City seeks public input on Seaholm multimodal plaza options; closing Power Plant Drive would cut parking

Austin Transportation and Public Works presented four design alternatives on Feb. 19 for multimodal improvements in the Seaholm area centered on Third Street and Power Plant Drive, and opened a public comment period on the options.

Transportation staff said the effort — funded in part by a $12.5 million reallocation from a closed Seaholm tax increment reinvestment zone — is intended to increase safety, improve comfort for people walking and biking, and make vehicle movements more predictable in the area around Shoal Creek and the Third Street trestle.

Alex Payson, capital improvement program manager for Transportation and Public Works, told the Downtown Commission that staff is proposing a plaza-focused concept that would close Power Plant Drive to through traffic so pedestrians, cyclists and micromobility users could move east–west across an open plaza while vehicles would use Third Street. Payson said emergency access for fire and medical providers would be retained and that parallel parking along Third Street could be preserved under several…