Dell Jewish Community Campus Construction Stalled by Neighborhood Opposition

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Jewish site a center of dispute ■ 5 years after Dells' gift, campus still just a plan By Kim Sue Lia Perkes | American-Statesman Staff It's been more than five years since computer magnate Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, offered the Jewish community 40 acres of prime real estate in Austin's Northwest Hills to build a premier Jewish campus. Despite arduous planning and replanning, the heavily vegetated property lies dormant, caught in a bureaucratic web that includes external and internal friction. Consider: ■ Neighbors say they support the campus but are against the large scope of the project, which will include a Jewish Community Center with recreational facilities outdoors, offices, two synagogues, an educational building, a park and hiking trails. Among neighborhood concerns are increased traffic, noise and a lighted ballfield, which residents say will set a precedent in the neighborhood. ■ Some Jews say they have faithfully been paying off their pledges to build the campus, but feel as if the money has gone into a black hole because construction hasn't started. Some have refused to pledge any more money to the campus and a few more have threatened to ask for their money back. ■ The Jewish Federation of Austin, which is spearheading the project, is eager to start building, but is in the cumbersome process of winning city approval for its plans. Twice the Planning Commission postponed voting on the project because it didn't have a recommendation from the city staff. ■ Planning commissioners have been bombarded with mail and telephone calls about the project. One commissioner said comments she has received have See Jewish, A20 [Photo caption, A1] Weeds and a leaning mailbox mark the entrance to the planned Dell Jewish Community Center in Northwest Austin. Setbacks have delayed construction at least a year. The Austin Planning Commission is to consider the plans this month. (David Kennedy/A-S) — continued from A1 — Jewish Community Center behind schedule run 90 percent against it. In short, plans to move forward with the Dell Jewish Community Center campus can be summed up in a word: frustration. "There is no question there is frustration on all sides," said Barry Silverberg, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Austin. Some relief may be in sight. On Dec. 9, the Planning Commission promised to make the site plan and subdivision of the property the first item on its agenda Tuesday. Commission approval is the first step toward making the project happen. Federation leaders are mobilizing the Jewish community, hoping to persuade commissioners to approve the project despite neighborhood opposition. If the project is approved, neighbors could appeal the Planning Commission ruling, forcing the City Council to make the final decision. Community has doubled The site, which is bounded by Hart Lane and Chimney Corners, and Far West Boulevard and Greystone Drive, sits in the ZIP code where 480 Jewish families reside — the highest concentration of Jews in the city, according to Jewish Federation statistics. In the past decade, the Jewish community has almost doubled to about 8,000 people, and that growth is expected to continue. Transplants to Austin often express dismay that the city doesn't have a full-fledged Jewish Community Center. Centers in most large cities offer a health club, gymnasium and a wide array of other recreational facilities and services. Centers operate much like a YMCA, allowing anyone to join and use the facilities. The current Austin center, at 11713 Jollyville Road, offers a variety of programs for the Jewish community, but its facilities are limited. A small brick building is home to the federation's early-childhood program and some offices. Portable buildings provide office space for the federation and Jewish Family Service. When Alan Tannenbaum moved here from Florida a year ago, his real estate agent disclosed that the woods behind his house on Greystone Drive were the site of the planned Jewish Community Center. Tannenbaum, who is Jewish, said he welcomed the facility. Today, Tannenbaum is the spokesman for the Northwest Austin Civic Association, speaking about concerns over the development of the property. The neighbors still strongly support the community center building, Tannenbaum said. "But there is simply too much planned for too little land," he said. The two synagogues, an educational building, a child-care center and the community center facilities — 360,000 square feet — will overburden the neighborhood with traffic and noise, neighbors say. The civic association, the area's neighborhood association, has developed a Web site to explain neighbors' concerns and some proposed solutions, which Tannenbaum said he believes are not known to the Jewish community at large. The Web site is http://naca.home.mindspring.com. Sandy Dochen, Jewish Federation president, said, "The bottom line is those folks have had a pastureland in their back yard. ... It's hard to give that up." Lighting precedent feared Richard Suttle, an Austin