Austin Real Estate Blog

So just last week we learned that RG4N a local neighborhood group filed a lawsuit over Walmarts latest Austin Real Estate development. RG4N filed the lawsuit against the city of Austin for "illegally approving Walmart’s site plan" and against Lincoln properties a real estate company that owns the site and is leasing it to Walmart. Lincoln properties has worked with Walmart on most of their other Austin real estate projects.

So today the Allandale neighborhood association filed a lawsuit against the city of Austin and Lincoln properties. The lawsuit is similar in spirit to RG4N's lawsuit. The basis of both lawsuits is that the development, based on city ordinances, should have required a conditional use permit. This would have triggered notices to surrounding neighbors and a review by the Austin city council. Instead the site plan went through a much simpler review by administrative staff at the city. The city has responded that in past cases they have acted in a similar manner. RG4N has responded that past mistakes don’t justify another error.

If the neighborhoods prevail and overturn the current site plan Walmart will have to start the site plan process all over again. But since the whole Walmart fiasco started two new city rules have been passed. The first is the big box ordinance. This would require a public hearing and a city council vote. Additionally, the new Design Standards would be enforced which would require a higher-quality design.

So I have been kind of getting away from Houses and Real Estate which is the supposed topic of my blog with all these discussions about Walmart. So here are some Austin Condos.