Austin Monitor

City staff has recommended that the City of Austin withdraw it’s current recommendation for a new website designer, start the search over, and gather more public input. This would be the fifth Request for Proposals (RFP) for redesigning the website that the city has withdrawn in the past two years.   Matt Esquibel, who is […]

The Parks and Recreation Board on Tuesday discussed charging admission for the Trail of Lights and received a crash course from city staff on similar events held in other cities. Last week, the board learned that the free annual festival is costing the city more than $800,000.   Division Manager for Cultural Affairs Laura Esparza […]

The Environmental Board faced some hard choices Wednesday in considering whether to recommend variances to allow construction of a small residential subdivision on Lake Travis. In the end, the board chose to make no recommendation.   At issue was a request for variances from the city Land Development Code to build six high-end houses on […]

Members of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association on Wednesday intervened in a lawsuit between the owner of the potentially historic Bradford-Nohra House and the city, and, at least temporarily, stopped the owner from demolishing the house.   District Judge Steven Yelenosky issued the Temporary Restraining Order and set a hearing for June 4, according to […]

As Council Member Brewster McCracken leaves Council, his imprint on the city’s urban design principles remain, including individual neighborhood choices to either opt-in or opt-out of the vertical-mixed use (VMU) option along major corridors. The East Cesar Chavez neighborhood, which adopted its neighborhood plan a decade ago, is one of the latest to bring additional […]

As Austin enters its second summer of mandatory water restrictions, the lawns might not get watered as much as some would like, but the city is saving around three hundred thousand gallons every day during the summer. Austin Water Utility Assistant Director Daryl Slusher, along with Sonja Stefaniw, division manager for water conservation, presented an […]

City of Austin officials have discovered an apparent flaw in their attempt to zone a Hyde Park home historic and have issued a demolition permit for the Bradford-Nohra House. According to information prepared by city staff, the vote by the Historic Landmark Commission in June 2008 was insufficient to deny the demolition permit, because the […]

Stealth electioneering campaigns are out under a bill that Rep. Todd Smith (R-Euless) passed out of the House Monday evening. The Federal Elections Commission regulates interest group express advocacy, which would be advertising mailers, commercials or phone banks that expressly advocate for or against a particular candidate. Historically, these ads were distinguished by what is […]

The City Council on Thursday voted unanimously to direct several million dollars of federal stimulus funds towards the construction of two buildings and homeless prevention programs—assuming the city gets the money—and committed several more millions from general obligation bonds for home repairs.   After hearing from several members of the Community Development Commission, who urged […]

Travis County Commissioners on Tuesday took up one of the more frequent topics of county government this year—chasing down stimulus dollars that can benefit the county.   Travis County is eligible for $226,300 in what is called CDBG-R money. But the County is having trouble finding shovel-ready projects, and the CDBG program is already out […]

The Zoning and Platting Commission ended discussion of the re-subdivision of a pair of 70-year-old lots last week after a brief private session with city attorneys. A consultation with legal staff is rare for ZAP, but the subdivision of 5511 Woodview Ave. was enough to send everyone behind closed doors. When the discussion was done, […]

Facing a steep uphill climb in his quest to become Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem Brewster McCracken announced on Monday that he would instead withdraw from the race. In deciding not to pursue the runoff, McCracken saved the city an estimated $500,000-$600,000.   Most local election experts believed it would not be possible for McCracken to […]