TipSheet: Austin City Council, 11.3.22

City Council convenes for yet another regular meeting today and we’ve put together yet another TipSheet to guide our readers through the anticipated highlights of that meeting. As usual, the thorough and the curious can check out the full agenda online.

In terms of scheduling, Council plans to take up the Colony Park items along with TIRZ financing and real estate resolutions from Mayor Steve Adler and Council Member Kathie Tovo at 11 a.m., and has set aside an optimistic 45 minutes to tackle the topics. 

On the historic preservation front, Council will vote on an Ann Kitchen-sponsored resolution to initiate historic zoning for the Broken Spoke and a resolution to rename the Austin History Center’s reading room to honor Betty Baker and Steve Sadowsky.

We are definitely keeping an eye on Kitchen’s resolution that attempts to address (and change) a Hays County transportation plan that threatens environmentally sensitive land in Austin. 

In Project Connect news, Council is poised to appoint Juan Garza as community expert director representing community planning or sustainability on the Austin Transit Partnership Board of Directors.

Today will mark the return of the Statesman planned unit development. During the last few meetings featuring the lakeside development, Council has continued to discuss the details of the project, but has refrained from taking any votes since April. Today, that discussion is expected to continue, with no plans yet to take a final vote.

Aside from the Statesman PUD, Council is slated to vote on a proposed relocation for Crux Climbing Center, affordable housing for seniors on Nuckols Crossing and an indefinitely stalled plan for cliffside condos on Spicewood Springs Road.

Finally, with summer officially gone (right?), the city is looking toward planning for the coming winter. Council members may execute a contract today with the Austin Area Urban League to provide cold-weather shelter for those experiencing homelessness. Speaking of homelessness, Council is also set to waive more than $582,000 in fees for the expansion of Mobile Loaves and Fishes by Foundation Communities on a 76-acre Burleson Road site. Boy, that’s a lot of fees.

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