Towering buildings could be coming to ‘Dirty 6th’
AUSTIN (KXAN) – The Austin City Council voted Thursday in favor of allowing taller buildings to be constructed on a portion of the Sixth Street Historic District, affectionately referred to as “Dirty 6th.”
The change in zoning was needed by Stream Realty, which already owns more than 40 properties on the iconic street between Interstate 35 and Brazos. The developers want to transform the strip between Neches and Sabine Streets on Sixth into a place where people go during the day and not just at night.
“Sixth Street has become a real problem,” Richard Suttle, an attorney for Stream Reality, told the Historic Landmark Commission in June. “It’s in a death spiral because you’re not going to get anyone in there…knowing they’re walking into a shooting ally.”
Suttle said they plan to erect buildings that would ideally be mixed-use – such as resident, office or retail spaces – and hopefully break the cycle of new bars opening up and quickly closing due to destructive incidents.
The plan, in part, aligns with the Safer Sixth Street Initiative, created in response to violent incidents on the street, including a 2021 mass shooting that killed one person and injured 14 others.
“It’s just a bad situation,” Suttle said, referring to the street’s current state. “Our idea is to widen the sidewalks, create some sidewalk cafes, get traffic moving through there and open it up 24/7 so it’s not just Thursday through Sunday night activity.”
“And the only way we can figure out to do it is to be able to add a little bit more density to the older fabric in these two blocks,” he told the commissioners.
Before the vote, building heights were capped at 45 feet in much of the district. Since Austin City Council approved the agenda item, Stream Realty can erect buildings up to 140 feet high, or around ten stories tall, but must preserve 15 feet of the existing facades.
Source: KXAN.com
