The plan, developed by San Francisco-based Roma Design Group, calls for turning the former power-generating plant into a community center. The plan deals more with subjects like access to the site and parking than specific uses. The development's price tag stands at $100 million with the private sector providing $65 million.

Development of Seaholm is expected to help energize the area in a southwest corner of downtown between the warehouse district and the growing residential area east of Lamar Boulevard. At a hearing on the plan, council heard words of support. "We're really excited about it," Charles Betts, executive director of the Downtown Austin Alliance, told the council. "We think it will be a wonderful, tremendous asset, not only for the downtown, but for our entire city."

The words against the plan had more to do with a pedestrian-bicycle bridge from the Pfluger pedestrian bridge that crosses Town Lake than with the overall Seaholm proposal. The original design of the Pfluger bridge calls for it to be connected with Lamar Boulevard by a span that arcs over Cesar Chavez. The Seaholm plan, instead, sees a tunnel under Cesar Chavez that would not connect to Lamar.