Light Rail Maintenance Site Planned for East Austin

Conceptual site plan for the operations and maintenance facility Credit: Austin Transit Partnership

Five years since voters first approved Project Connect, a $7.1 billion rapid transit expansion, light rail is still in the planning stages – and some of those plans are drawing pushback from the community.

Overseen by Austin Transit Partnership, the proposed 9.8-mile system consisting of 15 total stations would extend north to 38th Street, east to Yellow Jacket Lane, and south to Oltorf Street, according to the latest project renderings. A property tax increase passed under the 2020 Proposition A is the largest funding source for the light rail. The other half will come from the Federal Transit Administration, which requires ATP compliance with specific regulations which evaluate the project’s anticipated impact on the environment.

The plan came with promises of increased reliability of city transit and connecting historically underserved communities to jobs and affordable housing. But despite public engagement efforts, some residents of East Austin say their concerns have not been effectively addressed in the planning process. In the same neighborhoods where a history of environmental injustice pervades, reports document future displacement to come during the construction of the project. 

A 62-acre light rail operations and maintenance facility is set to be the agency’s largest land acquisition, which would store up to 40 rail vehicles, equipment, and more, according to agency reports. More than one-third of total businesses that would be displaced as a result of the project are located in the facility site, per project reports. The site would avoid the displacement of homes, said Lindsay Wood, ATP executive vice president of design and construction, in a statement.

The facility would be located near Airport Commerce Drive at the northwest intersection of Highway 183 and State Highway 71, a site currently zoned for commercial and industrial activity. A multifamily residence is located just 270 feet from the tracks on the eastern edge of the Montopolis neighborhood where approximately 65% of the population is Hispanic or Latino, and approximately 30% of families live below poverty, according to census data. 

Wood said the facility must be close to the main light rail corridor to keep costs low and avoid the construction of extra tracks to route the vehicles to the maintenance facility. 

“This particular site is used for light industrial [activity] and even some manufacturing,” Wood said. “It couldn’t actually be developed or redeveloped for any residential use purposes.”

Long-term effects of light rail operation and maintenance include the transport, use, and storage of hazardous materials, which includes diesel fuel, hydraulic fluids, and cleaning products, according to the agency report. 

Alex Karner, an associate professor in the UT School of Architecture whose research focuses on transportation access and environmental justice, said health and safety risks related to air pollution, traffic volume, and noise tend to be concentrated more heavily in places with large Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous populations. 

ATP states that “substantial investment in multi-modal transportation” in communities most impacted by the effects of displacement and rail maintenance will offset any “potential adverse effects.”

Karner said there is often a disconnect between how ATP frames the success of its public engagement versus how everyday transit riders would perceive the planned developments. Public engagement should also be evaluated on whether community input can meaningfully influence the decision-making progress, he said. “If you want to place this facility in a neighborhood, you [have] got to go in without preconceptions, without the idea that this is the right thing for this particular community, and talk to people and hear about what their needs and desires are.”  

Wood said ATP began engaging with Montopolis and other communities near the light rail alignment in 2021 with a mix of in-person and online public meetings. 

Fred McGhee, president of the Montopolis Community Development Corporation, said the concerns of his community were not meaningfully considered before the decision was made to place the operations and maintenance facility near their community. 

“This project is attempting to be in technical compliance with our nation’s body of environmental law, while violating the spirit and the ethics behind those laws,” McGhee said. 

According to project reports, the agency considered 21 total potential sites for the maintenance facility, with two of the finalists also proposed in East Austin – one being Willow Creek Drive, adjacent to multifamily housing, and the other, Airport Commerce Drive, adjacent to hotels and single-family residences. “They never seriously considered anything other than Montopolis,” McGhee said. “It’s a huge environmental injustice. It’s honestly, in many ways, just as bad as the siting of the Holly Power Plant or the Airport Road tank farms.” 

ATP leaders including Wood have pointed to local job creation as one benefit of the maintenance facility siting. “In the area of the facility, there will be not only the many construction jobs created to build it, but there will be long-term around 300 jobs needed to support the actual operations and maintenance of the Austin light rail system once it is in service,” Wood said. 

Wood said there would be little long-term impact associated with the maintenance and operation of the light rail because of close regulation and permitting. Because the light rail facility will be electrically powered, its operations will be cleaner and more environmentally friendly in comparison to diesel rail facilities, Wood said.

ATP states it will provide “relocation assistance” to the 24 business tenants that make up more than one-third of businesses that will be displaced by the project, according to an environmental impact report. In 2020, Austin voters approved $300 million in anti-displacement funding as part of Project Connect, to be invested over 13 years. 
The release of the final environmental impact statement in late 2025 will mark the end of the agency’s public engagement obligations before the record of decision is posted explaining the final proposed action.

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