Kimberly Reeves

Concerned Citizens for Highway 71 will be at tonight’s Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Policy Board meeting to raise awareness about the safety issues along SH 71 in western Travis County.   Organizer Diane Cunningham was in the car driving behind the Round Rock teachers who died in a hydroplaning accident along SH 71 […]

Travis County Commissioners approved a contract for one tax-increment financing zone and considered membership on the board of another at last week’s court meeting. The county’s participation will get two high-dollar projects done, but it also raises the specter of just how far creative funding vehicles might actually stretch in Austin.   Compared to the […]

City Council approved a series of interlocking motions recently that set in motion the redevelopment of property along East 12th Street, following the work that already has been done on the neighboring East 11th Street.   Both streets are part of the city’s Urban Renewal Plan, which is being administered by the Austin Revitalization Authority. While […]

Negotiations between the developers of the Terrace Planned United Development and the Barton Hills Neighborhood Association began in earnest Thursday night, with the neighborhood association’s leaders putting out a possible compromise that ended up on hold.   Attorney Richard Suttle and the development team, led by Roger Arend, met with about 40 people from the […]

Republican incumbent Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty said he welcomes a challenge from Democrat Karen Huber in the race to represent Precinct 3, and he actually sounds like he means it. Huber won the right to face Daugherty in the November general election by defeating Albert Gonzales in Tuesday’s primary.   Daugherty has served for […]

Council Member Brewster McCracken has suggested an “urban duplex” zoning category as one more step beyond the current McMansion ordinance and a way to increase density within the inner city.   McCracken made his comments after the Council heard some recommendations for tweaks to the McMansion ordinance at last week’s Council meeting.   Whether the […]

There was actually one point in Tuesday night’s Parks and Recreation Board discussion of naming the park next to the Palmer Center that became so complicated that one of the commissioners threw up his hands and exclaimed, “Please, don’t give this job to us again.”   He was only half joking. The Parks Board has […]

Note: Story corrected at 12:05pm   Council Member Lee Leffingwell wants to see an environmentally sensitive code amendment that encourages underground parking. Last night, the Planning Commission approved a version of that code amendment with limited discussion.   The amendment’s incentive to encourage underground parking is to give a developer the ability to exclude underground […]

Council Member Mike Martinez is calling on the city to delay the transfer of its health care clinics to the Travis County Healthcare District until he has firm details and better information on employee benefits.   “We have huge issues still on the table that will affect what are now still City employees,” Martinez said. […]

The city’s proposed revisions to the Planned Unit Development ordinance is on Draft No. 38, and Planning Manager Jerry Rushtoven is far from done with the document.   Stakeholders have met four times on the ordinance. A trio of Council members —Lee Leffingwell, Brewster McCracken and Mike Martinez — requested the re-write, a byproduct of […]

The Downtown Commission has added its endorsement to the Downtown Austin Alliance’s review of ROMA Design Group’s initial report on issues and opportunities downtown.   The DAA outlined its priorities in a letter addressed to Mayor Will Wynn, dated Feb. 11. The first phase of ROMA’s work on the downtown plan lists the challenges and […]

Last week, the Council approved the vertical mixed-use plan for the North Loop neighborhood but urged city departments to get in step with the city’s plan to “densify” major corridors.   The approved VMU plans are beginning to trickle into Council from various neighborhoods. One of the most obvious VMU candidates would be North Loop, […]