Town Lake Waterfront Overlay District

Summary

On January 27, 2000 the City Council approved Resolution No. 000127-61, directing the City Manager to retain an urban waterfront planning consultant to develop a proposal for binding development standards to be incorporated into the Austin Land Development Code for the South Shore Central Subdistrict of the Town Lake Overlay District and those parcels within the Travis Heights Subdistrict north of Riverside Drive from IH35 to East Bouldin Creek.

The City contracted with ROMA Design Group of San Francisco to work with the 16 member, Council-appointed Town Lake Waterfront Overlay Advisory Board develop recommendations for the study area.

Status

City staff is developing recommendations on the implementation of the report's recommendations.

Description

In their January resolution, the Austin City Council directed the City Manager to ensure that the development standards are:

1. Specifically tied to the following community goals provided by the Town Lake Corridor Study:
   • Provide maximum visual and physical access to the waterfront; encourage pedestrian access to and use of the corridor.
   • Create superior planning, design and mixing of land uses that arc waterfront dependent or waterfront-related, and sympathetic to the water's edge of the Town Lake Corridor and the urban creeks.
   • Improve zoning in the Town Lake Corridor and along the urban creeks to achieve maximum pedestrian scale, highest degree of compatibility, and extraordinary urban design.
   • Require all city land uses, construction projects, programs and operations to achieve the highest degree of compatibility with Town Lake.
   • Foster a cooperative atmosphere in the corridor for the City, neighborhoods, and private landowners to work jointly to realize the potential of the waterfront.
2. Enhance waterfront development by encouraging the most creative combination of mixed use in the Barton Springs-Riverside Drive zone, focused on pedestrian-oriented mixed use including residential, commercial, and cultural uses achieving maximum integration with the park and lakeshore environment.

Basic Data

• Project Contact: Michael Knox, Redevelopment Services Office, 974-6418

Back to the July 2001 Downtown Report