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City planners outline Central City District plan, propose including West Campus and phased public engagement
Summary
Austin Planning staff presented a Central City District plan update proposing to treat downtown, South Central Waterfront and West Campus as an interconnected planning district, described a three-phase engagement and said the draft plan is expected in early 2027 with council adoption aimed for late spring 2027.
Austin Planning staff told the Design Commission May 18 that the Central City District plan will fold downtown, the South Central Waterfront and West Campus into a coordinated planning area and will guide growth and public investments for roughly the next decade.
"My name is Shanisha Johnson, and I'm a principal planner with Austin Planning. I serve as the project lead for the Central City District plan," Shanisha Johnson said, explaining the plan’s purpose, advisory groups and project timeline. She said the intent is not to expand downtown but to plan the urban core more efficiently and to reinforce connections among these adjacent high-density areas.
Staff described a three-phase engagement: initial outreach in late 2025, a second phase with workshops and scenario planning underway now, and a phase 3 with a draft plan in early 2027 followed by public review and a council adoption target in late spring 2027. Johnson said staff is proposing a small extension of the original timeline to ensure the work products and community review are thorough.
Chris Ryerson, a division supervisor on the team, said the plan will use a set of place types (an analogous future land-use mapping tool) to guide where development patterns, multimodal infrastructure and public amenities are appropriate. He said staff anticipates about 12–14 place types will be used and that they will ultimately be applied parcel-by-parcel as part of implementation.
Commissioners asked about priority-setting among goals (staff said goals are not prioritized), multi-agency coordination (CapMetro, UT, TxDOT and others) and how community feedback will be synthesized into actions. Staff said stakeholder advisory groups and implementer meetings will inform final recommendations and that the team will return to boards and commissions for later briefings as the draft plan is prepared.
The commission did not take a formal vote on the plan tonight; staff requested commissioners’ comments to inform the NEPA and design-related review steps and next rounds of public engagement.
