Stories by Joseph Caterine
Austin's top magnet school may be dislocated from East Austin home
One of the top 10 high schools in the country, the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, may be relocated from its stomping grounds on the campus of Lyndon B. Johnson High School in East Austin to a more central location…
AISD • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 31, 2017
Planning Commission unanimously votes to recommend Strategic Housing Plan
It would be a stretch to call Tuesday night’s vote a confident one, but the Planning Commission nevertheless unanimously passed a motion to recommend the Austin Strategic Housing Plan to City Council at its meeting Tuesday night. The plan, if…
Housing • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 30, 2017
Draft AISD facilities update miscalculates root of underenrollment crisis, board trustees say
Tough conversations about racial segregation and economic disparity need to be had before the Austin Independent School District’s Facility Master Plan update is approved, some trustees said at the March 27 meeting of the AISD board. Monday night, members of…
AISD • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 29, 2017
CodeNEXT consultants discuss the fate of conditional overlays and PUDs
Like magicians before a skeptical audience, the CodeNEXT consultants asked the land use commissioners at their March 21 joint meeting to suspend their disbelief and envision an Austin with very few planned unit developments and zero conditional overlays. Since they…
Land Development Code • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 28, 2017
Austin Energy struggles to fill vacancies with outdated hiring process
Facing a wave of retirement over the next three to five years, Austin Energy urgently needs to revamp its hiring approach, staff told the Electric Utility Commission at its March 20 meeting. “We do very passive recruiting here,” said Chief…
Energy • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 27, 2017
CodeNEXT consultants respond to accusations of dividing city
Two weeks after the Zoning and Platting Commission passed a resolution stating that the CodeNEXT draft text “provides two very different, separate codes,” the CodeNEXT consultants reassured commissioners during the joint land use work session Tuesday night that the draft does in…
Land Development Code • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 23, 2017
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Holly Power Plant to be officially decommissioned in August, staff reports
Remnants of the Holly Street Power Plant still stand in East Austin, bitter reminders of a facility that spread pollution to nearby residents, but Austin Energy staff assured the Electric Utility Commission at its March 20 meeting that the decommissioning…
Energy • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 21, 2017
Board denies appeal accusing church of being front for multifamily residence
Wading through the gray area between religious assembly and residential uses, the Board of Adjustment decided at its Feb. 13 meeting to deny an appeal to reverse staff’s determination that the property at 2530 South Congress was being used for…
Planning • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 20, 2017
Form-based considerations inform West Campus variance case
In the haze of CodeNEXT fever, the form-based language of building types and footprints continues to creep into discussions of land use, and those considerations found their way into the Board of Adjustment’s meeting Monday night. For its final item, the board…
Development • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 17, 2017
King upholds neighborhood-first attitude in environmental variances case
Although some considered it off-topic, newly appointed Zoning and Platting Commissioner David King brought a neighborhood-centered perspective to the forefront of an environmental variances case, which the commission voted to recommend at its March 7 meeting. King had requested the…
Zoning • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 14, 2017
Commission asks Council to delay CodeNEXT mapping
In an act of defiance to the momentum of the CodeNEXT juggernaut, the Zoning and Platting Commission passed a resolution at the closing of its March 7 meeting calling on City Council to direct Planning and Zoning Department staff and consultants…
The Code • By Joseph Caterine • Mar 9, 2017
Environmental Commission schedules special meeting on Easton Park
After two hours of debating the urgency of cut and fill variances requested for a residential development in the controversial Pilot Knob planned unit development, the Environmental Commission voted to postpone action until a special called meeting no later than…
