AUSTIN | Estancia Hill Country Updates

[ATXboom]

I love the density in the images.... hopefully that can be achieved.

This is the start of modern node based density... I wouldn't call this sprawl. To get cars off the freeway we need dense centers of live/work/play distributed... Of course the biggest center should be in the core of Austin.

[Scott Wood]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

I love the density in the images.... hopefully that can be achieved.

This is the start of modern node based density... I wouldn't call this sprawl.

Parts of it look nice (especially the first image), and it's certainly better than rolling out another patch of single-family lots with pod-style gated apartment complexes splotched here and there.

But other parts still seem a little on the sprawly side - corporate campuses, large surface parking lots, etc.

Most of the office space is on the periphery, not in the core. Will people be driving between those offices and the core (or worse, off-development), to get lunch? Is there enough retail/restaurant to serve this much residential/office (I suppose it depends on how efficiently it's used -- is it a few large tenants, or a diverse mix of many small ones?), or will people be frequently leaving for services elsewhere?

Originally Posted by ATXboom

To get cars off the freeway we need dense centers of live/work/play distributed... Of course the biggest center should be in the core of Austin.

I can see the desire for other density sites besides the central city, given how sprawled the existing settlement is (which won't be abandoned any time soon), and the relative lack of NIMBYs with greenfield development -- but there ought to be some sort of transportation plan, or else you'll still be dumping people on the freeway (or arterials) to get between density centers.

I suppose an express bus could run to/from downtown along 35, and possibly the 201 bus could be extended down Old San Antonio Road or 35 to provide some limited connectivity with South Austin, but I saw no mention of transportation in the article or the linked plan document at all (but plenty of images of/references to Austin proper; they're not exactly pitching this as an independent village).

Will this site even be part of the Capital Metro service area? According to http://www.capmetro.org/gismaps/ada/cmsa.html, the service area runs down the freeway, but not over the adjacent land, apparently following city limits that do the same. Would Austin be annexing the land?

[KevinFromTexas]

This project is still kickin'.

http://www.statesman.com/business/re...r-2405582.html

Austin City Council to hear plans for four proposed mixed-use developments

By Shonda Novak
Published: 10:23 p.m. Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Austin City Council is scheduled to be briefed today on four planned projects whose developers are seeking a special type of zoning to allow greater flexibility in development regulations in exchange for providing public benefits.

Estancia Hill Country: 594 acres near Interstate 35 and FM 1327 in southern Travis County, where Stratford Land, a Dallas-based land investment fund, envisions 737 single-family homes; 1,550 apartments; 905,000 square feet of office space, including a corporate office campus; 402,000 square feet of retail/commercial uses; and 112 acres of parks and open space.

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

This project is still kickin'.

http://www.statesman.com/business/re...r-2405582.html

Notice all but one are in close proximity to The Circuit of the Americas. The development boom for that area of the county is about to begin.

[nixcity]

I love the look of Estancia, I hope it gets built out to that scale. It would be like the domain of the soutside without the plastic mall feel to it

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by nixcity

I love the look of Estancia, I hope it gets built out to that scale. It would be like the domain of the soutside without the plastic mall feel to it

Dont forget the area at I35 and SH 45 is planned to be a regional center so expect some density in that area.

[The ATX]

Did the council approve this and the other three big developments up for a vote yesterday? The airport terminal vote got all the attention.

[KevinFromTexas]

I just hope they do a better job with those lowrise office buildings. Please, no office parks. They should be up against those midrise residential buildings. Public transit connectivity is also a must, not a Southpark Medows Part 2 with acres of hot parking lots.

[SecretAgentMan]

Originally Posted by Hill Country

Did the council approve this and the other three big developments up for a vote yesterday? The airport terminal vote got all the attention.

No approvals, they were just briefings that begin the approval process. The briefings were held at 3:45 am and lasted all of four minutes.

http://austintx.swagit.com/play/06282012-529

Items 132 - 135

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/t...ighway-/nYMM7/

Posted: 12:39 a.m. Sunday, June 16, 2013
Wear: Would Estancia stand in the way of Austin highway loop?

By Ben Wear
American-Statesman Staff

Texas 45 South, or at least the prospect of it providing easy access to land over the Barton Springs aquifer, for years has been something of a red cape for some of Austin’s environmentalist bulls.

For another faction, defined roughly as people who just want to make it easier to get around, the notional highway just south of Austin would be a good thing. Build it without traffic lights, along with the equally controversial Texas 45 Southwest, and Austin would fill a gap between Interstate 35 and MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1), finally getting that elusive expressway loop that road fans say the city needs.

[DougRockstead]

I live in South Austin (near Manchaca Elementary) and this has been on my mind, not just Estancia, but the toll road.

My wife and I took a drive out on 1626 looking for subdivisions and we noticed not too far past Brodie ( a few miles) they are building a bridge and it mentions that it's part of state hwy 45. It looks like a big project. Anyone know anything about this?

