Austin's New Look...Tulsa Left in Dust

[kwa3]

Tulsa is so behind the times. Austin is the latest city to adopt design guidelines and form-based land use for walkable streets and a more urban looking city core. Article is below...


Austin panel sees spiffier city ahead
By Sarah Coppola
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, November 27, 2005

It began as a dream to make Austin stores prettier but morphed into an effort to improve how the city functions.

Now the plan for citywide design rules — how stores look and sit on land — is complete. The City Council recently approved final changes to the policy and will vote on the ordinance language early next year.

If the rules work, city planners say, they will not only beautify big chain stores but also gradually change Austin's feel by adding sidewalks and shade and by better linking stores to compel more people to walk and bike.

The rules will apply only to new stores and restaurants and some offices.

"When you compare Austin to other cities, we haven't had nearly the same level of design control, so this is a step in the right direction," said Fritz Steiner, dean of the University of Texas' School of Architecture.

Council Members Brewster McCracken and Raul Alvarez and former Council Member Jackie Goodman spent almost two years crafting the standards with a large group of developers, architects and planners.

The plan requires all stores to have basic features such as more native plants for landscaping, more shade and less-conspicuous parking. But it is flexible, too, letting developers choose from ideas thought to create smarter design.

The crux of the rules is a modern urban-planning idea that Austin has not embraced: that the road on which a store sits should determine how it looks. Currently, a store's look is based mostly on the zoning of its individual plot of land.

Stores closer to downtown or on more-traveled roads such as Lamar Boulevard and Guadalupe Street will have to be built closer to the road, with parking on the side or in back instead of out front, considered an urbane, pedestrian-friendly look.

Stores on suburban roads or highways can sit farther back and have some up-front parking but will have to have plenty of awnings or trees and sidewalks.

Developers can earn more parking if they spare old trees or historic features.

The most dramatic change will be incentives to build "vertical mixed-use" buildings, a fancy term for modern projects that resemble old town centers, with stores on the first floor and housing or other uses above.

Mixed-use buildings jibe with Envision Central Texas, the 2004 planning study embraced by city leaders that calls for denser development in some areas in an effort to curb suburban sprawl.

For the first time, developers who do mixed-use projects will get quicker site-plan reviews, some fees waived and more floor space for their projects. The projects also will be first in line to get sidewalks and infrastructure upgrades from the city.

"Everyone has talked about having more mixed use on those transit corridors like South Lamar, but the city code hasn't kept up," Planning Commission Chairman Chris Riley said. "This will help create stretches of pedestrian-oriented developments. It's just a whole different approach."

Drive-throughs will have be tucked behind restaurants, and car-related businesses will not be allowed on corner lots unless trees obscure them. Shielded lighting will replace glaring pools of light.

Dumpsters and storage areas also will have to be hidden, and the rules urge businesses to plant native plants.

The city will help pay the costs of building sidewalks and burying ugly utility lines and nix old fees that businesses once paid to plant sidewalk trees.

Instead of endless stretches of stores and parking, huge lots must be broken up by open spaces such as playgrounds or plazas. The rules offer bonus points for bike access, shower facilities for employees who want to walk or bike to work, and solar-savvy features.

Shopping centers will have to be divided into smaller blocks with better-linked internal roads, making it easier for visitors to walk around. Right now, such centers can be as long as 2,000 feet; most of the new block sizes will be less than 660 feet by 330 feet.

Tucked-away parking and smaller blocks could make it toughest to design shopping centers in suburban areas, where huge parking lots and few sidewalks have been the norm.

"It's workable, but people will have to rethink how they lay things out, more like a block or grid pattern. It's also clearly going to be more expensive because you'll have to increase landscaping, sidewalks, covered areas," said Steve Metcalfe, a real estate lawyer who represents developers and retailers.

The rules ban big signs atop poles that are considered the ugliest of the breed on urban roads and neighborhood streets but not highways. They call for other signs such as awnings and ones that sit close to the ground.

To reduce overwhelming signs, the giant logos that some companies strip across stores will count toward a store's total signage.

Some small businesses and fast-food chains fretted that discouraging some types of signs or logos would unfairly help their older competitors, which are not subject to the new rules, but it was one of the few points on which the design task force would not budge.

Instead, the task force added a fee to help the city enforce sign rules, which several businesses complained that the city was not doing.

"Now, the signs will be smaller, not on poles, not as well-lit; it could make it harder to attract business," said Jim Knight, president of the Real Estate Council of Austin. "The community might like that look, but the mom and pop running a business needs a large sign."

Some cities demand a certain building style, but Austin planners did not want to snuff what they consider the city's unique look.

Instead, all stores will have to follow broad rules such as installing more windows and building varied facades but can pick and choose from design ideas, such as solar roofs, murals and features such as spires and turrets. Stores will mostly have to be built of limestone or brick instead of cheaper materials.

Stores that are designed well are thought to be easier to sell and redevelop than plain big-boxes, which means fewer vacant suburban lots down the line.

The rules could take a decade or more to transform Austin, but planners say the goal will be worth the wait.

"People will be encouraged to walk more," said architect Richard Weiss, design commission chairman. "The streetscapes will be more enlivened the way South Congress is, where people can walk more than a block instead of having to get into their car for every little thing."