The Austin Parks department seems like its trying to sabotage a new development at riverside & lakeshore right at a proposed light rail station
The neighborhood for years has been begging the Parks department to buy a vacant parcel next to a neighborhood park a mile away from the development as the vacant lot has become a magnet for crime.
The parks department told the neighborhood in writing that they had no interest in the lot.
The builder for this new development has been working with the neighborhood on a deal to green light this project, increase density, and had agreed to buy the vacant lot for the neighborhood.
The builder did a ton of work to find the owner of the lot, get it out of probate, get it to an auction. Then all of a sudden at the 11th hour, the parks department gets the city to postpone the auction and now claims the parks department is interested in buying the lot.
This is all so the builder won't have a lot to trade and the builder will have to pay elevated parkland dedication fees to the parks department. Which the builder says might cause the project not to go forward in this economic climate
Ridiculous! the developer sounds like its doing everything right here and came up with the plan to make the neighborhood happy , and the parks department is swooping in at the last minute to throw a wrench in the whole project.
Prev
Linear Mode
