May 10, 2010

Whisper Valley PUD gets go-ahead from Environmental Board

By Mark Richardson

The sounds of saws, hammers and nails have been fairly scarce in Austin’s Desired Development Zone since the City Council designated the region east of I-35 as a priority for the city’s growth several years ago. That could begin to change soon as plans for Whisper Valley, a 2,066-acre planned unit development (PUD) east of SH-130, began moving through the city’s boards and commissions last week.

Taurus Development, the company behind Whisper Valley, brought their plans before the city’s Environmental Board, seeking and getting approval for several environmental variances in its PUD application. The project is for a proposed mixed residential, retail, office, and commercial development that would be built out over two decades.

Steve Metcalfe of Metcalfe Williams LLP, representing the developer, said Whisper Valley will be a major project when it is completed.

“There will be about 5,000 single family units and about 2,500 multi-family units and about 1.8 million square feet of commercial at build-out,” he said. “The development is planned to be rolled out in about nine phases over some 15 or 20 years – so all this will not be happening overnight.”

The development was first proposed back in 2008, along with a second, smaller Indian Hills project west of SH-130. (See In Fact Daily, April 18, 2008) City staff has been working with the developers since mid-2009, when Council authorized staff to begin negotiations and execute a development agreement for the projects.

City planners have been working with Taurus to develop a process through which the city will have a certain amount of control over how the area is developed without spending its tax dollars on developing the infrastructure. Those goals will be accomplished through such tools as limited purpose annexation of the area and the creation of a public improvement district (PID) at the site.

Whisper Valley PUD would be located in the general vicinity of SH-130 and FM 973 in East Travis County in Austin’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). The planned extension of Braker Lane would run east-west through the area, intersected by Gilliland Creek, which will serve as an anchor point for a 600-acre park planned for the area.

Metcalfe told board members that there are 13 critical environmental features on the site.

“We plan to preserve seven of them, including several small tributaries that feed into Gilliland Creek,” he said. “And most of the rest of the features are manmade stock ponds that will be converted into pollution-control ponds.”

Metcalfe said the site plan includes a total of about 700 acres of parkland, including a large, regional park that will be mostly in the Gilliland Creek area and a number of smaller pocket parks that will be located in other parts of the development.

“We have three main environmental goals for the project,” he said. “We plan to protect the natural drainage patterns into Gilliland Creek in the area. As we develop the area, we plan to actually improve the water quality. And we’ll plan an aggressive tree preservation and replacement plan that will replace lost trees on a two-to-one basis.”

There are tentative plans to assist in providing civic amenities such as schools, fire stations, libraries, and a park-and-ride location in the development.

Keith Mars with the Planning and Development Review Department said that following extensive negotiations with the developers, the project met all the requirements for a PUD and that staff was recommending the project for approval.

Environmental Board members, with just a few technical questions about how the watershed would be protected during development, generally praised the project and gave its endorsement on a 7-0 vote. The next stop for Whisper Valley will be before the Zoning and Platting Commission on May 18.