CITIZINE NEWS
NEWS BRIEFS

By Thom White

August 31, 2008

AUSTIN

Continental Club seeks historic landmark status

On June 23, the Historic Landmark Commission recommended landmark status for The Continental Club, and in August, the City Council considered final approval of historic status.

The Austin American-Statesman described the history of the structure and the founding of the Continental Club (1315 So. Congress) more than fifty years ago:

Built in 1947, the 2,500-square-foot building … first housed a laundromat and an electric company, but by 1955 the Continental Club was listed at that address. According to the historic landmark application, it was probably the first bar in Travis County to sell liquor by the drink. In 1955, it operated as a private club with swing and jazz bands. But in 1957, it became a public club with live music.

An early advertisement for the club touts it as having the "finest combo music" and charcoal-broiled steaks. In the late '50s the club catered to the college crowd, and in the '60s the club is thought to have hosted exotic dancers, according to newspaper advertisements. "Local legend has it that the Continental Club was the first topless bar in Austin, and the first to be shut down," the application says. By the late '70s, the club had refocused on live music.

As a historic building, this means it will be illegal to tear down or renovate the structure (unless the city approves). Historic status gives the club some free publicity, a nifty metal plaque, and a 20 per cent reduction in property taxes. Steve Wertheimer purchased the Continental Club in 1987, and he is currently serving on the Live Music Task Force (see article). Mr. Wertheimer estimates the historical status will save him more than $1,700 a year in property taxes, based on the property's current value.

Toll road proponents push drive for "cashless society"

USA Today's Larry Copeland reported that new toll roads across the country are not employing traditional toll booths to accept payments, but instead require drivers to use a scannable electronic tag to make their payments. He pointed out Toll Road 183-A and the TxTag as prime examples of this move down the "cashless route."

With these "cashless" toll roads, Mr. Copeland reported, "overhead antennae 'read' windshield-mounted transponders in the cars beneath and charge drivers' pre-paid accounts. Overhead cameras capture license plates, and drivers without transponders get a bill in the mail."

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) in Austin and the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) in Dallas are both moving to eliminate toll booths that accept cash and coins. CTRMA spokesman Steve Pustelnyk told USA Today, "It's costing almost as much money to collect cash as the cash we're collecting," and so they are tearing down the traditional toll booths before the end of 2008.

If a driver does not have the necessary electronic tag tied to a valid account, the tolling authorities will photograph the car's license plate and send a bill to the registered address for that automobile. According to USA Today, "Drivers who ignore the bill will get a second notice and a $15 fine, a third notice with an additional $15 fine, and finally a collection notice with an another $30 fine. After that, violators are charged with a misdemeanor and must appear before a judge."

Councilman Martinez wants to ban cell phone use for drivers

In December 2007, Fox News Austin reported that City Council member Mike Martinez was "floating the idea" to use the Austin police to restrict drivers from talking on their cell phones by issuing fines to any drivers they catch in the act.

In February 2008, Mike Martinez said the restriction on drivers should be citywide, not just in school zones. He told the Daily Texan (2/7/08), "If it is good enough for our school zones and children, then it should be good enough for the rest of Austin. ... I think we can all agree there have been a lot of accidents or near misses where a person was using a cell phone ... I think [the ban] is something to implement."

Mr. Martinez even wanted to ban drivers from engaging in "hands-free" cellular communication as well in his February proposal.

In August, the Houston-area town of West University Place tested the waters in the "cell phone ban on drivers" debate by enacting a partial ban (even against hands-free communication), this one confined to a three-block radius around the community's school, and only during school hours. The Associated Press reported:

West University Place Mayor Bob Kelly said the city decided to create the no-phone zone around the city's only school due to concerns for children and the amount of congestion there each morning and afternoon. … City officials said they decided to implement the law after a California study showed that use of either hand-held or hands-free phones had a distracting effect on drivers equal to driving drunk. "That, I think, is what pushed us over to decide that it's not a question of hands-free or hand-held," Kelly said. "It's just a question of talking on a cell phone." … Drivers will be fined up to $200 for a first offense. Subsequent offenses can cost $500.

Cell phone ban proponents say if a driver must call or communicate with friends, family, or law enforcement for any reason, she must pull over or the police may give her a fine because she is endangering public safety.

In early August, KXAN news reported that Mr. Martinez's cell phone ban is "still on the table," although scaled back to allow hands-free communication. In an interview, Mr. Martinez said, "I'm still of the mindset to have an ordinance to ban texting and using a cell phone via your hands while you're driving … If you're driving your car, and you're holding your phone up to your ear, the officer would have the right to pull you over and cite you or warn you."

Mr. Martinez also told KXAN, "he is meeting with various cell phone companies to talk about the proposal and whether they would support giving away hands-free devices to people who can't afford them."

Mike Martinez has strong ties with the firefighters' union, helping to formulate "collective bargaining rights" for firefighters, and serving as chair of the Austin Firefighters Association political action committee from 2001-04. He was elected to Austin City Council in 2006.

COMMENTARY

Concordia campus sold off for high-density development

By Thom White

The entire campus of Concordia University is being demolished to make room for a brand new urbanist planned development which will include at least two high-rise office buildings and an "upscale apartment community" under the direction of AMLI Residential.

