Austin American Statesman File

The Bastrop City Council on Tuesday discussed rezoning a 7.4-acre plot along Texas 95 to build a proposed mixed-use development, raising concerns about the development’s parking minimums and its impact on traffic and drainage.

The development, dubbed Crossings at 95, would be north of Bastrop High School near the Little League fields along the state highway. Crossings at 95 would include a 4,000-square-foot restaurant, along with 81 residential units spread across two mixed-use apartment buildings and 14 multi-unit townhomes. 

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James Cowey, the city’s director of development services, said the plans include traffic connections to Linden Street and Texas 95. He said the developers requested to rezone the property to P4 mixed-use with exceptions. P4 mixed-use zoning allows for light commercial use alongside dense residential development. 

Cowey said the developers askedthat 75% of the property’s land have impervious cover instead of 60% and for the city to allow them to build up to four stories along Texas 95. The developer also asked for smaller parking spaces and an exception to the zoning’s minimum parking requirement. Instead of one parking space per bedroom, the developer has asked for 1.2 parking spaces per multi-family unit, Cowey said. 

Cowey said the developer plans to impose a “shared parking agreement,” meaning none of the 180 planned parking spaces would be reserved for residents. He said the exception to the minimum parking requirements should not create a problem because most of the units would be one or two bedrooms.

However, the council expressed various concerns about each of the requested exceptions, particularly regarding parking minimums. Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland said 1.2 spaces per unit would “not fly” because of Bastrop’s car dependency.

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“Going down to numbers like that is going to create a disaster,” Kirkland said. 

Kirkland said the low number of spaces could result in people parking on Linden Street, which would cause traffic issues at one of the development’s entrances.

“I do not ever want to encourage street parking,” Council Member Cynthia Meyer said. “I want us to stay true to the reasoning of why we have the parking.”

Meyer also raised concerns about the increased traffic on Texas 95, which she said is often congested, especially during school time. She said she also doesn’t want too much traffic using the Linden Street exit, which would add more traffic downtown.

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“I like 95 access, but 95 is hard because it backs up,” Meyer said. “I don’t want to create a worse problem.”

Mayor Ishmael Harris said the amount of impervious cover at the development could lead to drainage issues downhill along Hill, Pecan and Main streets, which could also affect the city’s neighboring maintenance yard. 

Heather Green, a Pecan Street resident, said she appreciates the mixed-use nature of the development, but she shared concerns about the development’s impact on traffic, especially in the North End neighborhood. 

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“The streets are not meant to have high traffic,” Green said. “Hill Street already can’t handle the high school traffic, and I don’t see it doing any better with adding all of the stuff that is planned in that development.”

Ultimately, the City Council voted to table the rezoning application until its next meeting to consider how it wants to direct city staff to proceed with the project.