Austin’s Builders can now Build Taller. Will They?

The city of Austin recently greenlit changes to a density bonus program that could change the height of downtown’s tallest buildings.

On Thursday, the Austin City Council voted to adjust their density bonus program, allowing for buildings to go above the zoning’s maximum height by either 400 feet or 850 feet, according to the Austin Business Journal. The city also rezoned most downtown properties from 11th Street southward to make them eligible. Council member Zohaib Quadri added an amendment to look at widening the program to cover areas south of Lady Bird Lake.

The catch is that the additional height comes with an affordable housing requirement, or a fee-in-lieu of developing said housing, according to the publication. More design standards and subdistricts and tweaks are expected to come in the months and years in the future.

Despite the pivot, Downtown Austin developers aren’t sure the program will change much. Bill Knauss, CEO of Pearlstone Partners, and Kevin Burns, CEO of Urbanspace, don’t see many differences from this program and programs in the past, according to the outlet. Knauss just completed the Vesper condo tower on Rainey Street, an already dense mixed use area stuffed with bars, restaurants and high-rise condos.

Only two buildings in Downtown Austin are over 750 feet: the Waterline and Sixth and Guadalupe. With an office-space economy still reeling from the pandemic and a burgeoning residential push in the suburbs, maintaining momentum in Austin proper is rapidly becoming more difficult.

Regardless of the effectiveness of the new density program, it’s clear that Austin City Council is making moves to stem the flood of people moving to the suburbs, and taking their tax dollars with them. They approved an annexation of the “Dog’s Head,” a mostly-undeveloped plot of land on the Colorado River in the city’s extra-territorial jurisdiction. The land is earmarked for mixed-use development. City officials think the land could bring in over $3.5 billion in tax revenue over decades to come.

— Hunter Cooke