A proposed development that includes a hotel, retail and residential space can be built in an area near campus after the Austin City Council rezoned it on Feb. 26. Nearby residents brought up environmental concerns before the rezoning.
The area is now under downtown mixed-use conditional overlay zoning, which combines commercial, retail and residential purposes surrounding the downtown area, according to the city’s zoning change sheet. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Nueces, West 18th and Rio Grande streets border the area. The conditional overlay allows for changes specific to the site.
Among the properties are Jack Brown Cleaners, Jimmy John’s, Penthouse Apartments and parking lots on the block. The Rundog Real Estate Group proposed the development but has not closed on the site yet, Leah Bojo, who represents the group, wrote in an email.
Concerns from Judge’s Hill neighborhood
The Planning Commission approved the request for rezoning in January, despite postponement and denial requests from residents of Judge’s Hill, a neighborhood south of MLK Jr. Boulevard.
Residents expressed environmental concerns regarding the Jack Brown Cleaners site, where human carcinogens from chemical dry-cleaning solvents and their byproducts were discovered in the ground during a 2003 environmental assessment, according to an evaluation from environmental consultant Brad Snow. Jack Brown Cleaners later enrolled in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Voluntary Cleanup Program.
Jack Brown Cleaners received a certificate of completion in 2020 from the commission, which meant no more action was needed at the site. However, the commission did not require the site to evaluate the possibility of vapors migrating from “soil and underlying groundwater into indoor air within buildings present then or in the future,” Snow wrote in the evaluation.
“It’s enough to alert you that there’s a significant risk and that further investigation or mitigation measures should be taken,” Snow said.
Bojo wrote that the Rundog Real Estate Group completed all required testing for the Jack Brown Cleaners site.
“(We) are continuing to work with the neighbors on potential commitments to go above and beyond those requirements,” Bojo wrote.
Judge’s Hill resident Marisela Maddox, who first lived in the neighborhood as a UT student in 1997, said she wanted the group to either conduct more testing or agree to implement a vapor barrier between the dirt and structure to prevent chemical exposure.
“Our environment is important,” Maddox said. “People who move into this building in the future are not going to know about the history of this building and this project if it is not remediated well.”
Pedestrian-friendly property tax for the city
The city can only increase its property tax revenue by 3.5% from the previous year without voter approval because of a 2019 state law. New development is the exception, said Jake Wegmann, a faculty member in the Community and Regional Planning program at UT.
The city requires new developments to fix sidewalks and add street lighting, which improves walkability, Wegmann said.
“The city desperately needs more tax revenue, and one of the best ways to do it is to allow dense development to be built,” Wegmann said.
The proposed area of development is just south of West Campus. Council member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri, who represents UT and parts of downtown, wrote in a statement the growth in the area is “both expected and necessary.”
“In a part of the city that already functions as an extension of downtown and West Campus, this helps bring the area together in a more vibrant and people-oriented way,” Qadri wrote.
Originally published March 4, 2026, in The Daily Texan
By Anjum Alam
Photo by Caleb Grijalva
