TipSheet: Austin City Council, 12.1.22

As the clock winds down on this iteration of City Council, there is a certain amount of pressure on Council members who are on the way out to cement their legacies and tie up any loose ends before handing over the keys in January. Obviously, some of that simply won’t happen. The discussion at Tuesday’s work session focused on the work left to be done on the Land Development Code and planning for the Palm District, which will carry into the new year and beyond. But there are a few big things on this penultimate agenda that might well be wrapped up before the holiday agenda.

Looming large among those items is the ongoing rezoning of the Statesman property that has taken up much of this Council year. Both that and the associated TIRZ funding mechanism for the South Central Waterfront have appeared on many agendas lately. But today we might actually get a final vote on both.

Even larger is the first voting discussion of proposed rate changes for Austin Energy that we have been covering at length. Though Council has discussed the rate case on a number of occasions, this is the day that those new rates could be approved.

Along similar lines, Council will consider a last-minute push to encourage more housing construction by allowing residential uses on commercially zoned property and relaxing compatibility standards on corridors. The discussion about compatibility at Tuesday’s work session got a little gnarly, but from what we could discern, the concerns seemed to be about extending the changes to more corridors. One could reason that this wouldn’t hold up Council action on the existing, vetted changes, as the city could always make more later. However, reason isn’t always the only factor at play.

In terms of legacy, Council Member Kathie Tovo has a new version of her resolution that would establish policies for city-owned real estate. (There are several previous versions on the agenda as well.) It’s been a bit of a slog getting to a vote, but as this is the second to last meeting for Tovo, it seems the time is nigh. It’s worth noting that amendments from Mayor Adler that have been posted online would temper Tovo’s proposal quite a bit if adopted. 

In other land use reform news, Council Member Paige Ellis has brought forward a resolution that seeks to speed up the review process for “missing middle” housing. The idea is to reclassify projects that develop three to 16 residential units. In the resolution, Ellis asks that three- and four-unit projects be considered as one- and two-unit projects are, with no site plan required. And projects that are developing five to 16 units will only have to go through a “site plan lite” review that has fewer requirements than a full site plan.

Council will also get the chance to codify new rules that aim to help employees who are victims of wage theft in Austin. The ordinance also establishes a database of violations and a city “wage theft coordinator” (who will help workers who have experienced wage theft, not coordinate the wage-stealing themselves).

Interested in what the city is telling Congress that we want? Here’s the draft federal agenda for the next legislative session. (Council will vote on this, and could amend it, today.)

In terms of zoning, we are expecting the vast majority of Council’s energy to be expended on the Statesman PUD. However, there are a few cases that we are keeping our eye on – like the potential historic zoning of the Westgate Tower – just in case.

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