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Austin Monitor
New EV station will not charge forward in East Austin
Plans for an electric-vehicle charging lot spanning Pleasant Valley Road were thwarted by Planning Commission members who objected to its auto-centric nature at their last meeting. The project would have created two electric-vehicle charging parking lots flanking Pleasant Valley at Cesar Chavez Street. The easternmost lot is currently home to...
City to tally public assets in 78702 with goal of preservation and activation
The city will inventory all of the culturally and economically significant publicly owned real estate just east of downtown in a move intended to preserve and enhance locations central to the area’s longtime Black and Latino communities. A resolution passed at Thursday’s City Council meeting calls for the city...
Council approves initiative to conduct inventory of public trees
On Thursday, City Council elevated the significance of Austin’s trees by initiating a comprehensive inventory of the city’s trees alongside a detailed tree planting and maintenance strategy. The measure follows Council’s approval last month of a direction for more street trees and green infrastructure on future city right-of-way...
Travis County DA faces removal attempt under Texas law targeting ‘rogue’ prosecutors
A Travis County resident is seeking to remove progressive District Attorney José Garza from office using a 2023 Texas law aimed at limiting the discretion of locally elected prosecutors. A state district judge in Comal County on Friday appointed an attorney to represent Texas and pursue the case. House...
Austin outlaws the construction of windowless bedrooms
Developers in Austin will have to provide some form of natural light in bedrooms after City Council members voted Thursday to amend the city’s building code. For the most part, Austin will accomplish this change by simply replacing one word in the International Building Code that many cities adopt. The rules, which dictate safety standards for commercial buildings – including apartments – require developers to provide natural “or” artificial light in rooms where people sleep. Austin will change that “or” to an “and.” The change goes into effect on May 20.
Extra security, extra stress, new rules at Council meeting
Each speaker at a City Council meeting now has three minutes – instead of two – to speak on each item they signed up to address because of a temporary restraining order granted Wednesday by Travis County District Judge Madeleine Connor. At Thursday’s meeting, that ruling had some impact on timing, but the meeting generally ran smoothly. A more noticeable difference was the presence of more police officers than is typical in Council chambers.
Arts commissioners signal support for city funds for The Contemporary art museum
Members of the Arts Commission appear ready to advocate for The Contemporary Austin fine art museum and sculpture park to receive consistent city funding beyond Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars. This week’s commission meeting featured a presentation from Sharon Maidenberg, executive director and CEO of The Contemporary, detailing the organization’s plans...
New report showcases Travis County’s sustainability efforts
Issued annually ahead of Earth Day, Travis County’s report on its own sustainability efforts highlights a host of victories this year – including expanding recycling services, improving energy consumption and facilities practices, implementing staff programming and trainings, and enhancing sustainable relationships with vendors. On Tuesday, the Travis County...
Marshalling Yard shelter could get $1M extension and stay open through March 2025
The city’s Marshalling Yard congregate shelter, which currently serves up to 300 people at a time, could receive an extension from City Council to stay open until next March. An item on today’s agenda would provide an additional $1 million to Family Endeavors Inc. to continue managing the shelter while the city works to add more bridge shelters and permanent supportive housing capacity.
Planning Commission endorses ‘plot twist’ for South Central Waterfront Plan
Though the future of Austin’s south shore has been shaken by a court ruling against the proposed tax increment reinvestment zone, members of the Planning Commission last week took their turn tackling the South Central Waterfront Plan in a sprawling discussion that spawned a number of novel proposals. The...
New rules in the works for electric vehicle charging stations
In addition to changes to major portions of the city’s land use regulations, City Council heard at last week’s meeting about proposed changes to rules governing where public electric vehicle charging stations can be located in the future. Because of Austin’s ambitious climate protection goals and strategies, which...
TipSheet: Austin City Council, 4.18.24
City Council will once again honor us with a Thursday meeting, and we’ve done the work of looking through the agenda for you and picking out what strikes us as interesting from said agenda. There’s a whole bunch of interesting stuff (OK, resolutions) coming from City Council members this...
Budget deficit looms over city this year and beyond
The city of Austin is facing a $3.5 million deficit for the current year, with a much larger deficit – more than $13 million – projected for Fiscal Year 2025, which starts on Oct. 1, 2024. That’s the bad news as presented to City Council at Tuesday’s work session by longtime financial consultant Jon Hockenyos and city Budget Officer Kerri Lang. Much of that has to do with national trends, including high interest rates, with Hockenyos predicting the possibility of one rate cut this year. Perhaps the biggest problem he cited is that city sales tax collections are not nearly as robust as budget writers predicted they would be when the current budget was created. Inflation causes shoppers to buy less, he noted.
Council hears proposed changes to city charter for November ballot
City Council on Tuesday officially received the Charter Review Commission’s proposed revisions to the city charter, along with some additional staff-proposed changes. Council members limited their questions to the administrative items brought by staff because the commission’s nine recommendations will return to Council on May 2 for discussion and will be considered for action later in May. At that time, Council will decide which of the commission’s recommendations will be placed on the November 2024 ballot.
Women entrepreneurs seek greater support and opportunities throughout Austin
A group of Austin’s leading women entrepreneurs wants the city and business stakeholders to help increase access to capital for women business owners and founders, while creating broader professional networks and providing more business tools and services. Those three areas of need were the most common threads among the...
Travis County Diversion Center moves forward
The Travis County jail system is the single largest mental health care provider in the county area, and arrests across all categories have been rising since 2021. Since 2023, the Travis County Commissioners Court – in an effort spearheaded by County Judge Andy Brown – has sought to construct a mental health diversion center to provide acute psychiatric care to eligible people, with the hope of interrupting the criminal justice cycle and reducing recidivism.
Austin’s airport is getting a new concourse and 20 more gates but not until the 2030s
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) is gearing up to add at least 20 new gates, expanding capacity at the overcrowded airport as it struggles to serve millions more passengers each year than it was designed to handle. The planned gates will be located inside a newly constructed building – temporarily dubbed...
Judge rules city can’t use taxpayer money for South Central TIRZ
Travis County District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum has ruled that the city of Austin and the developers of the Statesman Planned Unit Development may not move forward with funding of the development on Lady Bird Lake with $354 million in property taxes. The Save Our Springs Alliance, former state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, former Council Member Ora Houston and homeowner Faye Holland sued City Council for designating the area as blighted in order to create a tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ.
City eyes code amendments to increase affordable housing for UT students
City Council members hope that a series of amendments to a planning tool can increase housing affordability and the quality of life for University of Texas students, with the possibility of bringing a much-needed grocery store to the West Campus area. On Thursday, Council will consider a resolution that calls...
ACLU sues Travis County for failing to provide legal counsel
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a class action lawsuit against Travis County for its failure to provide arrestees access to a court-appointed lawyer preceding their first hearing before a judge, known as counsel at first appearance, or CAFA. CAFA is intended to assist jailed individuals who cannot afford...
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