Villa Muse gets a Capitol debut

Developers formally announced plans for a $1.5 billion project with major movie production facilities, a 70,000-seat amphitheater and housing at a Capitol news conference Monday. The Villa Muse development is proposed for 681 acres near Texas 130 south of Manor.

Developers said they are in discussions with the Messina Group to manage the amphitheater. It could attract very large shows to Austin, which does not have a large-scale venue.

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Republican lawmaker's bill could gut Austin's home-size ordinance

Seguin representative wants to limit cities' zoning restrictions

A state lawmaker wants to rehab Austin's ordinance outlawing larger homes in central neighborhoods.

Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, said he filed the legislation at the behest of builders to get city officials negotiating on how the ordinance might be changed to better protect homeowners and landowners.

"It's certainly not Austin-bashing in any way, shape or form," Kuempel said. "We just wanted to let everyone know we're still interested in private property rights."

It's not unusual for lawmakers to second-guess Austin's decisions. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Legislature often rolled back or forced changes in ordinances or regulations it considered too punitive or out-of-step with the rest of the state.

House Bill 1736, city officials said, would effectively gut the ordinance.

In February 2006, the Austin City Council imposed a 30-day moratorium on construction of new houses or additions that neighborhood activists deemed too large and out-of-character with the bungalows and cottages of so many of Austin's older neighborhoods.

A month later, an interim ordinance was in place while a task force of homeowners and builders worked on final regulations that, in some neighborhoods, eventually limited the size of new homes or additions. Austin's home-size ordinance limits the size, shape and location of dwellings on urban lots in certain near-in neighborhoods.

The legislation would restrict cities to enforcing only one of three zoning standards: the percentage of a lot that may be occupied, the amount of impervious cover allowed on a lot or limits on the floor-to-area ratio.

"It guts the ordinance," said Laura Huffman, assistant city manager. "There is no middle ground in the legislation as proposed."

The desire to regulate the sizes of houses on smaller lots is an issue outside Austin too. These type of ordinances have been debated in other Texas cities as well as around the country.

Scott Norman Jr., a lobbyist with the Texas Association of Builders, said the way Austin approached the ordinance is much of the problem.

He said builders and some homeowners felt the City Council sprang the moratorium and interim ordinance on them, then stacked a task force developing the final ordinance to favor homeowners who wanted the size limits.