Raul Alvarez, PODER and Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter

Raul Alvarez is transportation coordinator for People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER), an environmental justice group based in East Austin, Texas. He is also environmental justice director for the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter in Texas.

Today I'm going to make some calls about the status of a case that went before the Austin Planning Commission last week. It involves a dispute over the development of a tract of land on 6th Street, east of I-35. Most people in the Austin area are familiar with 6th Street, but not this part of it. Until recently, many have feared to tread "east of the freeway" -- East Austin has historically been perceived as an unsafe place to visit, much less live or operate a business. In Austin, "the other side of the freeway" as opposed to "the other side of the tracks" is where low-income people of color have resided for many years.

Without getting into all of the social, economic, and environmental problems affecting East Austin, I would like to focus for a moment on the issue of land use in East Austin. A 1997 study conducted by the city found that this part of town is host to more than its fair share of land zoned for industrial use. These land-use designations are the fundamental reasons that fuel storage tanks, recycling plants, a power plant, and other industrial operations are allowed to locate in residential areas.

A 1928 plan for Austin designated East Austin as an industrial zoning district and called for the relocation of people of color to this area in order to solve what was called "the race segregation problem." This relocation was accomplished by moving and/or establishing public housing, churches, schools, and parks for people of color in East Austin.

Since it was formed, PODER has been working with many other community groups and residents to address hazards associated with specific industrial facilities, as well as to deal with the industrial zoning problem. In November 1996, various East Austin community organizations and neighborhood associations formed a network called "El Pueblo" to rectify inequities in the city's land-use policies. In a landmark decision, the Austin City Council voted in December 1996 to place a moratorium on land development in East Austin for 90 days and initiate the land-use study mentioned above. El Pueblo scored a big victory in 1997 when the City Council voted to place conditions on certain industrial and commercial lots in East Austin. Neighborhood residents must now be notified any time certain industrial and commercial facilities seek to locate or expand their operations in East Austin.

PODER and other community members are now utilizing different strategies to begin the process of actually down-zoning industrial properties to more restrictive zoning categories. Several industrial properties that are in use or proposed for industrial redevelopment were down-zoned in order to protect the surrounding neighborhoods. Current efforts are focused on down-zoning existing residential areas that are zoned industrial so that the zoning reflects the actual use. This is not as easy as it sounds.

Another avenue we've used to down-zone industrial properties is Austin's neighborhood planning process. I happen to live in the East Austin neighborhood that was selected to participate in this process (the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood), so I decided that it would be worthwhile to participate. After what may be described by some as a grueling process, several commercial and industrial corridors in the neighborhood were recommended for "mixed-use" zoning, a category that allows for a mix of housing and commercial development and is integral to the whole idea of "smart growth." This brings me back to the case I was discussing initially.

The proposed development that has raised concerns with some community members would be located in one of the mixed-use corridors in the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood. The development is mixed only in the sense that there is more than one use proposed for the site -- it would be a three-story structure with computer assembly on the first floor, office space on the second floor, and condominiums on the third floor. The building would occupy a square block and displace a historic building and more than ten affordable housing units.

Because the city has not yet defined the criteria for mixed-use development in the central city, a difference of opinion exists within the community about whether this is the type of mixed-use development that should be allowed in this corridor. This case is not as clear-cut as a case of industrial development would be because of the various social and economic needs of East Austin. Proponents of the project call attention to the fact that the computer business would be Hispanic-owned and would provide jobs in the neighborhood. Opponents are concerned about issues of scale and compatibility as well as the precedent that would be set if we permit a development that wipes out several affordable housing units and a structure of historical significance.

Although the only issue being decided at the moment is that of historic preservation, the city's handling of this proposed development will be indicative of its commitment to the neighborhood planning process and the principles espoused in its Smart Growth Initiative.

"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of words. Much of the damage inflicted on the land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be a doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise."
-- Aldo Leopold, ecologist, as quoted in Wisdom of the Elders