First phase of SU 560 plan gets commercial zoning approval
Southwestern University will have to conduct a traffic mobility study exploring possible traffic impacts caused by its proposed SU 560 redevelopment plan.
Georgetown City Council approved a rezoning request by the university on Tuesday, October 14. The newly-granted commercial zoning would replace the former special area and open space zoning, and will allow commercial, residential, office and entertainment buildings to be built on the property.
However — after two residents spoke about public comment about the potential traffic and parking impacts to the area — Council Member Kevin Pitts added an amendment to the rezoning requiring that a traffic mobility study will be done in the area.
“We did our [current] future mobility plan, we ratified that in December 2023, we started that process in August of 2022. This project was not envisioned, at least from our perspective, it might have been from Southwestern’s perspective at the time,” Mr. Pitts said. “We may look at it and there may not be many updates that we can do to alleviate traffic or to plan better for this area from a traffic standpoint. Our existing future mobility plan did not consider this level of development in this part of town.”
Council Member Jake French called the amendment a “worthwhile exercise” and expressed how he’s more concerned about the 560 acres than the first approximately 70 acres.
This zoning would only apply to the first phase of the SU 560 plan, which is approximately 68.5 acres. As more phases come forward, the developer would have to apply for additional zoning changes to Southwestern’s Planned Unit Development.
A second reading will be brought to council during its next meeting on October 29 for final approval.
City customer service center part of project
Georgetown will build a new Customer Service Center for 12 city departments, including utility billing, human resources, planning, information technology and customer care.
The facility will be built near Southwestern University as part of the SU 560 plan, which will bring a mix of commercial, residential and business uses across the university’s 560 acres immediately to the east of campus.
About $50 million in funding for the 175,000-square-foot Customer Service Center was approved by voters as part of a November 2023 city bond. The goal, according to the city, is to open the center by 2028.
“The Customer Service Center and the need for it to better serve our development community really came to light as a primary need and an exciting building in which we could serve our community better,” Jennifer Bettiol, Georgetown’s capital improvement project manager, told city council Tuesday, October 14.
City staff used 10-year projected growth for full-time employees to predict the amount of square footage needed for the building.
“We recognize that not every department in this building is going to grow at the same rate,” Ms. Bettiol said. “Some departments are going to grow faster than others. It’s important that we consider this and kind of the organic change that’s going to happen in the next 10 years.”
She said a three-story building is the most efficient when considering full-time employee growth. Preliminary plans show departments like utility billing and human resources on the first floor, with the IT and customer care departments on the second and third floors.
“It will give us a larger piece of property for future expansion, but based on [the building’s] uses and needs and how we’re interacting with the public, [a three story building] met all of the characteristics that we had been studying,” Ms. Bettiol said.
Working with Southwestern
Back in September, Georgetown’s Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously approved an amendment to Southwestern’s Planned Unit Development, which opens the door to development on 69 of the vacant 560 acres east of campus. The amendment included specific building height maximums and impervious cover requirements for the first phase of development.
Ms. Bettiol on Tuesday said the city has been working with Southwestern and developer Banbury — which is managing the SU 560 plan — to keep on track with the developer’s schedule.
“It’s really important — since we’re going to be first in as part of this development — that we are part of making sure that all of the needs are available when we start to turn dirt as well as right up to our building in and of itself,” she said.
Additionally, the city is following the university’s development manual for the project to make sure it is in line with the school’s vision and planning principles.
Who will use the building?
The city is planning to move 12 departments to the new Customer Service Center, including:
- Building permitting and inspections
- Code compliance
- Customer care
- Development engineering
- Economic development
- Fire and life safety
- Human Resources
- Information Technology (IT)
- Planning
- Transportation and Capital Improvement Projects
- Utility Billing
- Building core/ support
Looking at 10-year growth projections, there would be 283 full-time employees in the building. For reference, City Manager David Morgan told council the city currently has around 1,100 full-time employees across all departments.
“The development services related departments are in three different locations right now, so having them being on location is a huge benefit for our development community as well as our staff,” Mr. Morgan said. “Some of these departments are [here] because of space limitations like in city hall.”