.austintexas.gov/devreview/d_...licked=RelatedFolders&FolderRSN=10880075

http://i.imgur.com/3LgZHeY.jpg

The apartments in the back are accessed by a driveway from Manchaca Road that runs south of this property.
http://i.imgur.com/7f7oT8u.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2cminbt.jpg

They still haven't removed the pile of trees yet, but they do have those construction borders up near the sidewalk.
http://i.imgur.com/N36pZQg.jpg

I've been curious what that is - my kids used to go to the montessori school across the street.

This link was not helpful at all. I've clicked the first link, but I have no idea nor the time to click through all of the links (which are all downloads) in that first link to figure out which is the site plan and elevation.

It's pretty easy actually. Just open each one. It'll save them in your downloads folder. Open that and go through them. The three that I saved are the files that end with 006, 011 and 026. Those first two are the site plan and the third is a building elevation showing the design and height.

That's how I've been getting all the building heights lately. It's not that bad. Also if you view the files as thumbnails, you can usually spot the building elevations without having to look through all of them.

I'm not so keen on the design, but given that it's further out and, frankly, is an enigma for the area, I'm not too worried about it.

Just FYI, the South Austin Combined Neighborhood Plan workshop is this Saturday:

http://www.austintexas.gov/department/south-austin-combined-neighborhood-plan

I may try to go, even though I'm currently south of the boundaries.

I think that the "Central Market Effect" might account for any new construction in the vicinity of those run down duplexes. Most of that area is doing very well except for that patch on Westgate. I figure that as long as Central Market is up the road, there is likely to be a rebuilding or rehabbing of the area immediatelty to the south over time.

^That area to the south. Years ago, about 17 years ago, we were driving down Westgate through that area where all those apartment complexes are when we heard a loud bang. I remember my ears ringing. Anyway, we noticed the rear passenger side window was chipped and it looked like a bullet had skipped across the glass. My dad was driving, my mom was in the front passenger seat and I was in the back seat behind her. We had guessed it must have been either a high powered pellet gun or else maybe a .22. It chipped the window and left a streak across the glass where it hit. If the angle had been more direct, it probably would have hit me.

Since Austin is now the 4th safest city in the county, no need to worry anymore!

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=6007645&postcount=116

Well, to be fair, this did happen in the mid 90s, and believe it or not Austin is safer now than it was back then. Even though Austin is more than twice the size now than it was during the 90s, we have been having fewer murders each year over the last dozen+ years than we did back in the 90s. In 1991, the year of the famous yogurt shop murders, there were 47 murders. There were 33 murders last year in Austin. Austin's population in 1990 was 472,020, while it was 790,390 in 2010.

Never reported back on the NH planning meeting. Decent meeting. Free breakfast tacos!

I think they tried to rush through too much. Did some snap polls on various pictures of buildings but didn't explain well what we were voting on. People weren't really clear on if they were voting on the style vs. the form, or what that even means. Also weren't clear on the where these building were supposed to be. Just too much info in too short a time, especially since so many probably haven't spent a lot of time reading on these sorts of issues.

From an urbanist perspective, I'd say it was pretty even as far as openness vs. hostility to making the area more walkable and less car centric. Though a disappointing number of people who seem to have the attitude "I want to drive *everywhere* and if anyone else is giving the option of sometimes not driving, it's tyranny and I'm mad as hell about it!" Never understood that. If you want to drive everywhere, fine, but why is it 'tyranny' if I'm given a choice, but 'freedom' if you force me to make *your* choice?

Anyway, I encourage any urbanists in the area to attend to tip the balance. (And yes, I know this is a near duplicate of my city-data post...)

FYI, the next South Austin Combined meeting is Saturday (23rd) at Crockett High 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. They seem to be going by email more than web now, so I'll just paste the message:

Greetings South Austin Community Members,

Join your neighbors and representatives from ACC South, AISD, and the Manchaca Road Library this Saturday, March 23 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (doors at 8:30) at Crockett High School for a Community Design Workshop and continue the conversation about your vision for your neighborhood.

This Saturday’s Community Design Workshop will bring together residents, property and business owners, educators, public officials and other stakeholders to dream and draw their vision for the portion of the planning area surrounding the intersection of Stassney Lane and Manchaca Road, which includes Crockett High School, ACC South, the Manchaca Road Branch Library, and local businesses—in other words, the components of a great Civic Center.

Participants will work in groups to draft principles and create maps and sketches that imagine the future of the Civic Center. Volunteers from the Austin chapter of the American Institute of Architects will be available to assist participants create a physical vision for the Civic Center.

We are also excited to announce that volunteers from the Dougherty Arts Center will provide children’s activities!

