On Tuesday evening Council discussed the revised PDD for The Backyard for 5 hours. The presentation by the developer alone took over 2 hours.

 

The two year old PDD on the property allows a hotel, two parking garages, two 47’ tall movie studios, with office space, music venue, tennis courts and splash pad at the park, and 2 connections into and out of the development (one to Bee Cave Pkwy and one to Hwy 71.)

 

To get the connection through to 71, the developer had to work with another land owner to go through his property, and those two were not able to come to an agreement to get it done.

 

The new PDD, called for 2 47’ tall data centers, two parking garages, a boutique hotel, a music venue, a gas powered electricity generator and a community garden instead of the tennis courts and splash pad.

 

The key issue, as highlighted on Kara King's blog was that the new proposal it did not include any connection to 71 so all the traffic would be entering and exiting through Bee Cave Pkwy.

 

6 residents (4 Ladera, 1 Falconhead, 1 Homestead) all objected to the traffic problems this would cause. Councilmembers Parker and King had made it very clear from the beginning they would not vote for a project that did not include a 71 connection.

 

According to King - there was then " a very long discussion including everything from the development's completely green energy plan, the “green” screening of the buildings to make them less obtrusive, learning about tax benefits from data centers, how a distributed energy center functions, environmental food growth and plans (for the community garden at the “old Backyard” site.)"

 

The final motion - after multiple attempts - was to accept all the changes conditional on the 71 entrance/exit being reinstated. Permits cannot be issued without the road. That passed 5-1 with Council member Goodwin voting against.

 

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