Lengthy Casa de Luz parking dispute heads to court,
Community center has long fought city over code violations.
The long-running dispute between South Austin community center Casa de Luz and the city has now landed in court.
Three years ago, a city commission decided that Casa de Luz, best known for serving whole-food, plant-based meals, would be docked $1,000 per week until it cleared three code violations.
The city and Casa de Luz, which have battled over code violations for more than a decade, agree on one point: If Casa de Luz figures out its parking situation, it could obtain the permits needed to fix the most recent violations, which the code department said have resulted in fines accruing to about $150,000 as of this week.
To the city, an obvious solution is converting a garden on the 1701 Toomey Road property to parking, which code department spokeswoman Emily Jacobs said would meet city parking requirements.
To Casa de Luz, meeting the 46-space requirement would mean also tearing down a private school — called Integrity Academy and serving children ages 3 to 18 — on the property, said Stuart Hersh, a retired city employee who is now representing the community center pro bono.
So this fall Casa de Luz sought a variance from the parking requirement at the city’s Board of Adjustment, which denied the request and later refused to rehear the case.
The Casa de Luz property owner sued the city this month in district court to appeal the board’s decision.
The lawsuit states that there are more than 130 metered parking spaces by the city softball fields across the street. It also states that the board “acted arbitrarily, unreasonably, and without reference to guiding principles.”
There are four spaces at the Toomey Road property, Hersh said, and some Casa de Luz visitors also park along nearby streets.
A city spokeswoman said “the city is aware of the longstanding parking issues at Casa de Luz and is prepared to defend the lawsuit.”
Jacobs, of the code department, said Casa de Luz has three outstanding code violations that all hinge on resolving the parking hang-up: It doesn’t have a certificate of occupancy for a restaurant, didn’t obtain permits for some construction and doesn’t meet fire-related requirements, which Hersh said would mean installing a sprinkler system.
In 2004, the Board of Adjustment had granted a parking variance, which has since expired, partly because Casa de Luz had lined up leases for off-site parking, the lawsuit said. But those spaces have disappeared with the new development, the lawsuit said.
Hersh said the City Council considered allowing metered and parks parking to count toward the parking requirements for such a business, but both initiatives stalled.
In 2013, the council indefinitely postponed an item about parks parking and approved a resolution directing city staff to draft code amendments regarding metered parking. \
If the changes had been made, Casa de Luz would be in compliance with city parking requirements, Hersh said.
Eduardo “Wayo” Longoria, who founded Casa de Luz and is president of the company that owns the property, said he “can’t even afford” to think about whether the nonprofit could survive if it had to pay the fines.
“Every day I walk in here, I say, ‘This is just a little miracle, because it continues to exist after 25 years,’ ” he said.
Longoria said it has been difficult to explain the so-called “macrobiotic” movement Casa de Luz is part of in five-minute presentations before city boards and commissions.
Though Casa de Luz is known for its eatery, Longoria said “it’s not just a restaurant” and is about more than diet. It is also about the community created when people sit down at communal tables and eat the same meal, he said. It is about creating the “great life,” he said.
Jeff Jack, who lives in the Zilker neighborhood that has been pushing back against Casa de Luz, wrote a letter urging the Board of Adjustment to reject the request for a parking variance. Though Casa de Luz might argue it’s “special due to its ‘unique menu,’ ” Jack wrote, it would be dangerous to set a precedent of granting variances to successful businesses so they can stay at their location rather than bear the expense of moving to a larger site.
The lawsuit seeking to overturn the board’s decision said the letter from Jack, who is a past chair of the Board of Adjustment, was “obviously intended to have a political effect.” Jack said his letter focused on the technical criteria for granting a variance.
For instance, the letter said the board could approve a variance if doing otherwise would remove a reasonable use of the property.
The letter said the Casa de Luz restaurant could remain, if other amenities were demolished to provide enough room for parking.
The property’s zoning, without any variance, would also allow for redevelopment as a mixeduse project with a parking structure, the letter said.