HISTORY OF TOWN LAKE / LADY BIRD LAKE DEVELOPMENT

Visions of wide, green banks of the Colorado River and of the numerous creeks contributing to the River's waters as they flow through the Austin area have long been a part of Austin's heritage.  At least as early as 1928, these visions were formalized in the City's Master Plan, which showed the River and creeks as an integrated greenbelt system.  Thirty years later, in response to the building of Longhorn Dam, the Austin Development Plan, showing similar illustrations, called for "cooperative private and public development to preserve and enhance the potential values created by the lake," and recommended "definite plans for and development controls along Town Lake before development occurs."  We know now that development did occur without specific controls in place to address the waterfront.  Witness the 1960-and 1970-era construction along the lake where there is no public access, especially the many apartment buildings that sprang up in anticipation of baby boomers coming to Austin to go to the University of Texas.

Although the visions were kept afloat by plans and studies for years, no attempt to put any waterfront-specific development controls in place occurred until 1984 when several events converged to galvanize citizen protests and City action.   Key events included the building of the Hyatt Hotel too close to the edge of Town Lake, and the discovery that much of the parkland along the Lake was not formally dedicated to protect it from potential other uses.  The City Council responded to the latter event by formally dedicating all City parkland properties and establishing a process to ensure that all future parkland acquisitions, whether by purchase or by donation, would be formally dedicated.  In the spring of 1985, a quality of life report commissioned by the Austin Chamber of Commerce recommended development of Town Lake into a "Great Park" along the lines of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Central Park in New York.  Soon after, the Parks and Recreation Department proposed to the City Council a comprehensive planning process that would include both private and public lands, both the water's edge and the urban edge, within Town Lake's sphere of influence.  The City Council granted the funds required for the process, and work began immediately.

A citizen’s Town Lake Task Force was formed in June 1985 to develop benchmark planning and policy directives for the Town Lake Corridor.  A 90-day moratorium was placed on development 1000 feet on each side of the lake from Tom Miller Dam to the river's confluence with Walnut Creek to the east.  Four months later, the Town Lake Corridor Study presented a series of goals and policies for the Corridor and specific actions needed in each of five subzones in the urban part of the Corridor between Tom Miller and Longhorn dams.  Within months, the goals and policies were translated into the Waterfront Overlay Combining District that was voted on and approved by City Council members.  These forward thinkers were looking to the future of the city when they adopted the Waterfront Overlay into the City's Land Development Code.  

It is important to note that the most popular activity along Town Lake, cited by respondents to a survey conducted by the Town Lake Task Force, was "relaxing at the waterfront or nearby restaurant and bar."  Fitness and exercise (well afforded by the trail) was cited as the second most popular activity.  The primary and secondary building setbacks from Town Lake and the creeks required within the Waterfront Overlay go further than any other of the requirements to attempt to address this most popular activity, this very human need to be able to have access to the waterfront for purposes of relaxation and renewal.

No major variances were granted to the Waterfront Overlay for 21 years, not until early 2006 when both the Parks Board and the Planning Commission approved major reductions to the setbacks from East Bouldin Creek in their zeal for a new apartment building on the south side of Riverside Drive. During that 21 years, most of Austin’s  development activity concentrated on providing homes for our newcomers in outlying areas. The current  concentration on central city living is new, although the Waterfront Overlay Ordinance anticipated and encouraged high-rise residential within the Town Lake Corridor 20 years ago.