Austin Monitor

Representatives of several Council offices got a briefing last week on the station-area plans for the areas immediately surrounding the MLK stop and Saltillo Plaza stop on Capital Metro’s commuter rail line. The Council created a new zoning category, TOD (transit-oriented development) to encourage high-density, mixed-use development around those transit stops and several zoning cases […]

After weeks of research, staffers in the City of Austin’s Watershed Protection and Development Review Department have identified the owner of the underground fuel oil tank that leaked back in January, sending fuel oil into the alley behind Sixth Street and eventually into Waller Creek. The tank was originally connected to the Littlefield Building, the […]

City Manager Marc Ott is rearranging the executive staff to free up several top-level city employees to work full-time on the meet-and-confer agreements with the unions representing police, fire, and EMS personnel. In a memo announcing the staff changes, Ott said the goal is to have those contract negotiations completed by this September. Assistant City […]

Austin Mayor Will Wynn met with reporters at City Hall before Thursday’s Council meeting to speak publicly about the 2006 incident that resulted in the Class C misdemeanor assault charge against him. The Mayor issued a public apology for his treatment of another guest at a party at his condominium complex, who called police after […]

The Austin Police Association Political Action Committee decided Thursday to endorse Mindy Montford, one of two Assistant District Attorneys still in the running to replace retiring District Attorney Ronnie Earle in 2009.   Montford will face Rosemary Lehmberg in the April 8 runoff. The APA PAC had initially endorsed Gary Cobb, who came in third […]

Prosecutors this week filed a misdemeanor assault charge against Austin Mayor Will Wynn. They allege the Mayor made assaulted a guest during a party at his condominium complex in 2006. He pled no contest Tuesday to a Class C misdemeanor charge—the lowest level of criminal complaint.   However, under a form of deferred adjudication, the […]

Noted Texas economist Ray Perryman released a report on Wednesday on the state of the market for housing in downtown Austin. While some have speculated that there is insufficient demand for the growing number of high-rise condominiums downtown, Perryman predicted the marketplace would not suffer a crash caused by an excess of supply.   “If […]

Council Member Lee Leffingwell has strongly criticized attempts to remove 1900 acres from the city’s extra-territorial jurisdiction for development by a proposed film studio in eastern Travis County. The City Council will vote on the request by Villa Muse to allow it to build outside the city’s taxing jurisdiction at today’s meeting.   Leffingwell said […]

Rep. Dawnna Dukes Tuesday pulled off a victory to win the Democrat primary in House District 46, despite a strong and well-funded opponent in Brian Thompson.   Thompson picked up many of the early endorsements in the race in the wake of Dukes’ tax woes, revealed in recent newspaper articles. Last night, though, it was […]

It will be a two-woman race in the runoff election for the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. Rosemary Lehmberg and Mindy Montford were the top two vote getters in the four-person race to replace long-time District Attorney Ronnie Earle when he retires at the end of his current term.   The Democratic runoff election will […]

Several city departments are gearing up for next week’s South by Southwest (SXSW) music, film, and interactive festival. While the event pumps approximately $95 million into the local economy, it also means extra work for police officers, the fire marshal, and code inspectors as they deal with the thousands of visitors flocking to live music […]

The race for the Democratic nomination for Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector was over early Tuesday evening, when early voting returns showed incumbent Nelda Wells Spears with 75 percent of the vote. That commanding lead prompted challenger Glen Maxey, a former State Representative, to concede the nomination to the incumbent who has held the office since […]