Stories by Kimberly Reeves
Board ponders DiverseArts’ plans for East 11th Street
With no developers in sight, a local arts organization looks to find a better use for the block along East 11th Street that contains the Victory Grill. Harold McMillan of the non-profit DiverseArts Culture Works wants the Urban Renewal…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Aug 23, 2011
Capital Metro seeks bids for labor contract to replace StarTran
Capital Metro’s board of directors showed its cards on Monday, revealing exactly where they intend to draw the line with Amalgamated Transit Union 1091 as the board sends its major labor contract out for bid at the end of this…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Aug 23, 2011
Unanimous Council approves new regulations for payday lenders
City Council, backed by Austin’s faith community, passed both business regulations and initiated land use code amendments for payday lenders Thursday night. Lobbyists for the payday lending industry pushed hard against the regulations in the days leading up to…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Aug 19, 2011
Stylist, neighborhood battle over upzoning home for business
The Planning Commission postponed a vote to rezone a property in the Dawson neighborhood last week, something of a victory for a hair stylist looking to upzone and expand her business after a long struggle to pay her mortgage. Dawson,…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Aug 15, 2011
Council OKs first project under revised Barton Springs ordinance
Council last week unanimously approved the Tarlton 360 Condominium mixed-use project, the first to go forward under Mayor Lee Leffingwell’s Barton Springs redevelopment ordinance. During the hearing, however, some neighbors raised serious questions about a reversal at the Zoning and…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Aug 9, 2011
Eastside cocktail lounge fails to gain Planning Commission backing
The Planning Commission last week declined to recommend Council approval for a conditional use permit for a cocktail lounge in the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood, due at least in part to neighborhood opposition. That vote, which required a super-majority…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Aug 4, 2011
Subscribe to our newsletter
Rehab facility gets thumbs up, despite proximity to church, day care
Agent Danae Falvo’s biggest challenge to the rezoning of an office strip mall wasn’t in the audience at last night’s Zoning and Platting Commission meeting. It was Commissioner Patricia Seeger, sitting on the dais. This rezoning case, from LO…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Aug 3, 2011
Tovo, Morrison reject upzoning in two downtown cases
Laura Morrison and Kathie Tovo are Council’s two most neighborhood-centric allies, but the pair stood against neighborhood wishes, and their colleagues, on two downtown zoning cases at last week’s Council meeting. Tovo’s choice to pull a zoning case on…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Aug 1, 2011
Urban Board a no-show for meeting with Planning Commission
A meeting between the Planning Commission and the Urban Renewal Board, more than two years in the making, failed to materialize last week since there is currently no strategy for East 12th Street. The non-meeting meeting was placed on…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Jul 29, 2011
Residential Design panel wants more power over McMansion ordinance
The Residential Design and Compatibility Commission, dissatisfied with a recent administrative appeal, wants to put more teeth into the city’s McMansion ordinance, which the commission has overseen for more than five years. The McMansion ordinance limits the size of…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Jul 26, 2011
Commissioners continue to study issues surrounding short-term rentals
Another meeting on short-term rental guidelines left city staff members with an additional two full pages of questions on the proposed ordinance that various city departments will have to answer. The second meeting of the Planning Commission’s Codes &…
Uncategorized • By Kimberly Reeves • Jul 20, 2011
City studies possible changes in UNO fees
The University Neighborhood Overlay (UNO) has been one of the city’s most successful programs for promoting affordable housing. But now, supporters of the initial UNO program are pushing hard to revise fee in-lieu terms to target beds, rather than units,…
