The owner of a site in East Austin’s Rosewood neighborhood is asking for a zoning change that would allow future development to include a bar. So far, that request has been met with opposition from neighbors and city staff, over nine months of postponement and, most recently, ambivalence from the Planning Commission during their Sept. 23 meeting.
The request would see a change to the conditions of the neighborhood conservation combining district, or NCCD, as well as an update to the longstanding Urban Renewal Plan, to add back cocktail lounges as an acceptable use for 1201 East 11th Street, which is located between Paperboy restaurant and the bar Nickel City.
“This case began 493 days ago, in early May of ‘24, and is only about restoring my property entitlements,” said Paul Stables, the property owner. Stables argued that the city had given “no reason” for the cocktail use lounge being prohibited.
Several residents spoke against the rezoning request during the meeting, including congregants from neighborhood churches Ebenezer Baptist and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Their complaints largely echoed the language of a petition against the proposal that was signed by over 400 people.
That petition cited the history of the corridor, which it says suffered “terrible conditions” during the late 1980s and 1990s due to a high density of bars and liquor stores, and noted community organizing to improve those conditions resulted in the current prohibitions.
“This is not the first time that this has come up,” said Fannie Akingbala, a retiree and chair of the Ebenezer Social Justice and Advocacy Ministry. “In every instance, we’ve come together to oppose it. Our minds are made up.”
Commissioner Imad Ahmed made the only motion on the item, to decline the request. He was joined by commissioner Nadia Barrera-Ramirez. Ahmed said that while he generally supported flexibility for retail and commercial uses, he concurred with neighbors that opening the door to another bar on East 11th would be a net negative for their community.
“I think the concerns that they have about added crime and disorderly conduct are valid, and that’s why I oppose the applicant’s request,” Ahmed said.
However, that motion failed 4-4-1, with commissioners Danielle Skidmore, Adam Powell Nadia Barerra-Ramirez and Ahmed, voting for; commissioners Felicity Maxwell, Greg Anderson, Joshua Hiller and Peter Breton voting against; and Chair Alice Woods abstaining.
That means the request will advance to City Council for a final decision without a recommendation from the commission.
The city’s Urban Renewal Board had previously voted to abstain from making a recommendation a week earlier. They provided context for that vote in a memo. Limiting the amount of new bars and other nightlife businesses on East 11th and East 12th has been a key part of the Urban Renewal Plan, which governs both corridors, since the city adopted it in 1999.
City planner Jonathan Tomko, who presented staff’s position on the case at the meeting, noted in response to a question from Commissioner Maxwell that if the request succeeded it would be the second update to the plan in five years, which he cited as one of the department’s primary reasons for not recommending it.
The last round of changes, undertaken in 2022 alongside updates to the NCCD, had reaffirmed the prohibition on new cocktail lounges along the corridors, with narrow exceptions carved out for existing businesses and for the city-owned 1600 and 1800 blocks of 11th Street, which are slated to be redeveloped into two larger mixed-use developments.
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