Monday, November 01, 2004
I've been eagerly following the development of the old Austin airport for a little while now. As I mentioned before, the plan is to redevelop it in the style of a "traditional neighborhood development." In short, that means mixing commercial, retail, and residential areas rather than having large, uniform, and separate areas for each. There are apartments, townhomes, and traditional single-family homes. The last, also known as "yard homes," have small yards with automobile access through an alley to the back, with the house closer to the street. The "corner store" returns, as do nearby parks. The current plan (outlined in an article in the Austin newspaper not available online) may have the first houses being built in about 5 years, roughly when we'll be looking for the next house. The main concerns we have are that the houses may be too small (page down) and that the schools might not be up to snuff. It's pretty exciting, though, since most of Austin is either expensive, suburbia, or both. Austin has a traditional neighborhood development initiative, but there are only a couple projects under way, and the other two are far away. My parents live in Austin, my sister in Houston, Jessica's grandmother in Kerrville, and Jessica's mother is going to retire just north of Austin in a couple of years. All that free babysitting is hard to ignore, so we're going to be here for a while.
