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[eastsider]

With the growth in downtown Austin, more developers are wanting to move in. There are currently restrictions that limit building heights in some parts of downtown, the major one being the Capital View Corridor. The Austin City Council is apointing a committee to evaluate the corridors to see if some are still worth keeping.

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The committee will take several months to study the issue, he said, touring the city and evaluating the views, grading each and determining how much each costs the city to preserve.

Knight said that one example of a questionable view corridor is the upper deck of southbound I-35. It's a stunning view, but he said highway-construction projects may eventually eliminate the upper deck.

"There are people out there who are wringing their hands and thinking, 'Oh, these people are going to destroy our heritage,' and that's not true. All we're going to do is collect the information and pass it to the council and start the discussion," Knight said. "We, of course, expect this will be, like anything else in Austin, a lively discussion."

He noted that the city can't eliminate a protected view unilaterally; any change ordered by the council would have to be approved by the Texas Legislature.

Houston Chronicle: Contradictory viewpoints

Edited by eastsider, 31 December 2006 - 10:24 AM.