central business district

The Downtown Austin Plan's most controversial proposal is not to make the 2008 intermim "density bonus" program permanent, but to eliminate CURE zoning.  (CURE stands for "Central Urban REdevelopment").   The recommendation provoked a sharp debate at the City Council's August meeting and it will provoke another one when the City Council takes up the Plan again in October.  City staff has now

Austin residents may see a change in the way they commute as the City Council is revisiting the potential
of the urban rail in hopes of meeting the needs of an increasingly congested city.

In a special work session Tuesday, council members and citizens heard a presentation by the Austin
Strategic Mobility Plan on a possible urban rail system.

The proposed plan would involve at least four train routes around the downtown area, with one possibly
running through the University north to the Mueller development and south to downtown.

According to city records, the owners of three vacant historic buildings on Congress Avenue between 9th and 10th street are planning to build a 16-story, 88,000 square foot office tower on the site.

If successful, the project would commence construction in 2011 and open by Summer 2012.

According to a statement by Tucker Lynch, a representative of the site owners, in the Austin Business journal, “The owners told us to keep it as quiet as possible,” Lynch said.

“We are just doing our feasibility. If it is not feasible, we won’t build.”

That's the social cost that Charles Kamonoff, an NYC environmental/transportation analysist, believes each driver who enters Manhattan's central business district imposes on other drivers.

 Via Felix Salmon: 

That's the social cost that Charles Kamonoff, an NYC environmental/transportation analysist, believes each driver who enters Manhattan's central business district imposes on other drivers.

 Via Felix Salmon: 

Back in March, I wrote about economists Matthew Kahn and Ed Glaeser's work comparing carbon emissions among metropolitan areas.

Among other things, they estimated how carbon emissions from driving vary across metropolitan areas.

 The variation in gasoline use is just as interesting, though.  Kahn and Glaeser did not explicitly calculate this, but I did the simple arithmetic to convert their estimates of carbon emissions to estimates of gasoline use.

 

Last September, Fortis Development proposed a 250-foot, 200-unit, 25-story tower on 8th street and West Avenue near downtown.

Since the area is currently zoned for buildings no taller than 60 feet, the project required a zoning variance or zoning change.

A movement is developing in Austin to link downtown zoning variances to "voluntary" contributions to community programs.

While a density bonus sounds like a special gift to developers who meet the city's stated goal of a dense vertical downtown, in reality, it is the opposite.

Density bonuses essentially charge developers for variances -- if they want to build taller, they need to pay for the privilege.

Here is a summary from the Austin Chronicle:

Over the last year, a city-sponsored Affordable Housing Incentives Task Force has been discussing ways to encourage the development of afordable housing units as part of large scale development projects.

The city wants more affordable downtown units, but State law doesn't allow the city to place affordability requirements on new developments.

The purpose of the task force is to create incentives that make it attractive for developers to include these units.