Some Circle C residents concerned about traffic impacts of proposed apartments

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin City Council has approved two items related to a development in Circle C, near Kiker Elementary. Some residents are concerned about the traffic impacts.

Local perspective:

The area, Tract 110, was originally zoned for office space.

The developer, Stratus, is asking the city to rezone from office space to multi-family residential space. There would be about 1,000 apartment units, including affordable housing units.

Two items on Thursday's council agenda included the rezoning and removing a requirement for the developer to build a South Bay Lane construction extension. 

What they're saying:

Some Circle C residents are worried about traffic safety in the school zone, as well as the environmental effects.

"We are not against them developing on that land. We don't care if it's offices. We don't care if it's apartments. We do worry about the density that they're asking for, because they're asking for 1,000 units," Lisa Lyons with the Protect Circle C Coalition said. "I don't even know how to conceive of 1,000 units, especially over the Edwards Aquifer, very sensitive, environmentally sensitive zone."

Parents in the area say traffic is already bad as it is. They want to see a traffic analysis done now instead of later in the development process.

"As part of the developing of this Tract 110, they were supposed to build a road that was going to guide the traffic out of our neighborhood. Instead of fulfilling that obligation, they're now asking for an access point on Dahlgreen Avenue, which is 500 feet from our elementary school. It's going to run the traffic right through the school zone. That is what we have a problem with," Lyons said.

"I live behind Kiker, so I use Dahlgreen to walk up to go to the school. I see the traffic backing up, and it scares me to think, to have this huge structure built there with all these people living or with all of the cars coming in and out, people going to and from Kiker for deliveries, all of these things, the potential is very scary," Annaelisa Baker, a Kiker Elementary parent, said.

"To put a development there with a primary access point, you've got cars that are going to go from zero to 70 pulling off right into where cars are slowing down to drop their kids off at school. My concern as a parent is it's already a really bad traffic pattern as is. I would love to see the city and the developer come up with a traffic pattern that is more future-faced," Alicia Keswani, a Valor South Austin parent, said.

The other side:

Beau Armstrong, CEO of Stratus, released the following statement:

"As the City Council prepares to decide on the rezoning of Tract 110, I want to speak plainly to our neighbors in Circle C and to city officials. A good deal of what is circulating about this project bears little resemblance to what we have actually proposed. Set the rhetoric aside, and the facts and the history both point clearly in one direction.

Start with the land itself. Out of a total 190 acres, Stratus is developing only 16 acres, at just over 8% impervious cover. The remaining 174 acres will be preserved as permanent open space, forever. The narrative about environmental destruction simply ignores this. Tract 110 is being held to the most stringent environmental and water quality ordinances, and it will carry higher standards than any of the neighborhoods already built in Circle C. It will also add new trails that will eventually connect to the Violet Crown Trail and the trails along SH-45.

This is not new for us. Stratus has spent decades as an environmental steward in Southwest Austin, and our record shows it. Our approach has resulted in the donation of thousands of acres of critical environmental land to public entities and to conservation groups over the years. Tract 110 is a continuation of that same balanced approach, not a departure from it.

On traffic, the facts run counter to the fear. The tract is already zoned for commercial office use. If we built out the office space that zoning allows, the peak traffic impact on surrounding roads would be higher than what the proposed multifamily use generates. Shifting to residential reduces the overall traffic footprint compared to a standard employment center.

I also want to be direct about the second access point, because much of the pushback centers on the proposed ingress and egress at Dahlgreen Avenue near Kiker Elementary. Our initial proposal put the access point off MoPac, removed the South Bay construction extension, and made Dahlgreen an emergency-only driveway accessible to Fire and EMS. It was the City that came back and told us a secondary point of access was required. That requirement would apply to an office use as well. A full Traffic Impact Analysis will be completed at the time of site development permit, reviewing peak and off-peak patterns, but it is TxDOT and the City of Austin that determine access and intersection needs, and Stratus will pay for those improvements. Blaming the developer for a city infrastructure mandate is not fair.

This is also the right housing in the right place. The project is exactly what Austin's housing policy calls for: multi-family housing located directly along major transit corridors like MoPac and SH-45. Given its proximity to those corridors, residential is the appropriate use of the site and is consistent with sound land planning. It also takes advantage of expensive utility infrastructure already in place, putting costly existing capacity to productive use rather than leaving it stranded. Southwest Austin badly lacks diverse, multi-family housing options, and even so, this project is proposed at a very low density of 5.2 units per acre. Other recent projects in the area, including the new apartments across from Oak Hill Elementary School, were built at twice the density .

I want to underscore that point, because it cuts against the fear driving much of the opposition. As proposed, this development is far less dense than the neighborhoods that surround it. We are not asking to build something heavier or more intensive than the community already established around the site. We are proposing something lighter.

Our history in this part of Austin speaks for itself. In 2002, Stratus entered into agreements with the City of Austin to develop the parcels we owned in Circle C, each subject to restrictive covenants created in conjunction with the Circle C HOA and residents. Over the past 25 years, we have dedicated more than 150 acres of open space to the Circle C HOA, the City of Austin, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. We donated the land for Bear Creek Elementary School and an athletic field at Bowie High School, and we sold the land to AISD for Gorzycki Middle School. The completion of Circle C Metropolitan Park was accomplished with property we donated.  Many of the amenities Southwest Austin families enjoy came from Stratus, including Escarpment Village anchored by HEB and Parkside Village anchored by the Alamo Drafthouse.

So the picture is straightforward. On Tract 110, Stratus is going well beyond the SOS environmental standards, with protections higher than those in place when most of Circle C was built. The project brings much-needed housing diversity, new trails, and more than 170 acres of preserved open space. It is exactly these kinds of misstatements and mischaracterizations that suppress density and contribute to Austin's housing affordability crisis. We all want a more affordable Austin, and decisions driven by mischaracterization are what move us further from it."