Board of Adjustment Denies Congregation Beth Israel Variance on Yom Kippur

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Requests from Congregation Beth Israel Neighborhood objections prevail It was an ironic and surprising blow that the Board of Adjustment dealt to Congregation Beth Israel’s plans for expansion on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The synagogue sent representatives to the board last night to ask for two variances. One would have allowed the congregation to add an extra 10 feet to the top of a proposed education building. The other would have allowed an increase in impervious cover from 45 percent to 67 percent to add new buildings: an administration office, a school building, a parking garage and more blacktop parking areas. The synagogue is located on Shoal Creek Boulevard between 38th Street and 39 ½ Street. Congregation Beth Israel is the oldest and the largest synagogue in Austin. The congregation passed on a chance to move to the Dell Jewish Community Center, then lost a contract on 18 acres at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School when members couldn’t raise $3 million to buy the site. Last night the synagogue asked for variances on the site of its current campus, which was built in 1956. The Congregation would like to get construction underway as soon as possible so that the educational facilities can open next fall, attorney Richard Suttle said. Complaints from a couple of adjacent property owners, however, were the ultimate undoing of the proposed variances. Neighbor Joy Turner of the Tonkawa Bluffs subdivision told the board the synagogue had left too many questions unanswered: Would there be limits on the ultimate height of the education building? Would the parking garage be leased during the week? Was the land under the proposed parking garage stable, since it was a spring before it was covered to make a blacktop parking lot, Turner asked? “I have many, many questions that have not been answered,” said Turner. “I urge the board to consider whether or not to grant this variance without more information.” Suttle, of Armbrust Brown & Davis, told commissioners the construction project was an ongoing process with many junctures for discussion and compromise. He said the Rosedale Neighborhood Association had given its approval to the project after negotiations, but added that it would be impossible to please all the homeowners in the area. “In Austin, it’s very difficult to get unanimity in getting all the issues together,” Suttle told the board. “What we try to do is meet everybody’s interests. We have been able to solve some of those, but sometimes you can’t solve them all.” But unanimity appeared to be exactly what the commissioners wanted. Vice Chair Betty Edgemond asked for a postponement of the vote for a month in light of the objections raised. She failed to get a second on that motion. Edgemond then made the motion to deny the variances. Discussion of the item was brief and commissioners eventually split, 3-2. Edgemond, Commissioner Barbara Aybar and Alternate Leanne Heldenfels voted down the variances. Chair Herman Thun and Commissioner Laurie Virkstis voted for the variances. Commissioner Frank Fuentes was absent. It was the first defeat Suttle has suffered before the Board of Adjustments in the last 10 years. He intends to appeal the board’s decision next month. During the board’s discussion, Aybar expressed concern that enough time be given to work out issues with a property owner on Seiders Street who would face the proposed garage. In response, Suttle stressed the parking garage was not part of the requested variances and could go forward without the consent of property owners. Joyce Brown of the Rosedale Neighborhood Association came to the microphone and told commissioners that the variances really were an outgrowth of neighborhood feedback that the congregation should build up, instead of out, on its property. During his presentation, Suttle argued that Congregation Beth Israel had worked hard with abutting property owners and the Rosedale Neighborhood Association. The congregation had agreed to a variance under SF-3, rather than a zoning change for higher density. At the insistence of neighbors, Beth Israel added buffers between the construction and environmentally sensitive wetlands on the property. They agreed to drop the elevation of the parking garage to no more than 32 feet to avoid obstructing the view. They even notched out an area in the parking garage to maintain an oak tree on the property. Congregation Beth Israel faces special difficulties with expansion on its property because of the environment. City officials have asked for a 150-foot setback from the wetlands on the eastern edge of the property, as well as a 75-foot setback from a spring on the northeast edge of the property. The drainage areas along the edges of the property also sit in a 25-year floodplain.