Developers, City of Austin eye 6,000 acres of historic ranch for Northwest development
Developers, City of Austin eye 6,000 acres of historic ranch for Northwest development
Written by Rachel Youens Thursday, 07 June 2007
“I think, in my entire career, I probably will never present a case this large to you in one single time,” neighborhood planning and zoning director Greg Guernsey said in the 2004 city council meeting to annex the Robinson ranch.
What he speaks of is a developer’s dream in the middle of north Austin. This vacant piece of land is surrounded to the north by Round Rock’s tech industry and to the south by the commercial growth along US 183. For more than 100 years, much of these nearly 7,000 acres of land remained undeveloped under the ownership of the Robinson family. However, as Austin grows around this prime real estate, the Robinsons are under pressure to sell and open the land to development.
Annexation
The City of Austin annexed 6,000 acres of the ranch in 2004, making Austin the largest unincorporated city in land size in Williamson County. The land was previously within Austin’s extraterritorial jurisdiction but was not actually within the city limits. In the agreement, the city states its reason for annexation to “establish, define, protect and clarify (their) jurisdiction and regulatory authority over the Robinson ranch.” Pursuing annexation early would allow the city to secure all the land before Round Rock annexed it or before it was annexed out in small parcels.
“One unusual thing about this case was that most of the time, when you are doing zoning and annexation like this, you have something in mind that you want to do, and in this case there wasn’t,” Guernsey said. “We worked with the landowners but there wasn’t actually a proposed development or project for the site.”
The Robinson ranch is currently under limited-purpose jurisdiction, meaning that it operates under city zoning but does not pay city property tax or receive municipal services such as police and garbage collection. When development begins, the land will undergo full annexation, said Virginia Collier of Austin’s platting and zoning commission.
The select few
The Averys, another well-known land-holding family, are famous in Round Rock. The sales of their ranchland have led to the development of Seton Medical Center Williamson, The Round Rock Higher Education Center and subdivisions bearing their name. The Robinson family, however, shy away from publicity and have been reluctant to sell land or even to let it be annexed. The family declined to comment for this story.
In the annexation and development agreement, the Robinsons stated they had no interest in development or changing the land use from its current agricultural and quarrying projects with Austin White Lime Co.
But the Robinson family has not shut their land off from development entirely. The family, led by Spike and son Brad, generally only sell land for projects that are beneficial to the community.
Over the last 20 years, small plots along the edges of the property have been sold for development of Motorola, Abbott Labs, Round Rock ISD schools and Round Rock’s first hospital, St. David’s Medical Center Round Rock.
In 2003, 320 acres were sold to the Texas Turnpike Authority and Williamson County in order to build Toll 45 and the extension of MoPac. According to the agreement, the Turnpike Authority and the county had to pay more because the road bisected the land and devalued it. The land was sold at $62,500 per acre for a grand total of more than $20 million dollars.
Transit-oriented development
The MetroRail stop is one reason why growth in and around Robinson ranch seems inevitable. The Capital Metropolitan Transit Authority has already done environmental impact research on the Robinson ranch for a MetroRail stop, due in 2008, along Howard Lane near McNeil High School and the Robinson-owned Austin White Lime Co. Capital Metro is currently building a bridge for the MetroRail where it crosses the Union Pacific railway and is expected to announce a choice for the rail stop in the coming weeks.
In the city’s zoning process for the Robinson ranch it designed three land uses. The first is mixed use combining residential, commercial and industrial uses. The second is zoned open space, which comprises 1,760 acres of the land. The third is the newest form of zoning, transit-oriented development. TOD is a special type of design that is pedestrian oriented and reinforces the use of mass transit.
In 2003, Envision Central Texas, a non-profit group that encourages positive urban growth, targeted the Robinson ranch as a concept site for the future of TOD. What they came up with was McNeil Junction, featuring around seven blocks of high and medium density housing fanning out from a commercial town center that surrounds a possible MetroRail station.
While the McNeil Junction concept ultimately has no power over what will occur within the Robinson ranch, it offers an idea of what the city and developers envision.
The entire piece of land also falls under the category of a planned unit development. This type of development is intended for large, complex areas to help put them under control as a single, continuous unit rather than dividing the project into small individual areas. Most recently, a PUD was used in the case of the former Concordia University site near 34th Street.
Looking forward
The next step in the process is up to the Robinson family. While the land is annexed and zoned, it is not sold, and the Robinsons made it clear in their annexation agreement that they would be able to continue their current operations unhindered.
“One of the things annexation gives the Robinsons is certainty,” Guernsey said. “Certainty is the golden goose of development. If you know what you can do in the future and not worry about codes changing, that brings a lot of comfort.”
Robinson ranch is dotted with landmarks and has been a significant property for Northwest Austin and Round Rock for many years.
McNeil Post Office — The post office and company store served the large Mexican-American population that worked at and lived around Austin White Lime. This company established their own currency system of tokens for their employees to use at the store.
Martin Hill Reservoir — Named for the one of the men who founded Austin White Lime, the Martin Hill Reservoir holds 34 million gallons of water and covers 53,000 sq. ft. compared to a football field’s 45,000 sq. ft. As of 2004, the reservoir was still considered the largest steel potable water tank in the US. In 2004, the City of Austin spent $1.5 million to have the tank’s inside and outside repainted.
Austin White Lime Co. — Established in 1888, the Austin White Lime Company has been a part of the Round Rock and Austin economies for more than 118 years. Still visible from McNeil Road is an original wood-fired kiln used to burn the water out of the limestone to produce quicklime. In 1894, 300 barrels of lime were produced daily from the operation. The company employed 30 to 50 men during this time. Most of the workers lived in nearby company houses. Alfred Robinson joined the company in 1912, later his sons, Alfred H. and George E. Robinson, took over the operation.
Capital Metro — Beside the Austin White Lime Company is the intersection of the Union Pacific and Capital Metro rail lines. In 2008, the MetroRail will begin running from Leander to downtown Austin. To prevent complications with the Union Pacific train, Capital Metro is building an overpass here. Last month Capital Metro discovered the overpass was built too low and another $260,000 will have to be spent to lower the tracks and raise the bridge.
Source: “Historical Round Rock Texas” by Karen Thompson and Jane H. Digesualdo and Capital Metro
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