2023 HOME EDITION
1984 A grassroots group called Citizens for Airport Relocation, or CARE, creates a vision plan to move Austin’s airport and transform the land into a high-density development.
1999 The Robert Mueller Municipal Airport o cially closes.
2002 After a nationwide search, Austin selects Catellus Development Corp. as the master planner.
2019 The Austin Energy headquarters relocates to Mueller.
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020
2007 The rst residents move into the Mueller neighborhood. Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas opens in Mueller.
1993 Austin voters approve bonds to build its new airport at the recently decommissioned Bergstrom Air Force Base.
2000 Austin City Council approves the RMMA redevelopment and reuse plan.
2024: Mueller’s master plan is complete.
MUELLER'S PILLARS
Before Mueller was built, the community put together pillars that guided the development process.
Implementation Advisory Commission unanimously approved a motion in February asking City Council to look into Mueller’s long-term a ordability before Catellus’ agreement expires in December 2024. Despite Mueller’s success, the development’s roughly 1,700 a ordable housing units barely make a dent in the city’s overall goal to add 60,000 a ordable housing units by 2028. Replicating a ordable housing sites similar to Mueller can be a di cult, costly process, Austin Housing Coalition Chair Abby Tatkow said. Austin has limited undeveloped land that can be used for a master-planned community, and bringing a ordable housing to already-developed neighborhoods brings on additional challenges, she said. “We have a very robust noti cation system that [noti es residents] that development is happening in their neighborhood, but it also gives a lot of power to the individual to protest zoning changes that can allow more dense or a ordable housing,” Tatkow said. Building a ordable housing on undeveloped land in Austin’s outskirts has its setbacks as well, Tatkow said, as those areas often lack access to schools, hos- pitals and grocery stores. What’s next While building a ordable housing presents chal- lenges in Austin, a proposal inspired by Mueller from Council Member Leslie Pool aims to add more a ord- able developments in the city. The proposal would allow more homes to be built on single-family properties citywide to bring what Pool called “gentle” density to existing neighborhoods.
Economic development & scal responsibility
Diversity & a ordability
East Austin revitalization & compatability with surrounding neighborhoods
Sustainability
SOURCE: CATELLUS DEVELOPMENT CORP.
Separately, Austin is exploring fewer noti cations when housing projects are being built in neighbor- hoods in line with other peer cities. The issue of resident noti cation and protests over new develop- ment ended the city’s last attempt to update its land code, seen by some as a win for locals’ property rights and by others as an impediment for building more housing. Further, a new master-planned community in Colony Park resembling Mueller is going through the initial planning stages. The project is on 208 acres of city-owned land in Northeast Austin and will be
developed by Catellus. The project is expected to deliver 1,072 single-fam- ily homes and 831 multifamily apartments, 20% of which will be reserved as a ordable housing. "But if more Muellers are wanted and more com- munities like that with the parks and the bikes and the trails and housing and everything else, the code needs to be xed," Weaver said.
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NORTH CENTRAL AUSTIN EDITION • AUGUST 2023
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