OK. I just got blindsided by this story.
The Austin Chronicle has just published one of the most balanced and insightful articles about Downtown Austin condos I’ve ever read. Below are a handful of quotes taken from our beloved local-leftist-zealously-liberal rag(?)
“…Austin has a reputation nationally as being a pain-in-the-ass city in which to get a project done. (Thank demanding city regulations and laborious processes, environmental protections, and our activist neighborhood associations and citizens.) Our reputation actually helped stabilize the Austin market, discouraging overbuilding and a Miami-like volume of investor-driven projects.”
Benefits to the city:
“As Mayor Wynn points out, on average, 80 percent of all taxes generated Downtown go to provide services outside of Downtown, in effect subsidizing other areas of town”
Benefits of high density:
“High-rise development also contains city costs, in comparison to the suburban model. “If 178 families live on 1-acre lots, the city is charged with maintaining four to five miles of streets, water lines, wastewater lines, drainage pipes,” and so forth, said Mitchell, as well as city services to 200-plus acres. “The Austonian abuts 334 linear feet of streets, water and wastewater pipes, and drainage pipes and consumes less than an acre of land. That makes it far more sustainable, and less expensive to the city, than a sprawling subdivision of similarly priced homes.“
