Austin | Domain/North Austin

[Syndic]

My god, that would be amazing (if not cut and capped).

Longhorn Blvd and Gateway are two very different worlds. I love when streets connect people together.

[wwmiv]

The Pickle Campus probably is not going away in our lifetimes. The best we can hope for is that UT starts to engage more with the surrounding area, but as Kevin has pointed out in the past: 1. sensitive research that often requires permitting and tight control of ingress and egress of people is a priority for them, and 2. universities often deliberately don’t engage with the surrounding areas to protect their students and staff.

West Pickle may end up being redeveloped, provided that UT replaces those facilities on the main Pickle campus. The area across from Braker from West Pickle would seem to me to be ripe for redevelopment with nicer hotels that are built-to-lot-line.

Cutting and capping MoPac would have to make at least some sense financially. I.E. the increase in property values - and the taxes that comes along with that increase - for surrounding land either outweigh or will greatly recoup the cost of the construction. I also doubt that happens in our lifetimes. There is simply too much available land between the Red Line and the Missouri-Pacific RR ripe for redevelopment. Another fundamental problem a cut and cap approach would have to contend with is that this new parkland would still be separated from most of the urban redevelopment in the North Burnet area by the Missouri-Pacific RR, rendering it largely useless unless Gateway itself begins to densify.

I think a stronger argument is for MoPac to receive the same “stitches” as I-35 at Braker, 360, Longhorn, and Burnet/Duval. At Braker, it actually is currently feasible for a significantly larger “stitch” on the north side that might approximate the size of a cap. I would also suggest building pedestrian bridges over the Missouri-Pacific RR from the Domain to Braker Pointe both at MoPac and alongside Braker.

[H2O]

About 20 years ago UT was working on a Pickle Master Plan to move all of the Faculty of Engineering to Pickle and developing the rest of the campus into a mixed-use activity center. They abandoned it when they realized they could not afford to connect the two campuses with an express subway. Instead, they reinvested in the main campus by renovating, replacing and infilling new engineering buildings.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by H2O

About 20 years ago UT was working on a Pickle Master Plan to move all of the Faculty of Engineering to Pickle and developing the rest of the campus into a mixed-use activity center. They abandoned it when they realized they could not afford to connect the two campuses with an express subway. Instead, they reinvested in the main campus by renovating, replacing and infilling new engineering buildings.

Possibly another reason to push for the "Burnet Spur" of Austin's light rail (the one handwavily considered during Project Connect's initial development). In the interim, more BRT improvements to the 803 would be helpful. Project Connect is still a little handwavy about what happens to that once the line through the drag is eventually built (are they really going to run it down Lamar along Pease Park with minimal ridership demand?)

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

The Pickle Campus probably is not going away in our lifetimes. The best we can hope for is that UT starts to engage more with the surrounding area, but as Kevin has pointed out in the past: 1. sensitive research that often requires permitting and tight control of ingress and egress of people is a priority for them, and 2. universities often deliberately don’t engage with the surrounding areas to protect their students and staff.

I think that ship has sailed. Anyone on a bike is allowed to pass through there N/S, while anyone can jump on the 803 and get off at the Pickle stop. With that caveat that's during the day, not 24/7.

Originally Posted by wwmiv

West Pickle may end up being redeveloped, provided that UT replaces those facilities on the main Pickle campus. The area across from Braker from West Pickle would seem to me to be ripe for redevelopment with nicer hotels that are built-to-lot-line.

Agreed, and I that's one opportunity for geographic expansion of the planning district/zoning, not just on the east past Metric.

South across 183 (to the commercial/industrial there) could be another under consideration but it's rather small and quickly runs into SF. NI Campus as I previously mentioned would be another possibility. To the North, the greenbelt is a bit of a barrier, but possibly consideration of how better to tie the St David's area into everything. It would be nice to at least extend real transit service to that area, as the 803 metrorapid was originally supposed to do.

[Syndic]

The train tracks by Q2 Stadium. Transit stop construction?

• Video Link

[atxsnail]

Toll Brothers Apartment Living wants to construct a 23-27 story apartment building at the location of the former Precision Tune Auto Care and Mosing Motorcars at 2500-2420 W Braker Ln.

https://abc.austintexas.gov/public-s...ertyrsn=150773

Per the filing, it's 331 units w/ 350-400 parking spaces.

That company seems to have a variety of apartment properties, from garden style suburban junk, quite a few 4/5+1s, to towers. I would guess that their Dallas tower might be a good approximation of what they intend for this space:


If this gets built, the contrast between it and the still new 4-story Copeland apartments will be hilariously stark. Most of the other stuff adjacent to the coming Mckalla Red Line Station are also 4-5 story projects. The 8/8/19 NBG zoning map shows the properties north of Braker as TOD Gateway while the properties south are just TOD. Did they ever expand those designations because of the new Broadmoor and McKalla stations? It would be weird to have height only on one side of Braker Lane.

