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For decades, East 22nd Street has served as a kind of seam in the Blackland neighborhood — close enough to Manor Road to feel the spillover from restaurants, traffic and nightlife, yet still residential in character.
That informal boundary is now at the center of a zoning dispute returning to the Austin Planning Commission this Tuesday, Jan. 27, as the owner of two lots on the street seeks permission to introduce limited neighborhood-scale commercial uses just south of the Manor Road corridor.
The proposal concerns 2108 and 2110 East 22nd St., two residentially zoned parcels located behind the upscale seafood restaurant Este. The restaurant’s owner, Sam Hellman-Mass, is requesting both a zoning change and an amendment to a future land use map that would allow for a small breakfast-and-lunch restaurant, office space and continued use of an on-site garden.
City planning staff have recommended approval, framing the request as a context-sensitive transition between the Manor Road commercial corridor and single-family homes one block south.
John Tomko, a city planner familiar with the case, said staff view the request as distinct from rezonings that involve demolishing existing homes or extending commercial zoning deeper into neighborhoods.
“This is a very limited version of neighborhood commercial zoning,” he said. “It’s intentionally constrained.”
But some Blackland residents argue that allowing commercial zoning facing East 22nd Street would mark a permanent shift in what’s normalized for the neighborhood’s future.
“Manor Road has been zoned for commercial use for years,” former city council member Ora Houston, a longtime Blackland resident, wrote in an email obtained by Austin Free Press. “But the lots on East 22nd Street have always been residential. That distinction matters when you’re trying to preserve what remains of a historic neighborhood.”
The area lies within Austin’s African American Cultural Heritage District, and Houston cited the neighborhood’s roots in segregation-era housing patterns as one reason land-use changes carry heightened stakes. She also pointed to existing parking congestion tied to nearby restaurants and events, arguing that a daytime restaurant would extend traffic impacts from early morning into the evening. More fundamentally, she warned that approving commercial zoning facing East 22nd Street could encourage similar requests from other property owners.
“If this happens, it sets a precedent,” Houston wrote. “Other developers holding residential lots will seek commercial zoning because this was approved.”
Another potential concern is a new deregulatory state law enacted last September. SB840 generally grants developers of commercially zoned properties the right to build denser, taller housing developments as a matter of right – without the need to obtain city-approved rezonings.
Asked if the proposed commercial zoning on East 22nd Street opens up a Pandora’s box under SB840, city planner John Tomko did not rule that out. “I think that is a bit of an extreme take on this case,” he said in a statement to Austin Free Press. Citing pockets of more intense zoning in the area surrounding the site, Tomko wrote, “This case is hardly precedent setting.”
For Andrew Bucknall, executive director of the Blackland Community Development Corporation, the debate reflects long-standing tensions between growth, land values and neighborhood stability in East Austin.
“People’s sensitivity to land-use changes here is rooted in lived experience,” Bucknall said. “There’s a long history of displacement tied to public policy decisions.”
Specifically at issue is a request to change the zoning on the two parcels from single-family residential status (SF-3-NP) to neighborhood commercial with a conditional overlay (LR-CO-NP). The proposal includes a change to the future land use map, which serves as a blueprint for subsequent development.
The proposed zoning would permit limited commercial uses, including a small restaurant, but only under additional restrictions imposed by the conditional overlay. Planning staff say those conditions are intended to reduce intensity, prohibit higher-impact uses and require compatibility with nearby homes.
The site totals just over half an acre and sits roughly one block south of Manor Road, which the city’s comprehensive plan identifies as a mixed-use activity corridor. City staff note that the parcels have not been used for housing in recent years and have instead functioned as a garden and informal parking area associated with nearby restaurants.
Image credit: Andrew Wheat.
Supporters of the rezoning argue that the request formalizes existing conditions and creates a regulated transition between the corridor and the neighborhood. Opponents counter that zoning classifications matter regardless of informal use, and that approving commercial zoning on East 22nd Street would permanently redraw a boundary that has historically protected residential blocks.
The case was postponed in December after neighbors requested more time to organize and submit feedback, including letters both opposing and supporting the rezoning. When commissioners revisit it on Tuesday, they’ll be asked to weigh whether the proposal is a narrowly tailored infill project or a precedent-setting move in a neighborhood already under sustained development pressure.
If approved, the zoning change would not authorize construction immediately. Any development would still require site plan approval, a later phase of review that addresses building placement, parking, traffic access and compatibility measures. If denied, the lots would remain zoned for single-family residential use.
City planning staff members acknowledge tension with the Upper Boggy Creek Neighborhood Plan, which generally discourages converting residential land to commercial use. The recommendation seeks to reconcile that conflict by emphasizing the narrow scope of the rezoning and the additional restrictions imposed by the conditional overlay.
Those restrictions include limits on restaurant size and operating hours, prohibitions on higher-impact commercial uses, plus compatibility standards intended to reduce impacts on adjacent homes.
The Drenner Group, the consulting firm representing the property owner, says the rezoning is an effort to regulate uses that have existed on the site for decades — and that it’s not an expansion of the Manor corridor.
The firm also points to site-specific constraints, including a Capitol View Corridor that limits building height, and says the project is being designed to retain open garden space along East 22nd Street while concentrating new construction toward the interior of the property.
The owners counter that parking and traffic concerns would be addressed through on-site parking, shared parking under common ownership with nearby properties and daytime-focused operating hours. If the zoning is approved, more detailed analysis would occur during site plan review.
Some nearby residents support the request, such as Don Smith and Alberto Esparza, who live directly across from the parcels.
In a letter to the Planning Commission, they said they chose the neighborhood for its proximity to restaurants and pedestrian activity, and acknowledged that traffic and parking challenges come with living near an active corridor. They also argued that the parcels have functioned as garden space associated with restaurant use for decades, and that concerns about precedent could be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
The Planning Commission’s vote will serve as a recommendation to city council rather than a final decision. Commissioners can recommend approval, denial or approval with conditions before the case advances to the council for final action.
Part of the friction surrounding the case stems from the limits of what the commission is being asked to decide at this stage.
“Zoning establishes what uses are allowed,” Tomko said. “But it doesn’t determine where the dumpster goes, how parking is laid out or how traffic moves. Those details come later.”
While Bucknall, with the Blackland Community Development Corporation, has not taken a formal position on the rezoning, he cautioned against treating any single case as a definitive measure of gentrification. In his view, zoning can influence outcomes, but preserving long-term affordability requires sustained investment in housing.
“The most durable defense against displacement is affordable housing,” Bucknall said. “That’s where community development corporations play a critical role.”
Chad Swiatecki is a 30-year journalist who relocated to Austin from his home state of Michigan in 2008. He most enjoys covering the intersection of arts, business and local/state politics. He has written for Rolling Stone, Spin, New York Daily News, Texas Monthly, Austin Monitor, Austin Business Journal, Austin American-Statesman and many other regional and national outlets.