Please visit http://www.austintexas.gov/department/south-austin-combined-neighborhood-plan or call Francis Reilly at (512) 974-7657 for more information. Results from the Kickoff and Visioning Workshops are also available on the neighborhood plan website. A flyer showing the area of focus for this workshop and a general overview of the morning is attached.

We look forward to working with you this Saturday!

Best,
Francis

Back to "LoCo". Curious what you all think the future of the Stassney and Congress intersection is. Considering the new PSW development at 301 Stassney. Plus - green build, solar panels, good layout for my family, walking distance to new Rapid Bus stop. Bad: That area just isn't very nice right now.

But, there's a lot of room for redevelopment around that intersection and I can see it changing rapidly in a few years. Or it could be the same 10 years from now.

They just built a gas station at Congress & Stassney. I did notice they've torn down the car wash on Stassney just west of Congress, but I noticed they had put up another cinder block wall. I'm not sure what they're doing there.

The SE corner of Stassney and 35 is also getting a slow makeover. Looks like they're trying to turn it into a shopping center. The shell of what looks to be a bank has gone in already.

Anyone going to the NH planning meetings? We ended up buying outside of the planning area, so I haven't been, but I'm curious what direction they are taking.

For those in the area, a chance to vote for more urban infill options in the area:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M6DT3NF

The street my late grandmother's house was on (my cousin lives there currently) is in the South Manchaca neighborhood. The short cul-de-sac already has at least 3 lots that have 2nd houses built in their backyards. They had to pave over more of the front yards and beside the houses in order to have some parking. If not, then there are too many cars on a narrow street.

I really don't like it.

Our long time neighbor passed away last year, the house is being renovated and a second house will be added to the lot. It's a corner lot so the driveway will be on that street. I don't mind the added density in this neighborhood as long as the added housing within the core of the neighborhood matches with the surrounding architecture.

Just did the survey, thanks for posting. :)

Has anyone heard of this proposed project in 78745?

St. Elmo's Market, South Austin

http://www.kbge-eng.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/st-elmos-market-1024x682.jpg

I remember there was a proposed project for the site of the former St. Elmo-tel called South Urban Lofts, but I believe that project was cancelled. Is this that same piece of property? I noticed that a St. Elmo Hotel is in the renderings.

Does that warehouse looking building exist today and is it occupied? And why are there snipers on the roof of that building on the left?

The description says "St. Elmo’s Market will renovate and [sic] existing 45,000 square foot warehouse into a mixed use market." If it didn't exist, there wouldn't be anything to renovate. :haha:

I don't know if it's currently occupied, though.

That's the first I've heard of that one, though, I do remember the South Urban Lofts project. I believe they got approval for 75 feet for that lot.

The address is 4361 South Congress. They requested an extension last November.

https://www.austintexas.gov/devreview/b_showpublicpermitfolderdetails.jsp?FolderRSN=11049208

Streetview
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.218217,-...3m4!1e1!3m2!1sN29QJVB4a-cNUWdijxPl1w!2e0

Here's another one for 78745. I think we've posted about it before, but it's been a while.

5100 South Congress - this is planned for a vacant lot near Ramble Lane about a half mile north of Stassney Lane.

5100 South Congress. The building elevations are listed. The tallest building is shown as 54 feet with 4 floors.

https://www.austintexas.gov/devreview/b_showpublicpermitfolderdetails.jsp?FolderRSN=10863945

Streetview
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.209573,-...3m4!1e1!3m2!1snolke90ga0zbl6NIIEOovg!2e0

I'm hoping they work on the street through there. That stretch of South Congress can be scary at times.

That's for sure! Scary as in you might get run over and be forgotten about, yes. What's struck me the most though about South Congress once you travel south of Ben White is how incredibly boring it is. Since moving down I've been staying with a friend on Stassney off of South 1st and I do not understand the appeal of the area at all. If Austin is growing at as rapid a clip as the statistics say, denser urban construction should be the norm throughout. Count me as hoping these projects will be built and serve as a catalyst for change in the greater area.

Tomorrow I move to my permanent new home on East Oltorf :D

My family has been in this area since the early 60s back when there truly wasn't anything around. I still prefer it to North Austin, but I do agree it is pretty boring compared to even areas along Congress just north of Ben White. It has potential, though. So much of it is badly underused.

It was only a matter of time before developers would come to our area and now that they have, things are about to get very interesting. Any empty lots in my area are either on the maket for sale or have already been bought. New townhouses are being built 4 blocks from my house. More are on the way. Has anyone taken a drive down Bluebonnet to Clawson and up Clawsom to Fortview lately. Every (and I mean every) piece of empty land is now being developed and its all happening at once. Now all eyes are looking across Ben White to my hood, areas down St. Elmo, to Stassney west to Manchaca. We are next in line.