Renteria remembers… Texas Health and Human Services, the city of Austin and several area nonprofits, including Age Well Live Well, are collaborating to record and exhibit the stories of longtime East Austin inhabitants for a new storytelling project. Beyond preserving the oral history of Austin’s east side, the project intends to serve as a link […]
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Tax wranglers may once again sue appraisers
Once again a battle is brewing between firms seeking to help property owners lower the appraised value on their property and the Travis Appraisal Review Board. The issue boils down to scheduling of hearings with no regard for the fact that an individual tax consultant can only attend one hearing at a time. On Thursday, […]
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Rodriguez case fails to find agreeable settlement
In a novel solution, the Office of the City Auditor and Frank Rodriguez presented a settlement agreement to the Ethics Review Commission at what should have been the final hearing on the case May 8. However, ethics commissioners felt the settlement proposal undermined their duty to provide the public with transparency in cases and declined […]
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Reporter’s Notebook: Game of homes
Whiner Ranch… Roughly a dozen residents of Steiner Ranch showed up at citizen communication at the April 30 meeting of the Travis County Commissioners Court to decry potential plans to build a new road through the subdivision. The road, Route F, was planned in response to severe wildfires in 2011, when officials determined that the […]
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Board of Adjustment split over gas station lanes
Despite the city’s goal of reducing the number of people driving in single passenger vehicles to 50 percent by 2039, 74 percent of Austin residents currently drive to work alone. With so many vehicles on the road, that means gas stations are far from being a relic of the past. However, Jim Wittliff argued at […]
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Development code vote kicked down the road
City staffers are not quite in the clear to officially start work drafting a new Land Development Code. City Council was preparing to make a vote this week that would provide direction to City Manager Spencer Cronk regarding the code, but that vote had still not come up by the time Council adjourned its meeting […]
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In line with state law, D6 project moves forward without traffic analysis
The Zoning and Platting Commission threw its full support behind development plans for about 100 acres near Highway 183 North and Ranch Road 620 at its most recent meeting. But an unusual state law – that could soon change – ties the city’s hands when it comes to traffic mitigation on the tracts. Alice Glasco, […]
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Getting everyone together for city’s first high-capacity transit line
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority has only just begun its initial yearlong leg of conducting preliminary engineering and studying possible modes and alignments for Project Connect’s Orange Line, the city’s first high-capacity regional transit route, but transportation officials are ready for the community to get on board. As the first of more public outreach efforts to […]
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Dougherty redevelopment plans to go before Council in May with parks board approval
After voters decided last November to approve $25 million in bond funding to replace the Dougherty Arts Center, the Parks and Recreation Department immediately got to work designing a new facility specifically intended to accommodate the arts. With hundreds of voices from public input and an assessment of the feasibility of all the previously proposed sites, […]
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Austin Monitor Radio: Council Member Paige Ellis
This week, Council Member Paige Ellis joins Austin Monitor reporter Jack Craver to talk about serving District 8, transportation, land use, the convention center and more. The full show is embedded below, for your listening pleasure. Austin Monitor Radio is produced in partnership with KOOP 91.7 FM. The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by […]
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City expands money, eligibility for creative space assistance
The city has nearly quadrupled its funding and expanded accessibility for a 2017 pilot program to assist creative spaces at risk of closing due to rising rents or maintenance issues. The Creative Space Assistance Program has more than $750,000 available to a mix of for-profit and nonprofit businesses that can apply for up to $50,000. […]
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Casar opposes dense rezoning Renteria supports
On Thursday, Council approved the rezoning of two adjacent properties in the East Riverside corridor that will allow for considerably greater density when the property is redeveloped. The approval, which was on first reading only, was done over the objections of District 4 Council Member Greg Casar, who attempted to convince his colleagues to postpone […]