Two recent articles in the Austin-American Statesman have two very different ideas of living. While one article almost makes me brace myself for the upcoming possible traffic increases and over-crowding of our downtown area here in Austin, the other brings a smile to this small town guy's face and brings to light a philosophy that could help keep a neighborhood from being further engulfed by the ever-expanding downtown area.
A September 20 article written by Shonda Novak is full of facts about one of the many new condo highrises going skyward in downtown Austin, including its negatives. A more recent article written on September 23 by John Egan has a different feel to it. That's because Egan's article brings to the reader's attention a different kind of living on ranches far, far away from any highrise skyscraper.
The new condo highrise is proposed to be built on West Avenue between 8th and 9th streets.
According to the article, in an area where zoning laws currently cap the height of a building at 60 feet, lobbying is taking place by David Cox, president of Fortis Development, which is an Austin located business, to raise that limit to 250 feet, or about 20 stories. It is mentioned that many residents in this neighborhood have voiced their opinion that such a building would fail to "fit with the residential and historic character of the area."Ummm.... you think? That's like saying next to DKR Texas Memorial Stadium the University of Texas will build a shrine to Texas A&M mascot Reveille and expect it to fit in. It's just not going to happen.
On the other hand, Egan writes of a thriving ranch land industry. One of the examples given is the land belonging to former high-tech executives and former Austinites Bill and Elaine Swiss. The Swisses have moved from the city out to a more comfortable Hill Country ranch out near Round Mountain. Mr. Swiss knows he is quite blessed of his good fortune to own the land he does, especially with prices for Central Texas ranch land ranging anywhere from $4,000 to $20,000 and acre. Purchasing a large amount of ranch land is quite a large investment. However, as long time veteran ranch broker Sherman Durst put it, "Today's buyer is not making a living off of the land." To me, that is what makes this type of living great.
Imagine buying a property and improving it to make it more beautiful and more peaceful to live. The Swisses daily happenings around the ranch include clearing unwanted trees, mowing grass, feeding horses, and hauling ranch supplies around. Their everyday tasks do not include building upwards 20 stories and possibly creating traffic problems for others around if, as Novak writes, market conditions change and residential highrises are turned into business offices.
At the end of Egan's piece on the ranches, Bill Swiss, when speaking of his ranch, said, "We have the joy of not doing anything if we want, which is a delight." Here's hoping David Cox and other developers follow Swiss's sometime philosophy and decide to "not do anything" in this particular neighborhood and build their highrises elsewhere.
Egan Link: http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/statesmanhomes/09/23/0923ranches.html
Novak Link:
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/realestate/09/20/0920downtown.html
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