 "Photo: Devin Kani")
The first in a series of public hearings on the development of the Brackenridge Tract was held Wednesday night at the Lower Colorado River Authority headquarters by urban design firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners.
The UT System Board of Regents picked the New York firm in April to develop a master plan for the lakeside tract. The firm will submit at least two development proposals by June 2009.
After Paul Milana, a partner in the firm, gave a PowerPoint presentation, the floor opened to public comments. The overwhelming sentiment was a desire to maintain the tract's current composition of apartments, schools, open space, a golf course and a biology field lab as much as possible.
Local resident Mary Boffman pleaded with the New York firm not to alter Matthews Elementary School. Many of the school's students are children of UT graduate students living on the tract.
UT graduate student Naminata Diabate stressed the need for affordable housing for graduate students. She reminded the firm that graduate students with teaching assistantships receive salaries only nine months of the year. She said graduate students would be open to living anywhere close to campus as long as it was affordable.
Brackenridge Tract resident and architect Peter Pfeiffer, who described himself as a realist, was one of the few voices who seemed resigned to significant changes to Brackenridge. He urged that if there is to be development, it should involve high-rise buildings on dense spaces.
"I would rather go up than sprawl on this land," Pfeiffer said.
Cooper, Robertson & Partners Managing Director David McGregor said there was no question that the open, green spaces on the tract add to property values. He said his firm would take this into account as it moved forward.
The Board of Regents made the hearings a requisite of any development process on the Brackenridge Tract.
"The regents remain committed to an open and transparent process," said UT System spokesman Anthony de Bruyn.
Col. George Washington Brackenridge donated the land - which sits on the banks of Lady Bird Lake just west of Mopac Boulevard - in 1910 for educational purposes in hopes that the main campus would be relocated there.
A biological field lab, 515 graduate student apartments, a city golf course, youth center and the Lower Colorado River Authority headquarters currently occupy the tract.
The Brackenridge Tract Task Force, a special team headed by UT alumnus Larry Temple, was created in July 2006 to determine the best uses of the land. The task force's recommendations eventually led to the firm's involvement.
Lawrence Gilbert, head of the biological field lab on the tract, said he has met with the firm several times.
"I think they're very positive, and at this point they're asking the right questions and they're just gathering information," Gilbert said. "They seem seriously interested in being able to communicate to people at the University the costs and the benefits of various paths they might take."
Gilbert said he expects the field lab to have some kind of physical presence on the new tract but that it remains to be seen what it will look like.
The next scheduled public hearing is on Aug. 12.
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