Posted: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:39 PM - 8,681 Readers
By: Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
Eliminate an 85-year-old golf course and 500 student apartments. Downsize or relocate a biological field laboratory.
In their place, build a neighborhood with thousands of housing units, as well as offices, shops, parkland, hike-and-bike trails and up to three hotels. Realign two roads, build a new one and add two on-ramps for MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1).
Those recommendations, presented Thursday by consultants that the University of Texas System Board of Regents hired, would transform the university-owned Brackenridge tract along the Colorado River into a city within the city, changing the character of a sleepy corner of West Austin.
"The board will spend a great deal of time in the coming months, and probably the coming years, studying these plans. And then we will eventually make some decisions," said James Huffines, chairman of the regents.
"But I want to emphasize: These are just recommendations. We are a long way from making any decisions."
Cooper, Robertson & Partners LLP, an architectural and urban planning firm, outlined the proposal at a regents meeting in Austin. The New York firm has spent more than a year studying the 350-acre tract under a contract with the regents that calls for the firm to receive up to about $5.1 million in fees, travel expenses and other charges.
The recommendations were denounced by David Hillis, chairman of the university's Faculty Council and a professor of integrative biology who conducts research and teaches students at the 82-acre field lab.
Downsizing or relocating the lab, which includes greenhouses, classrooms, ponds and woods, "would irreversibly damage the teaching and research programs, as well as the academic reputation," of the university, Hillis said.
City Council Member and Mayor-elect Lee Leffingwell said the city remains interested in acquiring the Lions Municipal Golf Course, either by swapping city-owned land for it or by offering a combination of land and money.
But Council Member Sheryl Cole said she would want to see an in-depth analysis first because the city is in the middle of a budget crisis.
Golfers and other supporters of Lions Municipal, also known as Muny, said they would redouble efforts to save what they regard as an iconic feature of Austin.
State law on parkland and open space might require the regents to hold a public hearing before eliminating the field lab and the golf course, said Mary Arnold, a veteran of past battles to limit development at the tract. The regents said they plan to hold a forum in the fall or winter to get public input on the plans.
The recommendations emerged from an effort by the regents "to utilize the asset to the maximum benefit" of UT-Austin, as Huffines, using the terminology of his day job as a commercial banker, put it three years ago when he set the wheels in motion to craft a long-term plan for the tract.
Portions of the property have been leased in recent decades for a grocery store, restaurants, a marina, shops, the golf course, an upscale apartment complex and the headquarters of the Lower Colorado River Authority. The revenues, along with the sale of a piece on the opposite side of the river, have netted the university nearly $27 million since 1990 for faculty salaries, scholarships and other academic purposes, said Florence Mayne, executive director of real estate for the UT System.
The potential of the tract to generate income is much greater, although the Cooper firm's economic analysis has not been completed. The regents have said they would not sell any of the property, preferring instead to lease portions.
No development could take place on Muny or the field lab until 2019 under the terms of a 1989 development agreement between the City of Austin and the Board of Regents. That is also when the city's lease for the golf course expires.
But other parcels — notably two sections with a total of 500 apartments — could be redeveloped for commercial purposes at any time.
The Cooper firm called for razing those apartments and rebuilding the nearby Gateway student apartment complex, off Sixth Street and just east of MoPac, to accommodate 800 to 825 units, with occupancy in September 2012. That would be an increase of about 100 units from the current capacity of the Gateway apartments and the Brackenridge tract apartments combined.
A 15-acre sports complex operated by the West Austin Youth Association would be retained though reconfigured. Two other parcels would be set aside for possible future uses — one for an elementary school and one for any university need that could arise.
The case for preserving the 141-acre golf course is not compelling, said Paul Milana, partner-in-charge for the Cooper firm.
"After considering its size and its use and the availability of its use, we felt that long-term it was not an appropriate use to be preserved on the site, underscoring that this is a 40- to 50-year outlook," Milana said. "The ability to utilize nearly half of the acreage of the site gives us so many options with regard to providing freely accessible, completely open parkland that can be flexible and respond to a wide variety of folks."
The Cooper firm outlined two conceptual master plans for the tract.
Both call for eliminating the golf course, realigning portions of Lake Austin Boulevard and Exposition Boulevard, and building a street from the corner of Exposition and Enfield Road to Red Bud Trail. Each would add a southbound ramp and a new turn lane to the northbound ramp to MoPac just east of the tract.
Under one of the conceptual plans, dubbed Brackenridge Park, the field lab would be downsized to 56 acres from its current 82 acres.
A total of 6,600 housing units could be accommodated under the plan, said David McGregor, project director with Cooper. Using his estimate of 1.5 people per unit, that works out to 9,900 residents.
The other plan, called Brackenridge Village and described by Cooper officials as their preferred option, eliminates the field lab and accommodates 8,700 housing units, with 13,050 residents.
A replacement field lab would be established at some other site, yet to be identified, along the Colorado, McGregor said.
Either plan would produce a signature development with green-building features, views of the river and a wider Lake Austin Boulevard with tree-shaded sidewalks, Milana said.
And both would feature a series of stepped ponds and open space along Schulle Branch, now little more than a concrete-lined ditch.
The Cooper firm's review revealed that the tract covers 350 acres, not 345 as previously thought.
