Our partners, associates and land use planners offer extensive experience with the development processes and regulations of Austin and may other Central Texas municipalities and counties. In those processes, we interact with governmental technical and legal staff. We also confer with and appear in public hearings before elected or appointed city councils, county commissioners’ courts, zoning and planning commissions, and environmental boards. We have relationships with regional and local environmental interest groups, neighborhood associations and other special interest advocacy groups, and we have a record of successfully working with those groups throughout the development process.

We have pursued and obtained approvals for, among other things, annexation, zoning, Chapter 245 grandfathering claims, development agreements, amendments to neighborhood plans and master plans, subdivision plats, site development plans, variances, utility extensions, cost reimbursement agreements, and CCN releases.

We participate in regional and local planning efforts, such as Envision Central Texas, development of retail design standards, creation of new land use definitions and zoning districts to accommodate new technology, businesses and planning practices, and amendments to municipal code regulations. Our entitlement team is heavily involved with recent City of Austin Code amendments including the adoption of Commercial Design Standards, the revised Planned Unit Development (PUD) Ordinance and the Waterfront Overlay.

The following examples reflect the breadth of our entitlement practice:

(a) a 2,000 acre planned mixed use project within the City of Austin’s Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) which included creating a PUD focused on flexible land uses and regulatory structure for land within the complex negotiations with multiple governmental entities, third party service providers and various other stakeholders, and issuance of approximately $40 million of PID bonds to fund infrastructure.

(b) a 1,300 acre mixed use project over the Edward’s Aquifer Recharge Zone that required Chapter 245 grandfathering claims, municipal zoning and development agreement approvals with related environmental elements, open space dedication, mitigation land, infrastructure reimbursement, and neighborhood and stakeholder buy-in;

(c) a 750 acre industrial site that required zoning and subdivision platting approval to convert the site to mixed use project with accessibility to the airport and future rail lines;

(d) a 300 acre regional outdoor lifestyle shopping center with a mixed use element and redevelopment of an outdated industrial park that required zoning, subdivision platting, site planning and related environmental variance approvals with land use compatibility issues with adjacent industrial development, tree transplanting plan, transactional and city permitting issues associated with construction of a mixed use project, and an advanced funding agreement with TxDOT to construct an additional lane on a frontage road.

(e) A 4.843 acre Vertical Mixed Use (VMU) project along a major core transit corridor that includes a mix of multifamily residential, commercial and office space. The project required securing zoning for one of the first VMU projects in Austin. In addition, compatibility variances were secured from adjacent property, which involved extensive negotiations with surrounding neighborhood residents.

We also offer experienced advice on development planning, expediting the development permit process, infrastructure reimbursement, right-of-way condemnation, Chapter 380 agreements for tax reimbursements, land use and zoning recommendations, and evaluating existing entitlements and entitlements required to construct a proposed development.