Part II Dell plant: growing without the pain (Note: article was divided by me -- jbn3 -- because of its length)
by Jerry Mahoney, American-Statesman Staff
What Dell did
In sharp contrast with those controversies, endorsements from residents such as Klotz for Dell's manufacturing campus put city officials at ease. Dell has told the city that the campus eventually may contain 10 buildings totaling 4.5 million square feet. As many as 12,000 people will work there.
For Dell, one of the advantages of the site is the proximity to its Round Rock campus and the company's cluster of manufacturing and other facilities near Metric Boulevard, west of Interstate 35. Company officials say employees must be able to travel between sites easily. The fact that the site is in Austin's Desired Development Zone signaled that City Hall would try to expedite the project.
In his efforts to better understand residents' concerns about the project, Dell's Thompson looked out bedroom windows and over back-yard fences at the proposed site. Those perspectives helped Dell agree to concessions on issues such as where a manufacturing facility would be built on the campus.
During negotiations with homeowners, Thompson said Dell wouldn't build within 100 yards of the street and would add extensive landscaping as a buffer between the site and existing housing developments.
All told, Dell conceded 38 acres at an estimated cost of $2 million, including landscaping, said spokeswoman Cathie Hargett.
"We had to think long and hard about whether that was something we wanted to give on," Thompson said. "But at the end of the day, it was worth it because it was the right thing to do."
The neighborhood reaction
Those concessions went a long way toward assuaging the fears of homeowners.
"I did have real big concerns about Dell being three houses down from me," said Dolores Prince, a Harris Ridge resident who was host to several meetings between Dell and neighborhood leaders in her home. "I was really impressed with Dell, being as large as they are and being that accommodating."
Said Thompson: "We settled virtually everything in the living room."
One issue required a visit to Dell's newest manufacturing site in Austin, Metric 12.
Last fall, after Dell disclosed its plans for Northeast Austin, several neighborhood leaders drove to Round Rock to see the company's 350-acre campus.
In less than five years, the site has grown to three buildings and an annex totaling 1.1 million square feet -- similar in area to Lakeline Mall. The buildings house Dell's sales and customer service units and the executive suites.
While it is the same acreage as the University of Texas campus, the site is an expanse of asphalt, automobiles, concrete and glass with relatively small patches of grass and dozens of young trees.
"There are very large buildings crammed together, literally up against the back yards of neighbors," said Harold Baughman, president of the Harris Ridge Homeowners Association.
When Klotz voiced concerns about the Round Rock campus, Thompson suggested she meet him at Metric 12, named for its location on Metric Drive.
From Metric, the two-story, 300,000-square-foot facility is partially obscured by tall walls of brown, prefabricated stone. Grassy berms, clusters of pampas grass and ornamental trees hide most of the parking.
"There's nothing about the Metric site that gives me a negative feeling," said Klotz, who represents a coalition of 20 neighborhood groups.
Klotz noted that Samsung Austin Semiconductor was also in a hurry on its $1.3 billion chip facility going up a few miles east of the Dell site. But Dell pushed harder, she said.
"Because of the intensity of working with Dell, there was much more stress involved," she said.
The city staff also felt Dell's urgency and knew of the council's interest in the project. But the staff thoroughly reviewed Dell's requests for zoning changes and other approvals, said Pat Murphy, manager of the city's environmental services division.
While not complaining about the city's treatment of Dell's project, Thompson noted that government moves much slower than Dell.
"We challenged them, pushing and being very vigilant," he said.
And when you're Dell Computer, even an occasional expression of frustration at the agency level echoes to the top levels of city government. That happened more than once, said a city official who insisted on anonymity.
"There was no serious grumbling," said City Council Member Gus Garcia.
While he is happy that Dell will build the manufacturing campus in Austin, Garcia has prodded Dell to open a sales facility in the city.
"We lost a big chunk of tax revenue when Dell moved to Round Rock," Garcia said.
Dell's concentration of sales operations in the Austin suburb have generated $9.8 million in sales tax revenue for Round Rock since 1995, according that city's finance office. Under the city's tax abatement agreement with Dell, round Rock has returned $4.2 million of that to the company.
Garcia said Dell has indicated it may eventually build a sales office on the new campus. But for now, the new site will be for manufacturing. Meanwhile, there are indications that Dell is close to announcing a fifth facility in Round Rock.
"They've still got expansion plans in Round Rock," said Mayor Charlie Culpepper.
The city's side
Beyond their anticipation of collecting property taxes and utility payments, City Council members have been heralding the campus as concrete evidence that their nascent Smart Growth policy is a winner.
Smart Growth is shorthand for the council's goal of steering development away from environmentally sensitive areas to other parts of the city that have been designated part of a Desired Development Zone.
Watson and other council members say development in the zone preserves Austin's quality of life by protecting the environment and still generates revenue for city services such as police, fire protection and libraries.
Dell's decision to build in that area triggered the city's willingness to act quickly on future buildings to the campus and to accelerate planned road, sewer and water improvements in the area.
Watson said the agreement with Dell shatters City Hall's image as anti-growth, a complaint developers have voiced for years. If so, it would be ironic considering wide agreement that this City Council is the most environmentally attuned council in years.
"We can't go back to our stereotype of green council versus developers, because we have a Smart Growth Plan, and Dell showed it can work," Watson said.
(Sorry it is so long, but I couldn't find a URL to link to it.)
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