{"id":161364,"date":"2026-02-12T09:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T09:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/161364\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T09:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T09:29:10","slug":"city-considers-future-of-riverside-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/161364\/","title":{"rendered":"City Considers Future of Riverside \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Project Connect<\/a> and city rezoning to accommodate it on the horizon, the city of Austin has $300 million in the project\u2019s voter-approved \u201canti-displacement\u201d funds<\/a> to spend on land acquisition and affordable housing around the project area, which includes Southeast Austin\u2019s Riverside neighborhood, over a 13-year period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Jan. 31, the city held an open house to ask Riverside residents what new housing, amenities, and commercial services they want to see in their neighborhood, their first community outreach effort toward their goal to adopt a long-range plan for the area by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur planning efforts focus on equitable, transit-oriented, and walkable development,\u201d reads the East Riverside Corridor Planning Initiative public input page<\/a>, with development projects focused around the five planned Austin light rail transit stations in Riverside.<\/p>\n

Across 10 stations, city of Austin and CapMetro representatives spoke with local residents about transit, affordable housing, desired story height of development, and a big question mark: what to do with the Grove-Riverside site<\/a>, 125 acres that include a large corporate office, purchased by the city<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

One of the options on the table for the Grove site is a mixed-use development that incorporates affordable housing, \u201cneighborhood-serving\u201d commercial services, and the city\u2019s transportation and emergency services offices, according to Nicole Joslin, housing and community development officer at the city of Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to somehow protect this end \u2026 so people don\u2019t have to uproot and move out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casey Powell, a Riverside resident<\/p>\n

On the transit side, Riverside is \u201cone of the highest transit-demand corridors in the city,\u201d said Tim McCarthy, senior planner for the city. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard complaints that the 20 bus, which goes around East Riverside, is sometimes so full it has to drive past people waiting.\u201d As part of CapMetro\u2019s Transit Plan 2035<\/a>, more frequent rapid service buses<\/a> and upgraded bus routes are planned in Riverside alongside the light rail, city officials said.<\/p>\n

During the open house, city officials got mixed messages from residents on the level of the development they\u2019d like to see: Some asked for more density, health and food services, and green spaces, while others worry that better transportation and denser development will threaten the affordability of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially on this end of Riverside, by Montopolis, families have lived here a long time,\u201d Casey Powell, a Riverside resident, said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to somehow protect this end, make it better and keep it affordable, so people don\u2019t have to uproot and move out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long-range city planning aside, Riverside residents told the Chronicle that they\u2019d like to see more immediate improvements to their neighborhood within the next few years. \u201cWe\u2019d love to see some cleanup,\u201d said David Green, who has been a Riverside resident since 2011. \u201cWe have a lot of litter all the time. \u2026 That would be a major face-lift for the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article appears in February 13 \u2022 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Project Connect and city rezoning to accommodate it on the horizon, the city of Austin has $300…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,5368,17139],"class_list":{"0":"post-161364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-light-rail","12":"tag-riverside"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}