Next week, City Council will consider approving a $107.8 million allocation to acquire an office campus along South MoPac Expressway that would serve as a consolidated headquarters for the city’s public safety agencies, which are located in outdated and cramped facilities across the city. If approved, the headquarters would house the Austin Police Department, Austin […]
Barton Springs Recharge Zone
a region from where groundwater funnels into Barton Springs. Includes land around Williamson, Bear, Little Bear, and Onion creeks.
Posted inEnvironment
After 20 years the city protects 25 percent of the Barton Springs recharge zone
Since 1998, the city of Austin has been working diligently to preserve and care for the crown jewel of our city: Barton Springs. Doing so involves a lot more than draining and cleaning the pool every so often. According to Sherri Kuhl, the environmental conservation division manager at Austin Water, it in large part involves […]
Posted inDevelopment, Environment, Local Politics
Environmental Board OKs redevelopment in Barton Springs zone
The Environmental Board gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up to redevelopment plans in the Barton Springs Zone Wednesday night. Parkside Community School is moving from its current Toomey Road location, where rising rents have become unmanageable, to a new home at 3207 West Slaughter Lane. The school proposes to rehabilitate what is currently a chemical dependence […]
Posted inDevelopment, Environment
Environmental Board backs Oak Hill PUD with affordable housing
The Environmental Board gave the go-ahead for changes to a 2007 Planned Unit Development west of Oak Hill Wednesday night. The changes would allow Foundation Communities to build affordable multifamily units on the site, which was originally planned for office uses. Though developers were asking for changes to the original agreement that amounted to […]
Posted inDevelopment, Environment, Local Government, Local Politics
City buys Hays County land to block development over aquifer
Austin City Council members Thursday unanimously approved the $18 million acquisition of land in Hays County that might otherwise have been developed as the Jeremiah Ventures project. With the move, Council members eliminated a long-running fight over grandfathering rules, environmental protections, and the regulatory reach of city government. Though this specific issue appears settled, […]
Posted inDevelopment, Local Government, Local Politics, Transportation
Travis Commissioners finally endorse SH45 SW
Many of the same Austinites made the same arguments they’ve made for decades, but this time, the result was different. At the behest of Pct. 3’s Gerald Daugherty, the Travis County Commissioners Court on Tuesday endorsed construction of the controversial SH45 Southwest roadway. Just three years ago, a somewhat different group of Travis County […]
Posted inEnvironment, Resources
Watershed Protection Ordinance gets first rewrite in 28 years
City Council members took something of a strange path getting there but in the end, they approved the first major changes to the city’s Watershed Protection Ordinance since 1986 on a 7-0 vote. Because the ordinance rewrite also involved changes to the Save Our Springs Ordinance, it required a super-majority of City Council to […]