Overview

The Anita Ferrales Coy Facility (formerly known as the John T. Allan Facility and renamed in 2018) is situated on an almost 20 acre site near Boggy Creek in East Austin bordered by Mansell Avenue, Gonzales Street and Shady Lane. In addition to the main facility, it features athletics fields and outdoor play areas. 

The site is currently home to the Alternative Learning Center (ALC), which is a school community built on second chances—and a deeply rooted belief that every student desires and deserves to achieve their greatest potential. Students attend the ALC for a variety of reasons, including social and discipline challenges at their home schools as well as community-based incidents. 

In addition, the site houses the Library Media Center and district service providers - AVANCE-Austin, VELA and Urban Roots. 

Current Status

On March 23, 2023, the Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution to direct the Interim Superintendent to identify a development partner for the Coy site.  Click here to review the agenda item and a copy of the resolution. 

The District's goal is to identify a developer to build high quality housing that is affordable for our teachers, staff and families. In addition, the District will use generated revenue from the site to construct a new facility for the Alternative Learning Center. 

The District is in the process of drafting a request for proposal, which will be issued in June 2023. 

Process

Phase 1: Equity and Community Engagement

From January 2022 – March 2022, the district hosted a series of community meetings and solicited input from the community members and stakeholders about their needs and how the site could best respond to those needs. The top priorities were identified:

• Affordable and workforce housing
• Child care center
• Affordable commercial space for service providers
• Green space

Phase 2 and 3: Real Estate, Financial and Economic Analysis

The district engaged Hayat Brown LLC through a competitive procurement process to conduct a feasibility study of the Coy site. The study was delivered in August 2022 and included the following key findings:

• There was significant displacement of the Hispanic population by new White residents since 2010.
• Median Household Income within 1 mile of Anita Coy is $47,538 annually, versus $75,752 for the City of Austin.
• East Austin’s volume of multifamily buildings continues to grow, catering to young professionals and other non-family renters.
• Rental rates are escalating quickly.
•  For sale housing costs far exceed costs for similar rental units.
• New residents to East Austin can afford growing multifamily rents, while teachers and nearby Anita Coy neighbors are priced out.

The district then created a high-level development strategy to ensure that each repurposed site continues to benefit the community, while helping the District to advance its academic, staff recruitment and retention needs.

Phase 4: Presentation of Findings and Recommended Actions

The findings from this plan were presented to the community through a series of community meetings held in September 2022 to solicit feedback and provide further direction for the repurposing of the site. The district heard the following:

• Majority in favor of density and supportive of affordable housing
• Want to honor the legacy of the site in the redevelopment
• Housing units should accommodate family needs
• Want to see the inclusion of green space
•  Some favor using the site only for education
• Neighborhood needs deeply affordable housing, not just workforce 

In late January 2023, the district also conducted a survey of all staff to gather information about employees’ experience with housing in Austin.Over 2,700 responses were received and the district learned the following:

• Who they live with: 41.2% live with a spouse or partner; 37.4% live with family; 19.2% live alone; and 8.8% with roommates
• Cost of living: 73.8% of teachers/librarians spend more than 30% of their salary on housing; 80.3% of classified staff (i.e. bus drivers, custodians, food service, maintenance, etc.) spend more than 30% of their salary on housing
• Who shares housing costs with family, spouse, partner or roommate: 67.8% responded yes; and 32.2% responded no
• Lack of affordable housing: on a scale of 1-10, with 10 indicating strong agreement, 74.7% rated 10/10 that the lack of affordable housing is a barrier to working in the City of Austin

In response, the District established the following development goals:

• Retain ownership of the land.
• Build a new facility for the Alternative Learning Center onsite. 
• Provide mixed income housing sensitive to the neighborhood. 
  • All housing units below 120% MFI 
  • At least half of the units below 80% MFI 
  • A portion of units in the 30%-60% MFI range 
• Offer pedestrian friendly site amenities. 
• Make connections to public transit. 
• Incorporate green space and preserve heritage trees.

Aerial Map