Estancia looks interesting because of the location, but I'm looking for a lot that's at least half an acre in size. I'm torn between waiting to see if any builders are going to have lots anywhere near that size (I doubt it) or if I should keep looking further south (Dripping Springs Driftwood) to find the lot I want.

[lzppjb]

I just cannot believe people are moving to Driftwood. I love how it was always so far out of the way. It's getting too busy out that way.

[Jdawgboy]

Technically we already have a loop its 290/71 to 360 to 183 and the back around to where it meets 71 by the airport. I don't see the need of another, we are just doing what the other Texas cities have done and all it does Is cause more sprawl we don't need (especially over the sensitive recharge zone and Barton Creek basin.)

Have there been any updated renderings of Estancia?

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Technically we already have a loop its 290/71 to 360 to 183 and the back around to where it meets 71 by the airport.

I think by "loop" they mean an expressway loop where one gets on/off via entrance/exit ramps. Expressway is not the word I'd use to describe 360, though. It's a divided highway with multiple traffic signals and horrendous traffic during morning/evening rush hour - especially in the area around the Pennybacker Bridge. If 360 were a true expressway, then you'd have what most people would consider a loop.

[nixcity]

There are also signals still on 183. Those 2 highways should she either under or overpasses at all of those signals before we even talk about building over the aquifer.

[BevoLJ]

Originally Posted by nixcity

There are also signals still on 183. Those 2 highways should she either under or overpasses at all of those signals before we even talk about building over the aquifer.

Exactly how I feel. The idea of building from Lakeway out between Dripping Springs/Oak Hill and over to Buda as a loop for Austin, while we have 360 full of tons of traffic lights everywhere seems really crazy.

[DougRockstead]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

Technically we already have a loop its 290/71 to 360 to 183 and the back around to where it meets 71 by the airport. I don't see the need of another, we are just doing what the other Texas cities have done and all it does Is cause more sprawl we don't need (especially over the sensitive recharge zone and Barton Creek basin.)

Have there been any updated renderings of Estancia?

That is a horrible loop. If they want that to be the loop, they need to make a real "offramp and onramp interchange." There is just to much traffic in that area.

if they do build that loop, it should alleviate quite a bit of the northbound traffic between Buda and 71. That area can get pretty congested in the mornings.

[nixcity]

That is a horrible loop. If they want that to be the loop, they need to make a real "offramp and onramp interchange." There is just to much traffic in that area.

Which specific area of the loop described would need that?
The loop already exists. You can start at Ben White and 35 and end up right at that exact same point without ever leaving a highway. The only problem is (and why it is not used as the proper bypass that it should have been at least a decade ago (really, TXDOT has effed us with 183 in particular)) that there are still a few traffic lights. If those issues were taken care of then we would see a real reduction in traffic on our one and only precious interstate.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by nixcity

...there are still a few traffic lights. If those issues were taken care of then we would see a real reduction in traffic on our one and only precious interstate.

I can't speak for 183 because I never go up that way, but on 360 northbound between Lamar Blvd and 183, I'm counting 14 traffic lights.

1. Office park that has access to the Barton Creek Greenbelt.
2. Entrance to Barton Creek Square Mall
3. Walsh Tarleton
4. Westbank Drive
5. Lost Creek Blvd.
6. Las Cimas Pkwy.
7. Pascal Lane
8. Westlake Drive
9. Cedar St.
10. Courtyard Drive
11. Lakewood Drive
12. Spicewood Springs Rd (west of 360)
13. Spicewood Springs Road (east of 360)
14. Great Hills Trail.

There's additional streets that cross 360, but don't have traffic signals like Stone Ridge Road, Parkstone Heights Drive, Waymaker Way, and 2 crossings for Wild Basin Road - one to go east into the park and a different one to go west onto Wild Basin Rd. Also, most (or maybe all) of 360 doesn't have frontage roads. That's a lot of work to be done to bring it up to expressway standards like Ben White is today.

[Austin_Expert]

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

I can't speak for 183 because I never go up that way, but on 360 northbound between Lamar Blvd and 183, I'm counting 14 traffic lights.

1. Office park that has access to the Barton Creek Greenbelt.
2. Entrance to Barton Creek Square Mall
3. Walsh Tarleton
4. Westbank Drive
5. Lost Creek Blvd.
6. Las Cimas Pkwy.
7. Pascal Lane
8. Westlake Drive
9. Cedar St.
10. Courtyard Drive
11. Lakewood Drive
12. Spicewood Springs Rd (west of 360)
13. Spicewood Springs Road (east of 360)
14. Great Hills Trail.

Make it 18. You left out the two stoplights for NB and SB Loop 1, along with the two stoplights at NB and SB 183. It really is a travesty that Austin can't get it's act together regarding transportation. But, we really have no one to blame but ourselves. It's the inept people we choose to elect.