The Austin Environmental Commission on Wednesday approved a recommendation to City Council to adopt the proposed Austin/Travis County Food Plan and ensure its complete funding over the next four years. The recommended resolution, sponsored by Mariana Krueger and approved unanimously, also called for the allocation of a “significant amount of resources” in the new fiscal […]
Amy Smith
Posted inDevelopment
City emergency and development staff still opposed to single-stairwell apartment buildings
First responders and development services staff remain opposed to the single-staircase resolution that City Council approved in May, Assistant Fire Chief Tom Vocke told the Public Safety Commission at its meeting Monday afternoon. Council members supported the change to make construction costs of mid-sized multifamily units more affordable for both developers and tenants. Vocke said […]
Posted inParks
Parks board to ask Council to explain why it bypassed public input on a Lady Bird Lake boat rental concession
Members of the Parks and Recreation Board said Monday they will ask City Council to reexamine a 2019 ordinance that circumvented public input to allow an adventure excursion company to operate a boating concession on Lady Bird Lake. The request for Council reconsideration may be futile, board members also acknowledged. By the time the board […]
Posted inBudget
Parks board recommends beefing up funding for city parks maintenance
With increasing challenges in maintaining grounds within Austin’s busy parks system, the Parks and Recreation Board voted Monday to recommend that City Council allocate an additional $2.62 million to the Parks and Recreation Department budget for the new fiscal year. Of that amount, the board requested that $2.24 million be allocated toward parks maintenance, including […]
Posted inCity Council
Council votes to follow traditional process before calling a climate bond election
After one of the most robust deliberations City Council has had in recent history, a resolution on a comprehensive climate bond election moved forward Thursday, but without the immediacy that some Council members would have preferred. Nevertheless, those who favored holding a bond election this year – namely Council members Ryan Alter, Vanessa Fuentes and […]
Posted inCity Council
With an ambitious food plan ready for adoption, all that’s missing is the financing
City Council members heard a briefing Tuesday on a far-reaching food plan designed to eliminate historical barriers to food access in Austin and Travis County. If all goes as planned, the draft proposal will return to City Council on Aug. 29 for possible adoption. The Travis County Commissioners Court is expected to be briefed on […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Gun violence report will help city leaders craft intervention and prevention strategies
For a city of its size, Austin has a low rate of homicides from gun violence, averaging four per 100,000 residents over a 15-year period. But an “alarming” spike in shooting incidents following the Covid-19 pandemic – from January 2021 to December 2022 – caused the city’s homicide rate to surge to 8.3 and 7.1, […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mayor Kirk Watson slows timing for climate bond election
City Council members have been taking sides on the City Council Message Board over competing timelines for a climate bond election, and on Wednesday the proposal for a longer lead-up was left standing. The back-and-forth on the message board – the city platform Council members use to communicate with one another without violating open meetings […]
Posted inParks
Parks Board hears from the public on the next (and former) PARD director
The Parks and Recreation Board got an earful of public testimony earlier this month regarding the city’s national search to replace former parks director Kimberly McNeeley. McNeeley recently left the Parks and Recreation Department after accepting the position of CEO of the Trail Conservancy, one of the department’s nonprofit partners. Several speakers, including some department […]
Posted inTransportation
Parks Board recommends approval of Violet Crown trail funding
Anyone who tuned in last week to watch the Parks and Recreation Board deliberate a $900,000 contract agreement with a nonprofit may have been surprised by the rare absence of a live broadcast of the meeting. And they may have been equally surprised there was no archived recording of the meeting available on the city’s […]
Posted inWater
Austin Water aims to transform landscape requirements for new homes
Austin Water is planning a landscape transformation initiative for new single-family homes as part of the city’s long-range water conservation strategies, according to a progress report Wednesday to the Water and Wastewater Commission. Kevin Critendon, Austin Water’s assistant director over environmental, planning and development services, noted that while rainfall in May brought the combined Highland […]
Posted inEnvironment
Environmental Commission looks to make Austin safer for birds
The Environmental Commission voted Wednesday to form a working group to delve into how Austin can live up to its “Bird City” title by creating bird-safe buildings. The near-unanimous vote, with Colin Nickells abstaining, followed a presentation by Heidi Trudell, who researches the prevention of birds colliding with human-made structures and who prepared her report […]