Environmental Commission recommends approval of 500 South Congress PUD with riparian restoration and environmental conditions

The Austin Environmental Commission recommended approval on June 4 of a Planned Unit Development for 500 South Congress, a 6.48-acre mixed-use project in the South Central Waterfront area, with conditions to limit environmental impacts and restore riparian habitat.

The commission’s recommendation follows a Watershed Protection Department presentation and a developer briefing on a plan the applicant describes as 950 residential units, a 225-key hotel, 600,000 square feet of office, and about 155,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space including a grocery store. Shawn Watson, environmental program coordinator with the Watershed Protection Department, said, "Staff recommends approval of 500 Planned Unit Development with the following conditions," and then read a set of environmental conditions and code modifications the department supports.

Why it matters: The site sits partly inside the 100-year floodplain and the critical water quality zone of East Bouldin Creek and Lady Bird Lake watersheds. The PUD seeks exemptions to some code standards in exchange for environmental "superiority" measures the applicant proposes, including reducing impervious cover in the critical area, restoring riparian habitat, and increasing floodplain storage volume.

Key project details and proposed environmental measures: The applicant presented the following principal elements: the site is 6.48 acres in Austin full-purpose jurisdiction (Council District 9); existing impervious cover in the critical area is 48.2 percent and the proposal would reduce that to about 20.7 percent; the project would remove approximately…