The Austin City Council refused to take up an appeal of the Planning Commission’s site plan approval for Sunset Ridge, a proposed apartment complex at 8413 Southwest Parkway. The 20-acre, 444-unit apartment complex would include more than 200 affordable units.
Multiple neighborhood groups and homeowners associations oppose the development, citing concerns about traffic and safety issues along Southwest Parkway, the project’s ecological and scenic impact, the complex’s size and compliance with city rules including the Save Our Springs Ordinance and the Hill Country Roadway Ordinance; and the placement of multifamily housing in the area at all.
The Barton Creek Southwest Property Owners Association and the Travis Country West Homeowners Association appealed the commission’s decision. Developer Manifold Sunset Ridge, hired attorney Richard Suttle to speak on its behalf at the hearing, the Austin Monitor reported.
The Planning Commission’s approval of the site plan was required by the Hill Country Roadway Ordinance, city Development Services Department's Keith Mars said, And if the applicant meets all the requirements of the Land Development Code, the commission has no discretion about approving the site plan.
Attorney Eric Gómez, representing Travis Country West homeowners, and SOS attorney Bobby Levinski said the decision to grant the site plan violates the SOS Ordinance. Gómez also said that developers had increased the number of units enough to require a traffic impact analysis and that there is insufficient information about the number of trees developers planned to eliminate.
Neighbors expressed concerns in May when they learned about the number of units and the amount of impervious cover that would be allowed under the city’s Affordability Unlocked density bonus program.
“This is one of those opportunities where you have the opportunity to say no – that you’re going to enforce the SOS Ordinance, and if it needs to be resolved in court, don’t make the residents be the ones to have to bring it to the court. Side with your community,” Levinski said.
City Council members voted in May to amend a restrictive covenant on the land to allow for the large-scale housing development and to use the 2022 housing bond funding to support the project's financing, CI reported.The Planning Commission approved project plans under the city’s Hill Country Roadway rules designed to protect West Austin’s scenic highways
“This site plan has been through a rigorous review process from the city staff, has been reviewed by the Planning Commission. It meets all the applicable rules and when built, will provide 101 units at 50 percent or below (median family income); 77 units at or below 60 percent MFI and 44 units at or below 80 percent MFI,” Suttle said.
