Austin Energy is gearing up for another update to the “Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2025,” the document first approved by City Council in 2007 that outlines how the city-owned utility intends to change in the coming years to reduce pollution and greenhouse emissions while delivering affordable and reliable electricity to […]
Jack Craver
Posted inWhispers
Tovo puts brakes on historic zoning proposal
Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo withdrew a resolution she was intending to introduce Thursday that would have made it harder for property owners to demolish certain buildings. Under the proposal, if the Historic Landmark Commission failed to approve a motion to initiate historic zoning for a property, it would have to take a separate vote […]
Posted inPreservation
Council debates building demolition in Old West Austin
City Council delayed a decision on a contentious historic preservation case Thursday after a property owner promised that he would not seek a permit to tear down the structure in the next week. Zach Armstrong, who is seeking to demolish a fourplex he owns at 1618 Palma Plaza in Old West Austin, assured Mayor Steve […]
Posted inWhispers
Garza and Adler defend fee waivers
Neither Mayor Steve Adler nor City Council Member Delia Garza accepted the premise of a question they were asked about affordability at a forum hosted by the South Austin Neighborhood Alliance last week. The question that was prepared by the group, and read by SANA President Ken Jacob, referred to fee waivers that the city […]
Posted inPlanning
Lamar Beach Master Plan coming together
Members of the City Council Open Space, Environment and Sustainability Committee expressed delight Wednesday at the consensus among stakeholders over the Lamar Beach Master Plan, a proposed multimillion-dollar overhaul of Lamar Beach at Town Lake Metropolitan Park. Representatives of the West Austin Youth Association (WAYA), Austin Pets Alive! and Austin High School, all of which […]
Posted inAustin
Onion Creek residents voice desperation over flooding
Flood-battered residents voiced despair over the future and frustration with City Hall at a Tuesday night forum at the Onion Creek Club featuring Mayor Steve Adler and City Council members Ann Kitchen and Delia Garza. “We feel like we’re trapped here,” said one man in the crowd of over 100, explaining that he and his […]
Posted inDevelopment
City Council approves Grove PUD ‘placeholder’
City Council took an important procedural step Thursday toward approval of a major planned unit development that has fiercely divided several neighborhoods in West Austin. Council voted to approve the Grove at Shoal Creek PUD on first reading, the first of three votes necessary to approve the final draft. However, the favorable vote by no […]
Posted inCity Council
10-1: Commission representation by the numbers
Graphs and map by John Laycock. One of the arguments in favor of replacing Austin’s former at-large City Council with the new, district-based 10-1 system was that the former system didn’t adequately represent certain parts of the city. Nonetheless, although Council members must reside in the district they represent, the dozens of citizens they appoint […]
Posted inDevelopment
Council wants to move forward with Grove PUD
Mayor Steve Adler hopes to start the process of approving the Grove at Shoal Creek, a controversial planned unit development in Central Austin, at City Council’s next meeting on Thursday. At a Council work session on Tuesday, Adler explained to Council colleagues that he supports approving a draft plan of the PUD on “first reading” […]
Posted inDevelopment
Grove developers threaten to kill project
ARG Bull Creek Ltd. is ratcheting up pressure on City Council members to approve the Grove at Shoal Creek, a massive planned unit development it hopes to build on a 75-acre lot at the corner of Bull Creek Road and 45th Street. In a letter addressed yesterday to Mayor Steve Adler and all 10 members […]
Posted inWhispers
Just like Trump
When asked by an Austin Monitor reporter to share his thoughts on this year’s stranger-than-fiction presidential election, City Council Member Don Zimmerman said that he, “like everybody else,” had a hard time making sense of it. He said that Donald Trump had been subject to “very biased reporting,” noting the number of times that pundits […]
Posted inElections
Zimmerman campaign mailer provokes ethics complaint
City Council Member Don Zimmerman may once again face the wrath of the Ethics Review Commission for violating a campaign finance ordinance that he believes is not legal. The outspoken conservative possibly broke city campaign rules, the commission decided Wednesday, when he failed to include the following disclaimer on a mailer he sent to voters […]