photography by Ricardo B. Brazziell

Developers will be bound by new height restrictions along Lady Bird Lake under rules adopted Thursday night by the Austin City Council.

The limits are mostly a victory for neighborhood activists, who have said for two years that high-rise development could spoil vistas of the lake and block public access.

According to the new rules, buildings along the lake cannot exceed 96 feet in some areas and 60 feet in others.

Thursday's vote was the third and final one and required to enact the height limits. The votes have been spread over six weeks, during which time most disagreements were settled. The remaining sticking point concerned guidelines for the city to grant exemptions to the limits.

A development would be allowed to exceed the limits if a majority of City Council members found that allowing a taller building would significantly benefit the community.

"I think it's a step in the right direction, but there are some important questions still to be resolved," said Jeff Jack, a director of Save Town Lake, a residents group formed in 2006 to fight what it considers excessive development along the lake.

Jack was referring to establishing a legal framework that allows developers to exceed the height limits in exchange for concessions, such as public access to the waterfront. The council decided Thursday to form a committee to create such a framework.

Jack said the city should not use the concessions "to satisfy community needs that can be met outside the waterfront, such as (population) density and affordable housing."

Others, however, have said that affordable housing is important enough for the city to allow an exemption in that case.

The new rules will restore height limits that were approved in 1986 but effectively wiped out in 1999. The new rules were drafted by a task force created by the City Council in 2007 amid neighborhood concerns about a project planned for East Riverside Drive.

CWS Capital Partners LLC wanted to build towers up to 200 feet high but resolved a legal challenge from Save Town Lake by agreeing to stop at 96 feet.

The project is adjacent to the American-Statesman property, which is for sale and would be bound by the 96-foot height limit if redeveloped, city officials said.

The change could also apply to the Brackenridge Tract, a 345-acre stretch along Lake Austin Boulevard that the University of Texas wants to redevelop. Student housing would be exempt from the height limits because it would be considered as a state use, said Robert Heil, a city planner. A private partnership use may or may not be subject to the height limits, he said.