With the wheels officially in motion for Travis County’s Mental Health Diversion Center, City Hall is doing its own work to scale up the mental health services that will be key to its success. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, City Council’s Public Health Committee spent last week’s meeting hearing from Emergency Medical Services […]
Kali Bramble
Posted inPreservation
Demolitions get green light at historically brief Historic Landmark Commission meeting
An unusually brief meeting took place at City Hall last Wednesday, with the Historic Landmark Commission bidding adieu to a number of aging properties with little fanfare. The first of two properties approved for demolition was 1904 Raleigh Ave., a one-story home in Tarrytown built in 1953 by Austin real estate fixture Gene Naumann and […]
Posted inTransit
Housing and Planning Committee weighs in on light rail design plans, preparing for challenging decisions
With the June deadline for a final proposal fast approaching, Austin’s long-awaited light rail system is beginning to take shape. Austin Transit Partnership, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority and city staff all joined City Council’s Housing and Planning Committee last week to discuss the five designs for the first phase of the multibillion-dollar infrastructure project, each […]
Posted inCity Council
Council celebrates Earth Day with plan to transition to low-carbon concrete
City Council joined environmentalists across the globe last week, celebrating the 53rd annual Earth Day with a pair of resolutions aimed at lowering the city’s carbon footprint. The resolutions, sponsored by Council Member Leslie Pool, mandate use of lower-carbon-footprint concrete for future city construction projects and urge federal action to reinstate funding for the Energy […]
Posted inEnergy
With no end in sight to electric vehicle boom, Austin Energy embraces the transportation sector
As new battery-powered car models from General Motors and Ford roll into the market, Austin Energy is racing to ensure the city’s infrastructure is ready for them. The utility’s electric vehicle and emerging technologies team stopped by last week’s work session to bring City Council up to speed on pending improvements to its charging network […]
Posted inPreservation
West Downtown on track to receive national historic status
Austin could soon welcome a brand-new historic district into the mix, with an application for the West Downtown National Register District lined up to get the rubber stamp next month. Located west of the Capitol between Seventh and 15th streets, the proposed district is a trove of historic architecture, charting Austin’s course from 19th-century settlement […]
Posted inAustin
Drained from emergency debris collections, Austin Resource Recovery prepares for a squeeze this budget cycle
As it continues to pick up the pieces of Winter Storm Mara, Austin Resource Recovery is preparing to weather financial challenges thanks to the $20 million relief effort. Four months out from budget season, Director Ken Snipes and Finance Division Manager Victoria Rieger stopped by the Zero Waste Advisory Commission last week to begin charting […]
Posted inEnergy
Austin Energy reflects on emergency response two months after record-breaking ice storm
As brush collectors make their final sweeps for toppled tree debris, Austin Energy is working to uncover the hard lessons wrought by February’s catastrophic ice storm. Gearing up to deliver an after-action report to City Council this spring, interim Deputy General Manager Stuart Riley and a cohort of Austin Energy executives stopped by the Electric […]
Posted inPreservation
Landmark Commission stalls demolition at former summer camp in Northwest Hills
A sprawling lot in Northwest Hills – once home to a summer camp for boys – could be headed to City Council’s agenda sometime soon, after a move to zone the site historic secured approval from the Historic Landmark Commission earlier this month. Built around 1940 for army captain and outdoorsman Warren Penn Knox, the […]
Posted inPreservation
Preservationists lament the eroding of Travis Heights at Historic Landmark Commission
The city’s Historic Landmark Commission mourned the steady chipping away of homes recognized in the Travis Heights-Fairview Park National Register district last week, with yet another falling to the housing market’s demand for more contemporary, spacious designs. The application to demolish 1804 Brackenridge St., presently a 1.5-story Craftsman bungalow built in 1920, stoked neighborhood opposition […]
Posted inPreservation
Historic Landmark Commission votes to keep the party going at legacy venue the Broken Spoke
The Broken Spoke will keep its doors open to honky-tonk enthusiasts for the foreseeable future, after a move to grant the venue a historic zoning designation made its way through the Historic Landmark Commission last week. Now 59 years old, the Broken Spoke is one of few remaining vestiges of Austin’s star-studded musical legacy, boasting […]
Posted inHousing
Council sets its sights on affordable student housing
City Council newcomer Ryan Alter is making headway, kicking off his tenure with a call for more robust housing in the increasingly unaffordable neighborhoods around Austin’s college campuses. Alter’s resolution, which passed unanimously, directs city staff to explore partnerships and policy solutions to ramp up affordable unit production for students at UT, ACC, Huston-Tillotson, and […]