Preparations for the first major addition to the recently annexed Dog’s Head are underway, while local leaders ready to adopt a long-term public financing plan for upgrades across the more than 4-square-mile East Austin megasite.
The big picture
In May, Austin City Council annexed the 2,614-acre Dog’s Head and entered a 45-year development agreement for the area’s build-out. The city and Travis County are now each considering a tax financing plan for the extensive public infrastructure needed to support future additions there, while some officials and residents are pressing for environmental protections and other benefits ahead of decades of anticipated construction.
A range of mixed-use development is possible across the Dog’s Head after city officials’ initial vote for a long-term deal this spring. Overall plans have yet to be detailed by Endeavor Real Estate Group, but local governments are moving quickly through their reviews this summer in anticipation of securing the area’s first major industrial tenant.
A 300-acre portion of the Dog’s Head is currently being cleared for “Project Toaster,” an advanced manufacturing site from an unidentified Fortune 100 company. The company is deciding between the Dog’s Head and a location in another state, according to attorney and Endeavor representative Richard Suttle, and speedy city approvals could cement the project in Austin.
Initial grading activity is already taking place around the Project Toaster property, and Austin could soon approve the vacations of two public roadways in its limits. City transportation planners are also outlining a wider long-range vision for mobility infrastructure in the Dog’s Head including a new street grid and several bridges crossing the Colorado River.
The specifics
Endeavor is seeking to remove two existing portions of Hergotz and Edwin lanes within Project Toaster’s boundaries. Right-of-way vacation requests for several acres of those streets were considered by the Urban Transportation Commission July 7 and will be considered by the Planning Commission July 14 before final approval.
Removing what are now public streets would help facilitate Project Toaster’s construction, Suttle said, and Endeavor’s conceptual Dog’s Head street plan features new, larger roadways that’d surround the project in the future.
“What you see is all these roads will connect, and we’ll have a grid, it just has to get around the 300-acre site,” he told commissioners. “We’ll still have a grid to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west.”
It’s not yet clear what Project Toaster will include. It’s not tied to military or data center uses, Suttle said, and isn’t a Tesla initiative—although the proposed road grid features a new bridge over the Colorado connecting to the company’s Giga Texas factory. Suttle also said Project Toaster, and overall development in the Dog’s Head, will improve on current conditions after decades of industrial mining activities.
Conceptual road placements around the Dog’s Head include a new street grid and several bridges across the Colorado River. (Courtesy city of Austin)City staff reported no issues with the right-of-way vacations on Edwin and Hergotz lanes, aside from concerns about turnaround space for vehicles at the newly created dead-end roads. The city didn’t respond to a question about how that would be addressed as of press time.
According to Suttle, neither Austin Energy or Austin Water view the proposed project as a drain local resources. He said it won’t be a major power user and that wastewater impacts will be “minimal” aside from on-site facilities like bathrooms.
“The net environmental impact will be positive because we’re filling in the holes with clean fill, this particular manufacturer is not a smokestack industry, not a water user, not a discharger,” he said. “The way we look at it is, everything that can happen out here is a net positive when you’re putting the land back together.”
More information about Project Toaster could be revealed in late July once local officials sign off on the Dog’s Head tax financing plans. If the project falls through, Suttle said the area could still be developed with any number of uses in the future.
What else
As development takes place around the Dog’s Head, the city is also planning for growing transportation needs that’d come with thousands of new residents, commercial space and other additions like Project Toaster.
Revisions to the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, or ASMP, are now in the works in anticipation of future development across the largely vacant portion of East Austin. Suttle said the limited roadway vacation process on Edwin and Hergotz lanes represents the beginning of more lengthy discussions about transportation in the Dog’s Head.
“This is where the conversation starts,” he said July 7.
The city didn’t respond to questions about the status and contents of the ASMP amendments, including any differences between Endeavor’s concept and plans being developed by Austin transportation staff, as of press time.