AUSTIN | Aloft Austin & Element Hotel Downtown | 328 FEET | 31 FLOORS | Complete

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

Good question. Maybe unaffiliated private sector lots fill in that need.

I rarely rent cars on my trips. All my recent trips to Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Diego were without a vehicle and I did fine. Austin doesn't have as good a transit system as most of those, but it does have car2go and b-cycle.

You make a very good point. I have often thought it was not smart for a hotel to skip its own parking.
However, most of my work travel is to central cores, so I rarely rent cars!
Hum.... perhaps I am rethinking!
And... well.yet another agrument for rail to go to/from the Airport NOW!
( sorry , couldn't resist!)

[KevinFromTexas]

[migol24]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

NIIICE!! I like these photos with the light beam slicing right through skyscrapers like that. I can't wait to see all of 2nd Street built just to see this light effect. It will be pretty stunning!

[the Genral]

That's a flattering angle for One American Ctr. That pic should be on their web page.

[The ATX]

Here's a TWC News story about the Aloft and their somewhat whiny future neighbors. Nothing really new here, but it does say the city council will review the final plans in two weeks.

http://austin.twcnews.com/content/ne...uction-burden/

[ahealy]

Aloft will happen. Mark my words.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by ahealy

Aloft will happen. Mark my words.

I absolutely agree. White Lodging gets their stuff done.

[The ATX]

All of the City Council news from this past Thursday seemed to be about that gender neutral rest room ordinance, but they were scheduled to vote on the Aloft hotel as well. Did anyone hear how that went?

EDIT: After doing some research I answered my own question. It was approved on the first reading with the next vote scheduled for 09/25.

APPROVED FIRST READING ONLY
120 C14-2013-0158 - 7th and Congress Hotel - Conduct a public hearing and approve an ordinance amending City Code Chapter 25-2 by rezoning property locally known as 619 and 621 Congress Avenue (Lady Bird Lake Watershed) from central business district (CBD) to central business district-central urban redevelopment (CBD-CURE) combining district zoning. Staff Recommendation: To grant central business district-central urban redevelopment (CBD-CURE) combining district zoning, with conditions. Planning Commission Recommendation: To grant central business district-central urban redevelopment (CBD-CURE) combining district zoning, with conditions. Owner: Finley Company (Tim Finley, VP). Applicant: Matt Frankiewicz. Agent: Armbrust & Brown, PLLC (Lynn Ann Carley). City Staff: Lee Heckman, 512-974-7604.
POSTPONED TO SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

Item #120 http://austintexas.gov/council_meeti...es.cfm?mid=371

[The ATX]

The second reading for the zoning variance is scheduled for tomorrow. It's item 114 on the City Council's agenda. Let's hope the variance gets approved on both the second and third readings tomorrow, so we don't have to wait another month for the final approval on the third reading. I suspect White Lodging will move forward quickly with construction as soon as the final approval is granted.

http://austin.siretechnologies.com/s...doctype=agenda

[JoninATX]

I got my

[The ATX]

Clowncil postponed the vote on this until 10/02.

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by Hill Country

Clowncil postponed the vote on this until 10/02.

UGH. fuck that noise.

[KevinFromTexas]

That's only 7 days from now.

[Digatisdi]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

That's only 7 days from now.

Yeah but if you're as impatient as me, which I'm hoping some of y'all are--I want it now.

[ahealy]

Originally Posted by Digatisdi

Yeah but if you're as impatient as me, which I'm hoping some of y'all are--I want it now.

Yep We cannot wait, Kev.

[airwx]

Reading over the council documents for today, I see that there was a valid petition filed by four of the nearby businesses including The Hideout and the Stephen F Austin. You can read the petition starting on page 27 of this document. The petition was determined to be valid on August 29th, a day after the city council meeting when postponed the item to today. Is the petition the reason this is getting postponed again? Any reason to be concerned about the petition?

The wording of the petition reads:
We, the undersigned owners of property affected by the requested zoning change described in the referenced file, do hereby protest against any change of the Land Development Code which would zone the property to any classification other than CBD without a CURE overlay.
The reasons for our protest include: (1) the property is too small for the proposed hotel construction and the requested CURE overlay allows the owners to make the project even denser than it is currently entitled to be (which is already extremely dense), and (2) within the zoning request is a request to allow one loading dock instead of the two required by code, and we, as adjacent property owners, are concerned about the affect this will have on our already congested alley.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by airwx

Reading over the council documents for today, I see that there was a valid petition filed by four of the nearby businesses including The Hideout and the Stephen F Austin. You can read the petition starting on page 27 of this document. The petition was determined to be valid on August 29th, a day after the city council meeting when postponed the item to today. Is the petition the reason this is getting postponed again? Any reason to be concerned about the petition?

The wording of the petition reads:
We, the undersigned owners of property affected by the requested zoning change described in the referenced file, do hereby protest against any change of the Land Development Code which would zone the property to any classification other than CBD without a CURE overlay.
The reasons for our protest include: (1) the property is too small for the proposed hotel construction and the requested CURE overlay allows the owners to make the project even denser than it is currently entitled to be (which is already extremely dense), and (2) within the zoning request is a request to allow one loading dock instead of the two required by code, and we, as adjacent property owners, are concerned about the affect this will have on our already congested alley.

We know why the Stephen F. Austin hotel is against this. It's frickin' competition.

[The ATX]

The vote on the variance was postponed to 10/16. But this time it was at the request of the applicant.

[The ATX]

I've been wasting a lot of time today waiting for the city council to vote on the Aloft. But Morrison won't shut the hell up with her Uber and Lyft nitpicking... The Aloft vote should be after the Uber/Lyft vote.

[The ATX]

This passed on 1st reading just a few minutes ago. I thought it already passed on 1st reading but apparently not.
It was obvious that it passed only because the vote was for the setback.
Tovo said she would vote against it on 2nd reading because of the issues the Rep for the Hideout and Stephen F. Austin brought up. Morrison appeared to be against it as well for issues not related to the setback.
Parking was the main issue for the City Council. But it's clear the Rep for the two parties opposing it just doesn't want it built. The list of complaints make the project impossible to build. Plus Morrison would like to squeeze more "community benefits" out of the developers for their 23:1 FAR even though a city staffer said the ordinance for increases in FAR didn't apply to hotels in the same it does for other uses. The agreement to do Great Streets was all the developer was required do and that is part of their proposal.