The city's Smart Growth initiative, which encourages denser, higher-user development in underutilized areas of town, can mean high-dollar fees being waived for developers. The Austin Design Commission's nod in the process can mean up to 50 points toward the 635 possible points a developer can earn on the city-designated matrix.

Chairman Juan Cotera has told the Austin Design Commission he intends to present a more structured checklist for point tallies for commission approval in May. The goal is to set up a more methodical and consistent rating process among the projects. "What I'm proposing is to get together a format that each review committee can have," Cotera told his colleagues. "We need to take each guideline and each recommendation that we have and our review has to be based on what degree they met those recommendations."

The more aesthetic or subjective aspects of the project that have not been covered by guidelines or recommendations, Cotera says, have sometimes swayed project approvals. Cotera's goal is to present a checklist for each design guideline, as well as space on the form for comments under each particular area. Those guidelines for design are as broad as reinforcing the historic continuity of an area or creating a safer downtown down to honing in on screening mechanical equipment, providing generous street-level windows and building projects as close to the property line as possible.