Kimberly Reeves

Two issues near and dear to Sen. Kirk Watson two years ago – climate change and creating a process to launch a third public flagship university – will be at the top of his agenda going into the 81st Legislative session.    Watson addressed a collection of various business officials at the Bob Bullock State […]

As part of the Oak Hill neighborhood plan, the City Council last week agreed to zone a controversial Oak Hill tract along William Cannon for residential use, over the objections of the landowners who wanted to sell.   The 16-acre parcel was a contested case in the area’s future land use map. The land – […]

The City Council heard an update on the $625 million Austin urban rail corridor proposal at Council yesterday, with a tentative financing plan that could rely heavily on federal funding. CAMPO’s Transit Working Group, chaired by Mayor Will Wynn, has been meeting for months to both craft options and move through the decision tree to […]

The Austin Independent School District’s proposition to pay for a teacher pay raise appeared to win an easy victory late last night, grabbing a consistent 60 percent of the voters. The measure would give AISD teachers a 3 percent raise, and increase the overall tax rate by $1.202 per $100 of assessed value. Promoting the […]

The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau – noting a slow economic year ahead and little change in the current marketing climate – is setting a 5 percent growth goal in the coming year, according to a presentation at Monday’s board meeting.   ACVB is in fairly solid financial shape going into the new fiscal year. […]

The Austin City Council, in a marathon session that took hours to complete and kept them in the chambers until the wee hours, approved the land use map and neighborhood plans for Oak Hill West and Oak Hill East last week.   The Oak Hill neighborhood plan is unique from a number of perspectives, not […]

Three potential teams promised the right Central Library at yesterday’s Council meeting, but only one will be picked to move forward on the city’s next landmark.   If City Hall was the monument to former Mayor Kirk Watson’s administration, then the city’s new Central Library will be the crowning achievement for Mayor Will Wynn, who […]

The Austin Independent School District will go to the voters on Election Day for a tax ratification election that would tack an extra 3.9 cents to the current rollback tax rate, bringing Austin’s tax rate to $1.20 per hundred-dollar valuation.   Front and center in supporting the tax rate hike is the Greater Austin Chamber […]

At last week’s meeting, the Austin City Council seeded the ground for the growth of the North Burnet/Gateway neighborhood, an area city leaders have come to refer to as Austin’s second downtown. Of course, the creation of the second downtown may be years into the future and contingent upon the buy-in of developers. The potential […]

Jean Mather may finally get her wish to see Austin create an urban waterway overlay. Unfortunately, it will just have to happen about 30 years later than the long-time commissioner and parks supporter expected.   The Waller Creek Citizens Advisory Committee met last night to hear updates on both the tunnel project and the master […]

The Reagan High School community must begin a tough uphill climb if it intends to return the school to a rating of Academically Acceptable under the state’s accountability system.   The faces at Tuesday night’s rally at Reagan would be familiar to people active in the Austin community: Reps. Dawnna Dukes and Donna Howard are […]

County commissioners agreed to loosen the purse strings yesterday in order to begin the purchase of flood-prone properties in the Timber Creek subdivision in southeast Travis County using $3.9 million in bond money approved by voters back in 2006.   The Army Corps of Engineers finally has completed its study of Timber Creek and confirmed […]