Mayor calls for downtown boom

Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell gave his State of Downtown Address during the Downtown Austin Alliance’s annual luncheon Wednesday with a focus on redevelopment for economic growth.

The luncheon addressed the commercial and residential growth of downtown as well as the area’s attractiveness to investors and mass urban transportation. The alliance, founded in 1993, is comprised of property owners, businesses and individuals who seek to promote the quality of downtown.

“A thriving downtown equals safe, livable neighborhoods all across Austin,” Leffingwell said.

“So we need to continue to combat the notion that downtown development is bad, that downtown is already overdeveloped or that we put too much purpose on downtown. It’s not, it isn’t and we don’t.”

Leffingwell said that in the last five years, downtown has added 3,500 residential units and has attracted 5,000 new residents. Approximately 875,000 square feet of office space and 250,000 square feet of retail space have been added.

According to the alliance’s annual report, downtown generates more than $145 million in property, sales and mixed-beverage taxes every year. Out of every dollar downtown generates, $0.80 is used to provide services for areas outside of downtown.

The area has more than 67,000 daytime employees, 8,000 residents and 363,000 residents living within a 10-minute drive of the area.

“The biggest problem by far is traffic congestion. It’s difficult to get anywhere in town,” said City Councilman Bill Spelman.

“We are going to have to find ways of solving that problem and probably thinking even further outside the box than we have been.”

Spelman said that two solutions are staggered hours for businesses and riding bikes to the downtown area. However, the mayor and the council are working toward a larger transportation proposal that seeks to implement an urban rail system in the area.

“Some people are skeptical of rail,” Leffingwell said. “For those people, I would only ask you, study our urban rail proposal objectively when it comes, and then you can decide to support it.”

The alliance’s five-year strategic plan centers around six priorities: improving transportation, creating the Congress Avenue “Wow” experience, transforming East Sixth Street, promoting economic vitality, improving basics and public realm and developing downtown leadership capacity.

The experience will turn Congress into a “Great Street” with a contiguous experience from the Capitol to Lady Bird Lake.

It will reserve the street for the core urban rail, limiting bus routes to secondary streets. It will apply lighting, landscaping, aesthetics and art and will maintain cleanliness, safety and public order.

The East Sixth Street plan will address public order, safety and homelessness. Redevelopment of the area, including rezoning, will establish new uses in the district and will adhere to code compliance and preserve historic sites.

The plan also proposes adding two downtown rangers that will act as safety ambassadors as well as two overtime walking-beat Austin Police Department officers. A camera system in key areas with improved lighting in areas such as Brush Square and the Austin Convention Center has also proposed.

The alliance will participate in the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, and Leffingwell said he and his council have sought other solutions, such as an integrated housing facility similar to one established in San Antonio that Councilwoman Sheryl Cole visited.

“The homeless are not so much a problem for downtown; it’s the inappropriate behavior of individuals,” said alliance executive director Charlie Betts. “That’s a community challenge that we are interested in seeing solved.”

Larger renovations include the Waller Creek Tunnel Project, which will create a tunnel to redirect flood waters and allow the area to be developed for commercial and residential use. Republic Square will be regraded with new trees and a new deck, and Brush Square will receive a new artist-designed courtyard by 2010.

“I’d like to see Sixth Street rise up in profile,” said Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League. “I like what’s happening with the Waller Creek redevelopment, I want to see how Sixth Street ties into that — I think it can be a real showpiece for the city.”

Spelman said the redevelopment plan will be finalized and implemented in early 2010. However, the downtown envisioned may not be realized without first overcoming challenges in the current economy.

“In the near term, we will likely experience uncertainty. We will have some setbacks,” said Leffingwell. “The ride ahead is going to get a little bumpy, but even though it may be partly cloudy here now, I am very confident that the weather at our destination will be sunny — clear and very cool.”

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