Concordia is a Lutheran university that has occupied the almost 23-acre site since 1926, an area between Red River and I-35, just a few blocks north of the University of Texas law campus.

Many people who live in Austin cruising down Red River or stuck at a stop light along I-35, may not have ever noticed the "sleepy little campus" at Concordia, tucked away off Red River near the U.T. Law campus and the neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Hancock Park. Already the baseball stadium and facilities at the southern end of the campus (32nd Street and the I-35 access road) have been demolished, and a towering crane stands in the middle of the destruction/construction site.

Earlier this summer, the school's faculty moved all of their most precious belongings to Concordia's spacious new digs on the fringes of Austin, on the Balcones Canyonland Preserves, out west in the "ever-developing" Hill Country.

It has been more than three years since Concordia officials approved moving the entire university out of central Austin, to somewhere with more room for students to stretch their legs, away from the hustle and bustle along the Interstate 35 double-decker freeway.

According to KVUE news (7/22/08), the new campus out west is 365 acres total, and will allow the school to enroll twice as many students for the Fall 2008 semester as they ever could at the original campus.

The Austin Chronicle's Wells Dunbar reported (7/14/06) that the prime location of the university's plot is valued at more than $80,000,000 in the current market. He reported important details about the university's planned move:

In May 2005, Concordia's board of regents announced its intent to move to a larger campus. More than a year later, the board has nearly finalized the purchase of the Schlumberger oil company's old research campus in Northwest Austin, within the lush Balcones Canyon Preserve. Rechristened as the Austin Hill Country Reserve, the Schlumberger campus served as R&D headquarters before the company's move to Houston; Concordia plans to renovate and approximately double the site's 195,000 square feet of infrastructure. The Lutheran university is also eager to build sports fields and facilities, which it doesn't have the space for today. "This is a 22-plus-acre piece of land," says Concordia spokesman Don Adam of the current campus. "We don't have the room."

Mr. Dunbar reported that the developers plan to build very tall (almost 300 feet in height) buildings, especially along the freeway access road. They have hopes that these skyscrapers could artificially "insulate" the western part of the development from some of the "highway sound."

The official developer of the new "mixed-use" project on the 23-acre lot is a specially formed legal entity, East Avenue Investment Group, LP. Spokesmen for the company describe how in the three prime real estate measurements of value, "location, location, and location," this land really stacks up impressively:

East Avenue spans a 23-acre site and is located in the heart of Austin's urban core on the former Concordia University campus. It is directly off the region's foremost traveled highway, Interstate 35, and bounded by Concordia Avenue to the north and 32nd Street to the south. The prime location is just three minutes from downtown, directly across the street from St. David's Medical Center, three blocks away from the University of Texas at Austin, and one exit south of the Mueller redevelopment.

The entire project is called "East Avenue," because the southbound Interstate 35 access road is actually called East Avenue, the route of the most easterly street in the city's original plans.

So do neighbors around the campus, and Austinites in general, really "want" or "need" another high-density new urbanist experiment in their town? Developers say signs point to a resounding "YES."

From a company press release (8/10/07), East Avenue IG leader Andy Sarwal said, "The market is ripe and wants this product. The site's incredible location in the heart of Austin makes it a slam dunk spot for a variety of companies and retailers."

However, developers paint a dire picture of the future of Austin, where those "in-the-know" will literally flock to "mixed-use developments" like East Avenue where they can "do it all" within biking distance: "As the area grows and congestion only continues to worsen, more and more people find themselves attracted to a lifestyle of convenience. They have literally fallen in love with the idea of living, working, shopping and dining within a relatively tight geographic radius."

But could this new urbanist experiment be (un)intentionally overcrowding our cities and motorways?

How can high-density development be a solution to our problems (traffic congestion, lack of affordable housing, destruction of the environment), when it is clearly a contributing factor that could be leading us straight to the "polluted" and "congested" future" that East Avenue IG predicts? Is this not a "self-fulfilling prophecy" that these high-density developers are (wittingly or unwittingly) coordinating to unleash on Austin? In the next decades, we will be able to see if the glitz and glamour of "green urban living" rings true, or whether seductive "vertical mixed-use" development simply leads us to an Austin filled with "big city problems."

Leading companies involved with East Avenue IG

So who is behind East Avenue I.G.? According to the company web site, "The team is led by Andy Sarwal, who has a background in venture finance and real estate. Lehman Brothers funded the site-acquisition loan while East Avenue Investment Group owns all of the equity in the project."

In October 2007, it was announced that AMLI Residential Partners, LLC is slated to build a 64-foot-tall, 315-unit apartment building near the northwest corner of the development. According to the Austin Business Journal (10/17/07), AMLI already operates more than 2,000 apartments in the Austin area and is in the midst of building hundreds more.

Other companies who have publicly announced involvement in the East Avenue project include:

-- Global Hyatt Corporation, which owns Hyatt hotels and plans to open a ritzy "Andaz" brand hotel on the lot.
-- Treaty Oak Bank was the first office tenant announced.
-- Texas Monthly, a glossy political magazine, has agreed to be a "lead tenant" in one of the office buildings.
-- Aquila Commercial, a company founded in 2007 by former employees of powerful national real estate management and development companies such as CB Richard Ellis and Trammell Crow Co., will handle marketing and leasing office space in the high-rise office buildings, and Level Partners (based in California) will deal with renting out the ground-level retail space.