With Downtown Austin exploding with new mixed-use development, the redevelopment of a low-income apartment complex into a new mixed-use project has affordable-housing advocates worried that the city's supply of below-market-rate housing is vanishing.
"The development firm Ardent Residential wants to tear down the 30-year-old Stoneridge apartment complex on South Lamar Boulevard and replace it with 300 apartments and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail -- exactly the kind of dense, mixed-use project that city leaders love. The rub is that the 141 existing apartments rent for about $400 to $660 a month - affordable by Austin standards -- and Ardent's apartments would rent for $930 and up."
"The project is what city leaders wanted when they passed a set of incentives recently to encourage mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly projects on Austin's major roads, Council Member Brewster McCracken said. The city can now allow more density and more housing units in mixed-use projects if the developer makes 10 percent of the units affordable for families that earn $56,900 or less."
"Housing advocate Heather Way said she likes the idea of denser development on South Lamar, 'but only if low-income families can benefit from it and only if it doesn't displace low-income families.'"
"The Austin Neighborhoods Council wants the city to enact a policy to require developers to replace affordable units if they tear some down."
Read the full story: Affordable housing or denser development?
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Chicago breaks ground on $3 billion megadevelopment
The new neighborhood, titled Foundry Park, will one day host 3,700 residences.
This MA town is drowning in its own sewage — and residents like it that way
Susan Murcott, a waste water expert, said if Carlisle didn't address their leaking sewage, the problem could turn “deadly.”
Iowa taxpayers are paying thousands to clean manure out of their water
While the Clean Water Act makes states responsible for regulating factory farms that discharge pollutants, Iowa has turned a blind eye to the polluting farms.
Amtrak cuts ribbon on Seattle Airo maintenance facility
The $250 million, nearly 100,000-square-foot building can house an entire Cascades Airo trainset.
To power data centers, Google seeks autonomous control of thousands of homes’ electricity
The tech company has signed a deal to indirectly pay Mid-Atlantic residents to reduce their power demand when the grid is strained.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello