South Shore Apartments Planned Unit Development at East Riverside Drive

Context: All three postings (May 21, May 28, and July 23, 2026) carry identical boilerplate that the ordinance may include exemption from or waiver of fees, alternative funding methods, modifications of City regulations, and acquisition of property, without specifying which.

Recommended: Pull the draft ordinance and the planned unit development land use plan and confirm every fee exemption, funding mechanism, code modification, and property acquisition is individually enumerated rather than left to the broad notice language. If the adopted text sweeps in items never itemized in the posting, that is the question to raise in writing before the vote, not after.

Context: The posted item states the ordinance may include exemption from or waiver of fees, alternative funding methods, modifications of City regulations, and acquisition of property, with staff contact Jonathan Tomko listed on all three agendas.

Recommended: Ask city planner Jonathan Tomko (512-974-1057) for the planned unit development land use plan and the table of City code modifications the applicant is requesting, plus the superiority items offered in exchange. The site sits in the Lady Bird Lake and Harpers Branch watersheds, so any water quality or impervious cover deviations granted here define the baseline you would have to match or beat on comparable corridor sites.

Context: The May 21, 2026 agenda listed the Planning Commission recommendation as "To be reviewed on May 12, 2026," while the May 28 and July 23 postings show the commission recommending approval; agent is Amanda Swor of Drenner Group, PC.

Recommended: Request the postponement requests and backup for the May 21, May 28, and July 23, 2026 Council dates and identify who asked for each delay — the applicant's agent, a council office, or staff. An item carrying both staff and Planning Commission recommendations to grant does not normally sit on three agendas without resolution, and the May 21 posting shows Council was scheduled to act while the commission recommendation was still listed as pending review on May 12.

Context: The request is to rezone from East Riverside Corridor district zoning (Corridor Mixed Use subdistrict) to a site-specific planned unit development-neighborhood plan combining district in the Lady Bird Lake and Harpers Branch watersheds.

Recommended: Ask staff for a side-by-side of what the Corridor Mixed Use subdistrict allows today at 1404 East Riverside Drive versus what the planned unit development would allow — height, density, setbacks, and parking are all negotiable inside a planned unit development rather than fixed by the corridor rules. Also ask how drainage will be handled, since the tract drains to both Lady Bird Lake and Harpers Branch.