Stories by Kimberly Reeves
Affordable housing advocates upset with focus of density bonus
Some affordable housing advocates are far from happy with Council’s dictated affordability levels in the proposed Downtown Density Bonus. City Council had urged staff to move more quickly on the density bonus, which was part of the Downtown Plan…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Apr 29, 2013
Panel rejects plan for businesses to lease parking space in city parks
A Planning Commission committee firmly rejected the idea of leasing excess parkland parking spaces to surrounding businesses, an idea they labeled “the Casa de Luz” problem at a meeting on Tuesday night. Casa de Luz’s issues began back in…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Apr 22, 2013
Senate, House panels debate measures to curb payday lending
The hearing on payday lending in the House Investments and Financial Services Committee on Monday was so uneventful as to practically guarantee the Senate version of the bill would be the one worth following. The House has a number…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Apr 16, 2013
Workman bill would give landowners expanded legal rights
Rep. Paul Workman, R-Austin, is fronting a mounting frustration among southwest Austin landowners, many of whom have taken years to get their development projects off the ground, only to face opposition from a city that some consider to be cozy…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Apr 11, 2013
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Senate passes bills limiting public-private development of state land
The Texas Senate, on a day when the House was embroiled in budget talk, passed two bills that could have a significant impact on Austin. The duo of bills, Senate Bill 894 and Senate Bill 507, are the top…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Apr 5, 2013
CAMPO told funding needed for Project Connect still a mystery
The question of just how much the proposed Project Connect would cost was asked – but not answered – at Monday night’s CAMPO board meeting. Mayor Lee Leffingwell, chair of CAMPO’s Transit Working Group, laid out the regional transit…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Mar 19, 2013
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Council tentatively approves East Riverside Corridor Plan
The East Riverside Corridor Regulating Plan made it through Council on first reading last week after almost six long years of debate over competing priorities. Changes were already under way in the corridor back in 2007, and with the rumor…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Mar 13, 2013
Housing officials rethinking city’s SMART housing initiative
The Community Development Corporation’s Housing Committee will be the first group to take another look at Austin’s SMART housing program more than a decade after it was created. Austin’s SMART housing initiative once was a key tool in the…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Mar 7, 2013
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Compromise reached for re-zoning Burnet Road tract for bar
Last week, Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole brokered a final compromise on conditions around the re-zoning for a proposed Little Woodrow’s on Burnet Road, but the agreed-to concessions were not enough to bring Council Members Laura Morrison and Kathie Tovo…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Mar 4, 2013
City unveils plans for upgrades to Festival Beach park area
The city unveiled its first conceptual renderings of the 90-acre Festival Beach area on Monday night, taking care to emphasize the importance of public input. Of the neighborhoods across the city, those on the East Side around Festival Beach…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Feb 26, 2013
Watson bill would move utility oversight to PUC
New legislation, filed Thursday by Sens. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) and Kirk Watson (D-Austin) would move oversight of water and sewer utilities from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to the Public Utility Commission. “Over the past decade, more…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Feb 15, 2013
City breaks ground on Anderson Development housing units
The city broke ground on two-dozen units of affordable housing on East 12th Street in East Austin on Wednesday, a testament to ongoing efforts of the Anderson Community Development Corp. to find its way back to being a viable, substantial…
