[EE-BO]

Texas Sig,

PM me if you would like to discuss further, but I am painfully aware of the situation in West Campus as an advisor and Housing Board officer for my chapter.

Just so you know, the UNO is part of a city-wide initiative that will impact all of Austin in the coming years. The rationale, and a wise one I must admit, is that if you re-zone certain areas of the city to allow very dense population then you will make it easier to preserve the integrity and affordability of many in-town neighborhoods.

All over Austin, re-zoning is permitting and encouraging the development of high rise buildings with a residential-commercial mix along major city streets and highways. This not only makes it easier to keep more people close to the city, but it also focuses the concentration of population growth along major roads where rail and other environmentally friendly mass-transit planning can be used to greatest effect.

And to be honest, West Campus is long overdue for re-zoning. And I do not forsee any situation, regardless of the political prowess of the alumni, where a Greek House in West Campus can get an exemption from the UNO going forward. ATO is the only house right now that is in West Campus and outside of the UNO, and I think that is how it is going to be forever.

Personally, I hate it. West Campus as I remember it will never be the same.

But keep in mind that under existing zoning laws, even moderate growth was not possible. What is happening now was inevitable, but the speed with which it is taking place is due to the fact that West Campus was prevented from a more gradual redevelopment for far too long. And many Greek chapters are being caught in this. I just found out today that yet another fraternity is planning to sell their house.

The University has grown the student body in recent years. In addition, massive growth in Austin in general (stronger and more sustainable now than during the tech bubble) has created a lot of competition for housing outside of West Campus.

Areas like Riverside, Far West and Hyde Park that used to be largely populated by students are now unaffordable because there has been a huge influx of professionals competing for that real estate.

And despite UT's student body growth, the University still only provides on-campus housing for a single digit percentage of the student body.

This creates enormous pressure to redevelop West Campus so that more students can live nearby. And the scary reality is that there is so much demand for West Campus housing that even as the number of new complexes and apartments rises dramatically, rents are still going up.

Let me give you an example. In December a newly build complex at 27th and Rio Grande- very close to the Sigma Chi house- was up for sale for $21 million, or just over $360,000 per apartment.

Just 10 blocks away at 35th and Duval another newly built (2003) apartment complex of similar caliber is on the market right now for about $77,000 per apartment.

Property taxes are bad now, but they will get worse. I have seen detailed market reports on many properties in West Campus and in the past 3 years many have had their appraised values double or worse.

Texas might be reducing property tax rates to keep the voters happy, but the downside is that properties are more frequently and aggressively re-appraised to make up for the loss of revenue due to reduced rates. In most areas this does not have an impact, but in West Campus the impact is quite noticeable.

Sigma Chi is somewhat lucky since you guys are in the 75 foot maximum building height zone of the overlay (I think- you might be in the 60 foot zone depending on which tract you have on your block, the map in front of me is not clear on that), but you are also basically across the street from campus. If you were one block away in the 3 block wide belt where zoning is 175 feet, you would be in far worse shape.

But there is no doubt that property taxes and decreasing (now nearly non-existent) availability of existing Greek houses or places to build such a home in the traditional manner are going to threaten the ability of all of us to live as we have in decades prior.

And just so you know, the current going rate for a piece of land in West Campus in a 50-75 foot zone is close to double the appraised value for tax purposes. So chapters in West Campus in those zones would be wise to do their long term housing cost planning with the expectation of property taxes doubling from current rates in the next few years.