attorney hired by the federation to guide the project through the city process, told 50 people at a recent informational meeting at Agudas Achim synagogue that traffic in and out of the Dell campus will almost double what it would be had the property been developed as single-family homes. "Generally, day care and schools are high-traffic areas at peak traffic times," he said. According to a traffic study commissioned by the federation, there may be 4,400 trips a day to and from the site. That represents a 3 percent increase in traffic on Greystone Drive and Hart Lane, the study determined. Traffic in Northwest Hills has been steadily increasing for years, said Planning Commissioner Betty Baker. Even if the campus isn't developed, the neighborhood could have a 5 percent increase in traffic this year, she said. The federation reduced its plan from two lighted ballfields to one. But, neighbors say no other fields — including one at a nearby school — have lights, and allowing the center to light its ballfield could make it difficult for the city to refuse similar requests. "We are very, very cautious about setting precedent," said Planning Commissioner Maggie Armstrong, who lives in the neighborhood. Baker said she hopes there can be some compromise over the lights. Because the project "does not create a health or safety threat to the public, it's going to be difficult to deny it," Baker said. Her mail, some of it form letters, is running 90 percent against approving the current site plan, Baker said. "You can protest too much. I'm not sure what the scope of the project will ever be amiable to some people." Armstrong said she is waiting for the city staff recommendation before she discusses details. "I know that some people are emotional about this," she said. "I've been referred to as 'that Armstrong woman.'" Changing relationship Not all the neighbors are against the plan. A group of Mormons, for instance, wrote a letter to the federation supporting the campus. And many of the Jewish families living in the neighborhood support the project. Then again, not everyone who opposes the plan lives in the area. Some Jews who have pledged money to build the community center said they are upset because it hasn't been built, even though construction was supposed to begin a few weeks after the groundbreaking in December 1996. Some Jews, who asked not to be identified because the issue is so divisive, said they thought the groundbreaking was only a way to make it look like plans were moving forward to appease anxious people and to create another push to raise money for the facility. Not true, say Jewish leaders. In fact, it's been difficult to keep the Jewish community abreast of all the intricacies of the development, said Silverberg, the executive director of the Jewish Federation. The holdup was part of an on-again-off-again relationship between the federation and the two synagogues that are now planning to build on the campus, Silverberg said. Originally, the campus was envisioned as part of a Jewish town square, but Beth Israel, a Reform congregation, and Agudas Achim, a Conservative congregation, didn't seem interested in locating there, he said. The Jewish Federation decided to forge ahead with the community center, but the plans were halted only weeks before the Planning Commission was to consider them in March. Weeks before, a group of prominent Jews had offered to build an educational building that the two congregations could share if they both moved to the Dell campus. Plans had to wait until the congregations could vote on whether to move. Votes at the synagogues were not unanimous, but most favored the move. Temple Beth Israel voted 218-102 to move, and Agudas Achim, where the Dells are members, voted 276-80 to relocate. Some dissenters have said a self-contained campus could isolate Jews from the community at large and become a target for hate crimes. Silverberg said that besides negotiating with neighbors and moving through the city approval process, the development is complex because it involves three leadership groups — the federation and the leaders of the two synagogues. "A project of this magnitude and intensity involving this many organizations takes a long time," Silverberg said. To the impatient, Silverberg said: "This campus is going to happen, no 'ifs,' 'ands' or 'buts.'" [Pull quote] "A project of this magnitude and intensity involving this many organizations takes a long time. ... This campus is going to happen, no 'ifs,' 'ands' or 'buts.'" — Barry Silverberg, Jewish Federation of Austin [Photo caption] Michael Dell: Computer magnate and his wife land offered for a community center five years ago. [Map, credit Linda Scott/AA-S] Dell Jewish Community Center campus — labeled features: Congregation Agudas Achim, Education building, Temple Beth Israel, Entrance, Community hall, Education building, Parking, Walking trail, Future day school, Gymnasium, Future expansion area, Firestone Dr., Future expansion areas, Holocaust memorial, Access to Chimney Corners, Drop-off area, Pavilion, Pool, Playing field (x2), Future tennis courts, Walking trail, Hart Ln., Area detailed inset (Greystone, Far West Blvd., Mopac)