Planning commission backs developer request for two downtown towers after debate over contamination and height

The Austin Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the applicant’s requested downtown density‑bonus entitlements for a full‑block redevelopment on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (the Jack Brown Cleaners site), after staff presentations, an applicant rebuttal and more than an hour of public testimony and commissioner questions.

Urban Design staff told commissioners the project proposes roughly 435 residential units plus retail and hotel uses and seeks to increase base entitlements from a 5:1 floor‑area ratio (FAR) to 20:1 and to raise maximum building heights from the existing 120 feet to as much as 445 feet. Staff recommended a more limited approval — "approve up to 200 feet maximum building height and the corresponding floor area ratio" — to maintain consistency with surrounding entitlement patterns and ongoing central city planning work, Jorge Rosalind of Urban Design said.

Neighborhood residents and an environmental consultant urged caution. Brad Snow, a licensed professional engineer and geologist retained by Judges' Hill neighbors, cited Texas Commission on Environmental Quality records and US EPA screening levels and said groundwater…