TipSheet: Austin City Council, 4.13.23

Today City Council will convene for its regular Thursday meeting. As usual, anyone can read through the agenda, which is posted online, but we’ve done our level best to pick out the most interesting bits to make things a little easier for our readers. 

After two deaths and a lot of online speculation, Council looks to step up safety measures near Rainey Street with a resolution from Council Member Zo Qadri that looks at increased patrols, cameras and a reduction in overserving bar patrons. In slightly tamer Lady Bird Lake news, we reported on a plan that will bring new art to the hike-and-bike trail after a long hiatus. Today, Council gets a chance to approve said plan and make it official. 

In a potentially huge Land Development Code-changing step, Council will also vote on a resolution from Council Member José Velásquez that will set the wheels in motion to eliminate non-accessible parking requirements for bars in Austin. In a less-huge, but still-significant move, Council will also consider changes that incorporate the risks of wildfires into development. 

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes has spearheaded the distribution of Project Connect anti-displacement funds. There’s $300 million to distribute in total, but this resolution covers the next three years, distributing $75 million as follows: land acquisition, preservation and rehabilitation: $43 million; affordable housing development: $14 million; programs and other strategies addressing immediate needs: $14 million; staffing, community engagement and marketing: $4 million. (You can read the full breakdown here.)

Council Member Qadri has also brought forward a resolution that looks at working with the county, Integral Care and the Austin-Travis County Sobering Center to develop a diversion program that focuses on housing and mental health as an alternative to throwing people in jail.

After a postponement to work out the kinks, Council Member Mackenzie Kelly’s resolution that calls for an aerial fire truck for the city’s fire department is back, with language that asks that equitable response times, gaps in service and staffing shortages be taken into consideration when considering its purchase. In other public safety news, Kelly has a different resolution on today’s agenda that looks to fund and distribute Narcan, which helps reverse opioid overdoses, as the region (and county) continues to battle a crisis of overdoses.

And, in zoning news, we’re never quite sure what Council will take up, but looking over the agenda there are a handful of cases that might be familiar to our readers.

After a long hiatus, the St. James Baptist Church property is back with a request for another zoning change – this time to multifamily. Council will also consider a multifamily zoning in North Austin that was endorsed by the Zoning and Platting Commission but now has a valid petition against it, a project on North Shoal Creek Boulevard, a rezoning on Swansons Ranch Road that triggered fears about road capacity and an East Riverside Drive rezoning that could pave the way for almost 700 new homes. Council could also take up a rezoning of former tank farms on the increasingly built-up Airport Boulevard corridor near Springdale Road, a downzoning in Montopolis that (kind of) flummoxed the Planning Commission and a proposed bar on Guadalupe that stressed neighbors at the Planning Commission.

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