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Update: The Austin City Council on Thursday approved the zoning needed for the project. Specifically, the council approved a change from single-family to a multifamily designation, with Council Member Marc Duchen casting the lone dissenting vote. The zoning would allow developer OHT Partners to pursue its proposed 435-unit apartment project, but it does not resolve the separate lawsuit over deed restrictions on the former school property.
Austin ISD says it has spent months trying to negotiate changes to the proposed redevelopment of the former Rosedale School property, but district officials now say a neighborhood-backed plan for roughly 200 homes would not produce enough revenue to meet the district’s financial needs.
That dispute heads back to Austin City Council on Sept. 24, four months after council members postponed the zoning case to give the school district, nearby residents and developer OHT Partners more time to seek a compromise.
At issue is a plan to redevelop the roughly 4.6-acre former school property — near the North Austin intersection of Burnet Road and 49th Street — with about 435 apartments. Nearby residents have formally opposed the current rezoning request in a petition request but say they are open to redevelopment.
No agreement has been announced. AISD says it has met at least five times with Rosedale representatives and has continued negotiating through attorneys. The district said it and OHT Partners developed several versions of the project that would reduce the number of units and respond to concerns about building height, setbacks, traffic, aesthetics and the placement of buildings on the site.
But the district said neighborhood representatives rejected those alternatives, and it does not believe the neighborhood’s preferred scale — about 200 to 225 homes — is financially feasible.
“The redevelopment concept presented is simply not feasible,” AISD said in a written response to the Austin Free Press. The district said a smaller project would reduce the value it receives from the property sale, creating a revenue shortfall that would have to be addressed elsewhere in its budget.
AISD also said it does not support another postponement. District officials cited the urgency of generating revenue after the district closed a nearly $200 million budget gap during the last fiscal year.
“Unless they reconsider, Austin ISD will proceed as it originally planned,” the district said. The district’s original plan to build 435 apartments is roughly twice the density sought by neighborhood representatives.
Neighborhood wants fewer homes
Nearby residents are not opposed to new housing on the property, according to their formal protest petition and public statements. Instead, they argue that the proposed project should include more family-sized, “missing middle” housing such as duplexes, townhomes, walk-up flats and smaller apartment buildings.
In May, residents filed a petition opposing the rezoning request while calling for a “collaborative compromise.” The petition raised concerns about the project’s scale, traffic, affordability and environmental effects, while also describing former school properties as opportunities for affordable, family-friendly missing-middle housing.
In June, neighborhood group Play Fair with Rosedale released an alternative concept for the site. The proposal envisions roughly 150 to 225 homes, with greater density near Burnet Road and West 49th Street.
The group’s conceptual plan includes a mix of duplexes, townhomes, walk-up flats and smaller apartment buildings. It also proposes extending Rosedale Avenue north to West 49th Street to distribute traffic more evenly through the area.
Credit: Play Fair with Rosedale
Daniel Ray, a Play Fair with Rosedale leader who lives about 150 feet from the former school, said residents understand that the site will have substantially more housing.
“It’s not going to be easy to swallow, but I think the neighborhood is willing to swallow something in the neighborhood of 200 units,” he said.
Ray said residents are trying to find a balance between a project that produces significant financial benefit for AISD and one that does not overwhelm nearby streets and infrastructure.
He said he hopes an agreement can produce development that is “big enough that the school district, which we all care about, can come away with a big chunk of money,” while generating traffic that will not overwhelm the area’s “sidewalkless walkable streets.”
Lawsuit adds pressure
As the Austin Free Press previously reported, the zoning case is intertwined with a separate lawsuit involving deed restrictions that date back decades.
AISD is in court seeking to remove or overcome those restrictions, which limit development on the former school property. Some nearby owners are contesting the district’s authority to develop the site in court, even as they negotiate with the district over its proposed redevelopment of that location.
Ray said the deed restrictions give neighboring owners additional influence.
“That gives the neighborhood a unique set of levers that other neighborhoods may not have,” he said. “We are determined to use those levers to put something in place that will be acceptable to the neighborhood and good for the school district.”
Renea Hicks, the attorney representing nearby property owners, declined to discuss the substance of the negotiations, saying discussions among the residents, AISD and OHT Partners remain ongoing. OHT Partners also declined to comment.
Seeking middle ground
District 7 Council Member Mike Siegel urged the city council in May to delay the case, saying the parties needed more time to negotiate. He said council members recognized AISD’s financial pressures and the potential value of housing redevelopment for the district.
At the same time, Siegel noted that nearly 200 households had been drawn into the deed-restrictions dispute even though residents were trying to negotiate matters including setbacks, drainage and transportation improvements.
“The main goal is to allow the school district and the neighborhood to sit down and negotiate a win-win situation,” he said.
Siegel said there could be common ground in the shared interest of producing more missing-middle housing, though he cautioned that the council cannot dictate the specific form of a private development.
“It would be great if the district and the neighbors could meet in the middle,” he said. That middle remains difficult to define. AISD says its financial needs require a larger project than the neighborhood’s preferred 200-to-225-unit range. Residents say their alternative concept demonstrates support for meaningful new housing but contend that the current 435-unit proposal is out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood.
CORRECTION: An initial version of this story inadvertently excluded comments and facts provided by the Austin Independent School District. The story has been updated to provide that information and context.
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.
