Tag Archives: City of Austin Environmental Commission
Central Texas resident asks Environmental Commission for dam help
On Nov. 1, Ann McElroy, co-founder of the organization No Colorado River Dam Inc., stood in front of the Environmental Commission to plead for its assistance in encouraging the city of Austin to pass a resolution denouncing a dam that…
Water • By Jessi Devenyns • Nov 6, 2017
AISD seeks environmental flexibility in redevelopment of Barton Springs schools
The Austin Independent School District is one step closer to reaching an agreement with the city that would allow it to redevelop some of its overcrowded campuses in order to accommodate growth in student populations. At its meeting last Wednesday,…
AISD • By Joseph Caterine • Oct 23, 2017
Environmental Commission stalls on CodeNEXT 2.0
CodeNEXT once again took center stage at a meeting of the Environmental Commission earlier this month, when commissioners refrained from recommending the second draft of the Land Development Code rewrite, with a hope that they would have comments prepared just…
Environment • By Jessi Devenyns • Oct 18, 2017
Environmental Commission OKs Holdsworth Center PUD
At its Oct. 4 meeting, the Environmental Commission weighed the benefits of allowing the Holdsworth Center planned unit development to go forward in lieu of adhering to the current zoning for single-family residents on a 44-acre swath of undeveloped agricultural land along…
Planning • By Jessi Devenyns • Oct 10, 2017
Environmental Commission briefed on water pollution program
No one, even commissioners, understands the ins and outs of every single city program. At its Sept. 20 meeting, the Environmental Commission took an opportunity to learn more about the Watershed Protection Department’s Spills and Complaints Response Program. Following the…
Environment • By Jessi Devenyns • Oct 9, 2017
In a gesture of goodwill, the city wants to reward those who are reusing their stormwater
Most Austin residents are aware of the sometimes economically painful reality of fixed stormwater drainage charges adding up on their monthly bills. However, after years of operating under this system, the Watershed Protection Department is changing its approach by rolling…
Water • By Jessi Devenyns • Sep 27, 2017
Subscribe to our newsletter
Upper Boggy Creek Trail one step closer to reality
After a contentious debate among the commissioners, the Environmental Commission approved a variance request submitted by the Public Works Department to widen the design of a concrete trail from 12 feet to 14 feet on Sept. 20 with only Vice…
Bicycles • By Jessi Devenyns • Sep 26, 2017
Watershed Protection begins testing to change Waller hydrology
After two years of toying with the possibility of emulating the natural hydrology of Austin’s pre-urbanized watersheds through man-made controls, the Watershed Protection Department is finally putting its theories to the test at Reilly Elementary School. Reilly Elementary sits at…
Water • By Jessi Devenyns • Sep 18, 2017
Austin’s Blackland Prairie remains unexpectedly unrecovered
On Wednesday, graduate engineer Lindsay Olinde and Mateo Scoggins, a senior environmental scientist from the Watershed Protection Department, presented the Environmental Commission with the unexpected findings on Blackland Prairie riparian corridors. Contrary to the hypothesis that this historically less-urbanized and…
Environment • By Jessi Devenyns • Sep 12, 2017
Concerned citizens and commissioners display disapproval at SOS amendments
On Wednesday night, it was standing room only at the Environmental Commission meeting as concerned citizens gathered to express their dissent over the Watershed Protection Department’s seven proposed amendments to the current Land Development Code. Six of these stand-alone amendments…
Environment • By Jessi Devenyns • Aug 22, 2017
Watershed Protection reports on youth outreach successes
Just as it does every year, the Watershed Protection Department came to present a summary of its Youth Education outreach program to the Environmental Commission. Susan Wall, who is the department’s conservation program coordinator, on Wednesday updated the commissioners on…
Environment • By Jessi Devenyns • Aug 18, 2017
City puts environmental inequity under the lens
Austin’s first chief equity officer has hit the ground running. Last year, Brion Oaks took the position as head of the new Equity Office, and he is now hard at work introducing an “equity lens” intended to focus city departments…
