AUSTIN, Texas — City leaders have advanced a plan that could displace hundreds of residents at a northwest Austin apartment complex.
Austin City Council moved forward with plans to rezone and make way for a new development, putting the future of the Acacia Cliffs apartments in doubt.
Kelley Cephus said her family had just settled into their new home when she received a notice stating that the complex was at risk of being demolished and replaced with a larger, more expensive complex.
“It took a lot of time for me to find a place like this where it was in our budget,” Cephus said. “There’s nowhere else we can go right now.”
District 10 Councilmember Marc Duchen, who represents the area, said the rezoning would eliminate about 290 affordable apartments. The proposed new complex would offer about 80 income-restricted apartments, but many other units without restrictions.
Duchen said he’s worried about what a potential wave of redevelopment could mean for those who are forced to move.
“We could move those people to neighboring units…and projects that were built at similar times that have comparable rent,” Duchen said. “But what happens when that happens again and again and all of a sudden there isn’t that availability to absorb?”
The developer states that the existing complex, which is more than 50 years old, has reached the end of its functional lifespan. They also emphasized that the project is in its early stages and that current residents at Acacia Cliffs would get relocation benefits and moving expense payments without lease penalties.
“The goal is to redevelop the property and restart the process so that there’s always a pipeline of new housing that’s developing in the area,” Michael Whellan with developer Armbrust & Brown said.
Before the decision to advance the project, Duchen admitted how much he has struggled with the agenda item since joining the council in January.
“This individual case is troubling,” Duchen said. “The Acacia Cliffs apartments are some of the rare, deeply naturally occurring affordable housing in my district…We, as a council, must do better to recognize where development and densification is not the only solution to every problem.”
Austin City Council approved the rezoning on the first reading, meaning it’ll revisit the issue at a later date.