Michael Kanin

Members of the Austin City Council voted narrowly Thursday to approve a site-specific exemption to the Save Our Springs Ordinance for the One World Theatre. The vote moves the city ahead along a path that calculated to end in a settlement of litigation between the parties.   It may also remove at least one source […]

Austin City Council members engaged in a wide-ranging discussion Tuesday that covered both the legality of their individual actions with regard to a recent zoning vote and the specifics of how they and staff should move forward with the so-called Downtown Density Bonus Program.   Some Council members still object to a section of a […]

Austin City Council members will decide Thursday whether to back action at the Texas Legislature that would create a Municipal Management District for a section of Onion Creek. If approved, the area – prospectively called the Onion Creek Metro Park District – would provide extra tax dollars from future residents of the Goodnight Ranch development […]

City Council signed off Thursday on an amendment to CAMPO‘s Joint Powers Agreement that would admit Burnet County to the regional planning organization. The action came over objections from Council Member Chris Riley.   Council discussion associated with the vote appears to set up a thorough re-examination of the Joint Powers Agreement that governs the […]

City Council members Thursday unanimously approved a trimmed version of a study designed to give them more information about what sort of body should govern Austin Energy. The 7-0 vote came thanks to a commitment from City Manager Marc Ott to bring something to Council by April 11.   That date would coincide with the […]

In Fact Daily has learned that an ordinance to create an independent governing board for Austin Energy could come in two stages: One that would create the body and another that would answer the question of the disposition of utility employees.   The first of the ordinances would come before Council on April 11. Then, […]

Austin City Council members appear ready to significantly alter – or flatly reject – an item from Council Members Kathie Tovo and Laura Morrison that calls for a comprehensive and apparently lengthy study of electric utility governance models.   The issue became heated Tuesday as Council members debated the resolution’s merits as part of their […]

Council Member Kathie Tovo wants city staff to execute an extensive study on the City of Austin’s alleys. Tovo argues that the study could help preserve a disappearing resource.   She also wants the city to prioritize the codification of the Downtown Density Bonus over other segments of the city’s downtown plan. That, Tovo suggests, […]

A bill introduced by Texas State Rep. Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie) would limit the ways in which municipalities, school districts, counties, and seemingly any other local governmental entity could use Certificates of Obligation. Senator Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) is the Senate sponsor of the bill.   Certificates of Obligation are bond notes often used by jurisdictions […]

Last week, after an extended executive session, the Planning Commission voted to recommend that City Council declare a public emergency to repeal the city’s Project Duration Ordinance and rewrite current vested rights rules so that they are in line with state law. The item will be on this week’s Council agenda.   “I understand that there […]

Austin Democrats Sen. Kirk Watson and Rep. Eliot Naishtat have filed bills that would re-up the City of Austin’s 99-year leases on three key downtown squares. If approved, the measure would stave off the theoretical 2016 end of city control over Republic Park, Wooldridge Park, and Brushy Park.   Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth) is […]

The man in charge of voter registration for Travis County says that the yet-to-be-formed 10-1 districting commission must have new Austin City Council districts approved by the U.S. Department of Justice and submitted to his office no later than August 1 in order for voters to receive registration certificates with their new precincts on them. […]