REDEVELOPMENT
Planning the future of Waller Creek
Storm water drainage tunnel would remove lots of prime downtown real estate from the flood plain.

By Thom White

AUSTIN August 27, 2008 -- At the end of April, the Waller Creek Citizen Advisory Committee released new "visuals" on city plans to build a giant storm drain tunnel and eventually artificially control the flow of water in Waller Creek to create a fanciful new "Austin Riverwalk" in the middle of downtown.

The Waller Creek Citizen Advisory Committee was created by the city to communicate with the public on the planned Waller Creek redevelopment between Waterloo Park and the river, and the project's first step, a storm water drainage tunnel that has received city funding.

The tunnel will be 22 feet in diameter, and starting at 12th and Red River, it will go down 70 feet below Sabine Street and then head straight south to meet with Town Lake near Waller Beach.

At Waterloo Park, where the tunnel begins, proponents plan a pump station; during dry weather (which is over 300 days a year in Austin) this machinery will be constantly pumping water out of Town Lake and into the "revitalized" Waller Creek.

Once this underground drainage and water pump system is complete, the city of Austin will be able to artificially control the water level in Waller Creek, making (somebody's) longtime dreams of an "Austin Riverwalk" a real possibility.

The city's web site reports that, "Espey Consultants has been hired, in a joint venture with KBR [Kellogg, Brown & Root, former subsidiary of Halliburton], to lead the construction of the actual tunnel, focusing on flood control and water quality."

Proponents of artificially controlling the flow of water in Waller Creek say the first phase of the project, the storm water bypass tunnel, will help reduce flooding, and in fact, will remove acres of land from the flood plains around the creek, automatically making those lands more valuable and "buildable." For example, Palm Park and Palm School (built in 1892) along I-35 at Cesar Chavez would be removed from the 100-year floodplain.

The Daily Texan reported (5/1/08), "The project is expected to remove an estimated 1.2 million square feet of land from the floodplain of the lower Waller Creek watershed. This will allow development opportunities in the area and also divert floodwaters that create erosion problems and safety concerns."

This tunnel will affect all the land along Waller Creek between 12th and Red River and down south of Cesar Chavez into the Rainey Street neighborhood. The recently completed Mexican-American Cultural Center and a couple high-rise condominiums have also just been erected in this emerging part of downtown Austin.

A bright future for the creek?

The Austin City Council has hired the ROMA Design Group to come up with a master plan for the Waller Creek district. Roma is charged with "the creation of a vision and implementation strategy for the development of Waller Creek for the next 20 years. The Master Plan is anticipated to require approximately 24 months to complete and will be carefully coordinated with the Downtown Austin Plan."

In the Waller Creek committee's November 2007 PowerPoint presentation entitled "Waller Water Works" [link to PDF], tunnel proponents offer many innovations for the district between Red River and I-35, with their vision for Waller Creek once city officials have the power to control the water level with the pumping system from Town Lake up to Waterloo Park, where the water will flow back down to the river with a planned depth of 3 to 4 feet at all times.

At the southern terminus of the tunnel, planners envision a "Town Lake Amphitheatre," a venue for events along the waterfront, along with upgraded facilities for rowers.

The ROMA Group has been paid by the city to create some "neat" images of what they call the "I-35 makeover." For the parking lots beneath I-35 at 6th Street that serve as free parking during the daytime, and as relatively safe pay parking at night, Roma Group proposes adding some futuristic curved poles jutting out from the freeway, and other trendy façade features to make the place look more like high-class airport parking.

The report describes how in 1839, Edwin Waller, master architect for the new capital of Texas, put the heart of the city on the north bank of the Colorado River, between Shoal Creek and what is now Waller Creek. But then the report says, especially since the Great Waller Creek Flood of 1915, when the creek overflowed and more than 30 people died, that Waller Creek has been a "problem area" for Austin. Nowadays, with its walkways neglected and in disrepair, the creek suffers from a general trashiness, and as the report states, certain portions of Waller Creek are now a haven for homeless people and other independent types.

Tunnel proponents say that previous public works and beautification projects have suffered the effects of erosion, but this massive project will put an end to all that, and bring the creek under the full control of human engineers.

Proponents of the Waller Creek storm water bypass tunnel have big promises about the project. Blogger "Dee in Austin" promoted the tunnel in her March 2008 entry, saying, "…the Waller Creek project will create a beautiful, urban green space that both current and future generations can be proud of."

