The Austin City Council is set to vote on a proposed zoning amendment this May that would allow West Campus developments to rise higher than the UT Tower and potentially elicit more affordable housing in the area. If adopted by the City Council, the amendments will update City Code Title 25, which governs Austin’s zoning regulations, to modify University Neighborhood Overlay, a city initiative that...
West Campus apartments may be taller and more affordable after the Austin City Council initiated a series of zoning amendments in their Thursday meeting. The council passed items that direct the implementation of previous updates to City Code Title 25, which governs land development, and the University Neighborhood Overlay, or UNO, which governs developments in West Campus and promotes high-density...
On the western edge of West Campus, nestled in the center of HillTop apartments, lies a small, two-story building made of wood and limestone. The building is the last remaining piece of Wheatville, Austin’s first community of formerly enslaved people. The wooden house, also known as the Gold Dollar Building, now houses The Cauldron, a coffee shop and bar that opened last fall. In its 150-year-old...
Last Thursday, the Austin City Council announced a working plan to cooperate with local universities to examine possible solutions to the lack of affordable student housing near campuses, like UT’s West Campus. Proposed by District 5 Council Member Ryan Alter, the study aims to build a guide for future student housing development that is part of Austin’s Strategic Housing Blueprint. The blueprint...
The city of Austin received a $22.9 million grant on Feb. 3 to improve road infrastructure within the next five years throughout the city, including two prospective Guadalupe Street intersections at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Dean Keeton Street. “This grant will accelerate Austin’s ability to deliver life-saving infrastructure improvements to our community,” Austin mayor Kirk Watson said...
An updated plan calls for The Drag to lose all vehicle traffic as a part of Project Connect, the city’s multibillion-dollar transit initiative. The plan is part of Project Connect’s Orange Line and will allow for only pedestrians, bikes, city buses and a light rail system on Guadalupe Street between 22nd and 29th streets, according to a town hall meeting Tuesday. Austin Transit Partnership, which...
As West Campus adds more and more luxury high rises, many students are concerned what it means for the future of affordable off-campus housing. Photo by Jack...
Apartment buildings, condominiums and co-ops have taken up all of the available land around UT for more than a decade, an Austin-based student housing broker said. As apartments continue to increase prices without losing demand and replace old buildings with luxury housing, he said the state of student housing is becoming a crisis. “All the land has been built out around campus, and now students...
The West Campus neighborhood has diversified over the past 10 years, with population growth in Hispanic, Black and Asian communities, according to 2020 U.S. Census data. City demographer Lila Valencia said these changes will be significant when the city redraws district lines this fall, as students will vote for representatives that align with their interests. “It’ll be important to see how those...
Several new West Campus apartment buildings will open to students for the fall semester. While apartment complexes are reaching out to students with special deals and lease agreements for the coming fall semester, some students plan to move into new buildings that are currently under construction or recently opened. Undeclared freshman Katrina Lowther said she is planning on living at Villas on Rio,...