2010 South Lamar Blvd

This is the project at the southwest corner of South Lamar Blvd and Hether St, formerly the site of La Feria Restaurant. As of Aug 2019, it was slated to become adminstrative offices (28,332 sf) for JUUL Labs with the plans for finish out currently under review by the City. The original restaurant/retail uses for the ground floor have been eliminated.

Groundwater Issue

During the excavation and construction of the underground parking garage, the geologic formation was disrupted and underground water began to flow. There has been an ongoing dispute as to whether to call it a spring or simply underground water. In any case, this water now flows into the subsurface garage and accummulates. Every 60-80 minutes, a sump pump comes on and discharges this water for about 5 minutes. It is a hazard to pedestrians who are walking down the sidewalk at the point it discharges and to pedestrians trying to cross Hether St on the crosswalk at South Lamar Blvd, not to mention the damage to cars caused by the potholes this discharge helps create.

Current Status

ZNA met with Ann Kitchen's office and City staff about this issue on March 26. According to the Development Services Department, the owner's contractor is working with City Right of Way Management to obtain a right-of-way permit for the site plan correction project with construction expected to begin soon and completed by May 1, 2021. The City will regrade and repave Hether near the Lamar intersection while the contractor is completing this project. Hether will be closed during the construction. City staff is looking at other options and issues raised by ZNA and Councilmember Kitchen and will report back to us in three weeks.

This current project will only correct the water flowing over the sidewalk. It will not correct the problem of water flowing down the gutter and across Hether near the crosswalk. The City currently has no immediate plans to deal with this problem other than approving the Site Plan Correction and regrading/repaving a portion of Hether, which they hope will prevent water from entering the crosswalk. The underlying issue described in the NOV (not tying directly into the storm sewer) has not been addressed by these plans.

The City has indicated that it is working on a long-term solution of tying the discharge into a future stormwater line. This stormwater line will be installed in the middle of Hether from Kinney to Lamar and then continuing along West Mary to Bouldin Creek. According to the City, planning for this stormwater line is currently underway as part of the South Lamar Corridor Improvements and construction is expected to begin in 2024.

The following photos and videos show the discharge and the damage it is causing (click images to enlarge).

04 Feb 2021 - beginning of periodic discharge

04 Feb 2021- water inundating crosswalk

04 Feb 2021 - large chunk of asphalt

History of the Groundwater Issue

Initially, as shown in the following three photos, this water was discharged to the grassy area west of the building and then seeped across the sidewalk to the gutter where it flows down the gutter to South Lamar, crosses Hether near the crosswalk, and then continues north on the west side of South Lamar to the stormwater sewer inlet.

08 Jul 2019

07 May 2019

07 May 2019

Then, the owner put in a pipe and discharged it to the concrete drive where it runs across the sidewalk to the gutter and then again flows down the gutter to South Lamar, crosses Hether, and flows down South Lamar to the stormwater sewer inlet on South Lamar as shown in the following three photos. The constant water flow is causing significant damage to the street.

20 Jul 2019

23 Mar 2020

31 Jul 2020

A number of complaints have been made to the City, and property owner was issued a Notice of Violation on March 12, 2020. It stated that "all plumbing fixtures shall be properly connected to either a public sewer system or to an approved private sewage disposal system" and recommended removing the current system or redirecting the water into a proper sewer drainage system. The nearest stormwater inlet is on South Lamar at Caliber Collision, a little over 350 feet from the corner of the 2010 South Lamar property. This is claimed to be too far away to tie into, and the City of Austin South Lamar CIP will not be installing any new storm drain pipe in this area anytime soon. However, based on the City's stormwater system infrastructure map, there does appear to be an 8" pipe that extends within 150 feet of the property, but the City has not made any indication that this pipe can be used to tie into.

View the City Stormwater Infrastructure Near This Site

×
The red lines are the stormwater lines and the green squares are the stormwater inlets.

To resolve the NOV, the owners applied for and received approval on June 10, 2020 for a Site Plan Correction to allow the water to flow under the sidewalk and then sheetflow through a pseudo-loading zone to the gutter. This change should stop the flow of water across the sidewalk. However, the water will still flow down the gutter, cross Hether Street at the crosswalk, and flow down South Lamar Blvd to the stormwater inlet.

View Site Plan Correction 6C

×

Here are a few documents and links related to this issue:

• Email String Between ZNA and City [23 Mar 2021] (<1 MB PDF)
• Email from Building Owner [08 Feb 2021] (<1 MB PDF)
• Photos [04 Feb 2021] (<1 MB PDF)
• Photos [31 July 2020] (<1 MB PDF)
• City Email String Discussing the Issue and Site Plan Correction 6C [31 Mar 2020] (1.3 MB PDF)
• All Changes to Site Plan Sheets for Correction 6C (14.6 MB PDF)
• Right-of-Way Permit for Site Plan Correction (external link to AB+C)

Current Site Plan

The sheets below (in PDF format) were current for Correction 5C as of 25 Oct 2019 and may not necessarily be the lastest sheet. To confirm if there are any newer ones, you will need to look at the Corrections Table in the Cover Sheet (page 1) at the bottom of the City's AB+C webpage. For all sheets except the Cover Sheet, the highest number in parenthesis will be the latest sheet from the latest site plan correction.

Site Plan Corrections (Reference File Name SP-2016-0196C)

• C6 Case 2020-080024 SC (16 Jun 2020; drainage/sidewalk update) PDF of approved application   link to CoA Build+Connect webpage
• C5 Case 2019-209495 SC (25 Oct 2019; drainage pipe) PDF of approved application   link to CoA Build+Connect webpage
• C4 Case 2019-141741 SC (10 Jul 2019; change of use) PDF of approved application   link to CoA Build+Connect webpage
• C3 Case 2018-201868 SC (17 Jan 2019; addition of office space) PDF of approved application   link to CoA Build+Connect webpage
• C2 Case 2018-168218 SC (02 Nov 2018; multiple changes) PDF of approved application   link to CoA Build+Connect webpage
• C1 Case 2017-106525 SC (31 Aug 2017; revised construction entrances) PDF of approved application   link to CoA Build+Connect webpage

Site Plan Application (Case 2016-046310 SP; Reference File Name SP-2016-0196C)

• City of Austin Build+Connect (AMANDA) Webpage (link)
• Approved Site Plan (with Correction C-1) (22MB PDF)
• Site Plan Permit (PDF)
• Site Plan Approval by Planning Commission on Appeal by Developer (PDF)
• Site Plan Denial by City Staff (PDF)
• Master Comment Report U4 [28 Apr 2017] (<1 MB PDF)
• Master Comment Report U3 [02 Apr 2017] (<1 MB PDF)
• Master Comment Report U2 [19 Jan 2017] (<1 MB PDF)
• Master Comment Report U1 [20 Sep 2016] (<1 MB PDF)
• Master Comment Report U0 [27 Jun 2016] (<1 MB PDF)
• Application Case Info U0 [24 May 2016] (1.2 MB PDF)

Back to Development Projects list     Back to Site Plans and CUP list