"Tax increment finance" scheme helps fund tunnel project

In 1998, Austin voters approved a $25,000,000 bond to fund construction and improvements to Waller Creek, so that bond funds about 20% of the project, because the estimated cost for the tunnel is now about $127,000,000.

This project is made possible through a common urban redevelopment scheme called "tax increment financing." The city is counting on a substantial property value increase (and thus annual tribute to the city through taxes based on property value) for all the land that would no longer be in the "storm water flood zone" as a result of the bypass tunnel.

Waller Creek committee spokeswoman Kimberly Springer told the Daily Texan that this tunnel has been under discussion since the 1970s, but things got moving last year when councilmembers were able to devise a "rob Peter to pay Paul" strategy to divert expected tax revenue over the next decades to build the tunnel, without raising taxes (for now):

"In 2007, there was more steam behind the project. Betty Dunkerley and Sheryl Cole have been major proponents of this project and they really pushed through the finance part of the project," Springer said. A re-allocation of property taxes from the creek's surrounding areas will be the primary funding for the project, Springer said. "There won't be an increase in taxes, but rather the residents will continue to pay taxes as they normally do, but some of these taxes will be put towards the project," she said.

The city's web site gave many important details on how exactly the $127 million tunnel is being justified economically:

The proposed funding for the project would be provided by a 20-year Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district that would run along the creek. The TIF would capture additional property tax revenue above the baseline, which would be set once the TIF is put in place. The revenue from the TIF would be used to repay almost $100 million in additional revenue bonds, which will be issued to fund the construction of the tunnel. The City of Austin would commit 100% of its property tax revenue from the TIF, and the County would contribute 50% of its tax revenue. According to projections, the City could receive about $111 million in additional property tax revenues from development along the tunnel in the first 20 years of the TIF.

Travis County would receive about $120 million in additional property tax revenue, half of which would be contributed to the project. The City would contribute the remainder of the cost for construction, operations and maintenance of the tunnel in the first 20 years. After that, the city would take over the cost of maintaining the tunnel. The project will not go forward without the support and financial commitment of the County.

Proponents for the approval of the project say the revitalization of Waller Creek has the potential to benefit the beautification of I-35, connectivity of East and West Austin and spur the development of millions of dollars in tax base previously located in the flood plain.

On March 27, 2007, Travis County commissioners unanimously approved the county's financial partnership with the city of Austin to divert property tax revenues to fund the Waller Creek Tunnel project and in April 2007, the city began the formal work to create the tax increment finance zone.

Thom White is editor of CITIZINE, a music and news magazine based in Austin, Texas.
Contact Thom @ CITIZINE@CITIZINEmag.com

Waller Creek Citizen Advisory Committee

On April 12, 2007, the Austin City Council created the Waller Creek Citizen Advisory Committee. The following individuals representing various organizations were appointed to serve on the committee.

Bill Spelman, Chair -- Board of Liveable City; Ph.D. from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Sam Archer, Vice-Chair -- Real estate agent with Coldwell Banker; graduate of Harvard and Masters from the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Dave Anderson -- Engineer and Client Services Manager with Black & Veatch Corporation.

Tracy Atkins -- Board of Downtown Austin Alliance; engineer who has worked for Exxon and Motorola.

Jeb Boyt -- Parks and Recreation Board; Assistant Attorney General in Office of the Attorney General.

Shea Cline -- General Manager at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown.

George Cofer -- Executive Director of the Hill Country Conservancy.

Ron Flores -- Owner of Habana restaurants; Former electrical engineer for Applied Materials.

Dave Foster -- Clean Water Action Program Director; on the board of Liveable City and Envision Central Texas.

Bill Ikard -- Real estate attorney; partner with Ikard Wynne & Ratliff LLP.

Saundra Kirk -- Employee of Texas Workforce Commission; Planning Commission member.

Jean Mather -- Serving on the Historical Landmark Commission and is president of South River City Citizens, Austin's first neighborhood group; master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard School of Design.

Donato Rodriguez -- City of Austin employee, thespian, Austin resident since 1972.

Ted Siff -- Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association, graduate of Harvard College.

Diana Zuniga -- Commercial real estate developer; investor in 42-story Spring Condominiums.

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Get Involved!

Waller Creek Citizen Advisory Committee
Calendar of Public Meetings
City Hall, Board & Commissions Room (301 W. 2nd St.)

Thursday, September 18

Thursday, October 16

Thursday, November 13

All meetings at 6:00 p.m.