[chinchaaa]

it is insane how much better buildings look without the damn parking garage

[We vs us]

Everything that's not nailed down . . .

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by atxsnail

The 8/8/19 NBG zoning map shows the properties north of Braker as TOD Gateway while the properties south are just TOD. Did they ever expand those designations because of the new Broadmoor and McKalla stations? It would be weird to have height only on one side of Braker Lane.

Broadmoor sort of (only for the actual Brandywine owned property that paid for the station, not anything else adjacent to it). Mckalla, no (though distance to that station was used to argue for the CMU-Gateway spot rezoning of that plot on Burnet).

Yes, it's a mess. Hopefully the council direction to look at expanding the PUD and other changes will give an opportunity to clean that up.

[drummer]

Random thought/question - Are there any plans to change Brockton Dr. to line up with a kinda-sorta grid? I would love to see Experanza Crossing punch down to Q2 Stadium, for instance.

[Syndic]

Originally Posted by drummer

Random thought/question - Are there any plans to change Brockton Dr. to line up with a kinda-sorta grid? I would love to see Experanza Crossing punch down to Q2 Stadium, for instance.

If the master plan is binding, then yes, there are plans to expend Aguilar St north to connect it with Brockton. I think it's only required if someone redevelops there however? I honestly can't see the McDonald's, Taco Bell, Weinerschnitzel, and car wash lasting very long, with everything going on over there.



God it would be nice to make this area more of a grid. Nothing's more satisfying than fixing car-centric suburbia.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by Syndic

If the master plan is binding, then yes, there are plans to expend Aguilar St north to connect it with Brockton. I think it's only required if someone redevelops there however? I honestly can't see the McDonald's, Taco Bell, Weinerschnitzel, and car wash lasting very long, with everything going on over there.



God it would be nice to make this area more of a grid. Nothing's more satisfying than fixing car-centric suburbia.

That particular slide is more an example/conceptual, not required.

The required new streets and their connections are on Figure 1-3 in the regulating plan

https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/de...g_reg_plan.pdf

[Syndic]

Word. Maybe this is one of the updates the city will make to the plan because McKalla Place is definitely not going to connect to Brockton anymore. My guess is still Aguilar.

[drummer]

^^ Yeah, something like that is what I was thinking, especially because Aguilar has the stoplight anyway. However, I also think the other connection would need to be Esperanza Crossing, but that would require displacing a couple of existing buildings as well. The road would likely need to run just east of the Hilton Garden Inn right there.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by Syndic

Word. Maybe this is one of the updates the city will make to the plan because McKalla Place is definitely not going to connect to Brockton anymore. My guess is still Aguilar.

The white spaces are technically not part of the NBG planning (UT explicitly asked that their land not be included, for instance). The city's McKalla property was the same (it still had LI zoning before Q2 went in. So the extension of Aguilar through there was not enforced by the plan. It still exists in practice because the new roads around the stadium connect Aguilar to McKalla (Aguilar to Calle Norte to West to McKalla).

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by chinchaaa

it is insane how much better buildings look without the damn parking garage

That one above your post is nice, but the base is still pretty meh. A drive way that could fool someone into thinking it was a plaza? Is it really an improvement? "You can play hopscotch on the oil stains."

[kingkirbythe....]

Saving North Austin From Suburban Sprawl, One Tower at a Time

https://austin.towers.net/saving-nor...wer-at-a-time/

The growing skyline of towers near the Domain area of North Austin is all the evidence you need for the success of the city’s North Burnet / Gateway Regulating Plan, a 2000s policy tweak unlocking extra height and density for projects around the intersection of West Braker Lane and Burnet Road. With an increased height limit of 420 feet recently approved in some areas and a new study requested by City Council for possible further updates to the scope and scale of the regulating plan, it sounds like the hits will keep on coming as this area works to transform its generally sprawled-out and overparked suburban character with denser growth and improved transit access — and the district’s ongoing transitional phase often makes for interesting contrast.

[Syndic]

My favorite line from the article:

...this sort of height and housing makes perfect sense for the area, but we can’t stop thinking about its contrast against that Weinerschnitzel.

Haha, so true. I admittedly like the Weinerschnitzel and would be okay with it staying, but preferably as the ground floor retail of some kinda high rise.

I did not know about the high rise he mentioned in the article. That's awesome. Growing up in Gracy Woods, I had no clue this area would end up like this. If it keeps getting big projects like this, I can't help but think that neighborhoods like Quail Hollow, Gracy Woods, and NACA are going to feel a little like the old neighborhoods that surround downtown.

[gillynova]