At its monthly meeting Oct. 12, the Community Development Commission unanimously passed a recommendation to endorse the No Way on Prop A political campaign and join the list of endorsing organizations on the campaign’s website. The author of the endorsement, Kendra Garrett, a second-term CDC member, said that Proposition A “reinforces poverty,” which stands opposed […]
Community Development Commission
A nonprofit community-based entity founded with aims to revitalize the neighborhood or area that it serves.
Posted inBudget
Community Development Commission to study new uses for police funding
The Community Development Commission has formed a working group to recommend how City Council should make reductions to the Austin Police Department budget, and may move to sign to recent resolutions from three other commissions in support of the budget moves. At last week’s meeting, the commission discussed the ongoing defunding of APD, which had […]
Posted inHousing
Housing department seeks to move unused home repair funds toward homelessness
The city will likely redirect a $2.6 million unused Community Development Block Grant intended for home repairs to create more housing for the homeless in the next budget year. Last week the Community Development Commission voted 9-2 to approve the 2020-21 action plan drafted by the Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department, which lays out […]
Posted inCity Hall
Council reluctantly approves Fred McGhee to commission
City Council on Thursday voted to approve the appointment of local activist Fred McGhee to the Community Development Commission but also condemned McGhee for sexually charged comments he made to a city staffer as a member of the commission last year. McGhee was elected to the position by members of the Montopolis Neighborhood Association and […]
Posted inCity Hall
Council to consider changes to Community Development Commission
The city of Austin may be dealing with yet another headache over who gets to sit on a city commission and who should or can be removed. The Community Development Commission is responsible for overseeing the implementation of projects funded by two federal programs: the Community Development Block Grant and the Community Service Block Grant. […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Community Development Commission grapples with CodeNEXT
The Community Development Commission voiced frustration over lack of outreach and discussion with the CodeNEXT team during a special called meeting earlier this month. The first draft of CodeNEXT, Austin’s land code rewrite, has been out since January, but some commissioners felt the team excluded lower-income families and individuals from the dialogue. Tensions brewed when […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Don’t say that
Yeah, OK, on the record, then… During the May 9 meeting of the Community Development Commission, commissioners took up the issue of developing Levander Loop with affordable housing. After a bit of misunderstanding, Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Assistant Director Rebecca Giello told commissioners that the city had every intention of moving forward with Levander […]
Posted inPreservation
Controversy swirls over Montopolis historic school site eyed for development
The city’s Community Development Commission weighed in on the effort to stop a contentious development project proposed for a historic piece of property in East Austin. At Tuesday’s meeting the development commission voted 13-0 to ask the city to halt any work to demolish a historic school building located on Montopolis Drive just south of […]
Posted inHousing
Council moves to protect tenants from displacement
Following the recent controversy surrounding a Riverside Drive apartment complex demolition permit that displaced around 100 low-income families, City Council has taken a step toward establishing new rules to assist tenants in similar situations in the future. Council approved a resolution Thursday directing city staff to draft an ordinance that would establish “tenant relocation assistance […]
Posted inDevelopment, Local Politics
Council moves forward with proposal to allow micro apartment units
The discussion about micro apartment units boiled down to a few small details at Thursday’s City Council‘s meeting. Council members approved a resolution 7-0, initiating a code amendment that could decouple parking requirements from units that are less than 500 square feet in size. This decoupling already exists in the University Neighborhood Overlay, where […]