On Thursday, City Council is slated to approve a resolution from Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool that directs the city manager to explore new parks funding strategies; to consider a regional approach to parks funding, acquisition and maintenance; and to provide an annual report on the city’s Parkland Dedication Fund. The draft resolution lists potential […]
Council Member Leslie Pool
Posted inCity Hall
Leslie Pool launches into the final year of a busy decade
Leslie Pool’s ninth year on City Council has been a productive and busy one. She recalls that she started out 2023 with the intention of helping her newly elected colleagues learn the ropes and accomplish their goals. For Ryan Alter, Zo Qadri and José Velásquez, affordable housing was an important goal. Each emphasized housing in […]
Posted inCity Council
Council greenlights change to reduce land size needed to build a home in Austin
The size of land Austinites need to build a home on is about to get smaller – as part of an effort to encourage developers to build smaller and cheaper houses. City Council on Thursday approved a resolution that will start the process. The initiative would reduce the size of land required to build a home, […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Council considers code amendments to relax single-family zoning rules
City Council will consider an item at this week’s meeting that would begin the process of relaxing the city’s strict single-family zoning rules. Item 126, sponsored by Council Member Leslie Pool, directs the city manager to propose code amendments that reduce the minimum lot size from 5,750 to 2,500 square feet or less, so that […]
Posted inCity Council
Leslie Pool: Governing not for the faint of heart
The year 2020 has been a stressful year for almost everyone. For those considering running for a seat on City Council at some point in time, District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool has some advice. As she told the Austin Monitor, “Municipal governance in the 21st century is not for the faint of heart.” While […]
Posted inCity Council
Leslie Pool remembers high, low points of 2019
District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool is proud of the contributions she and her colleagues made toward helping the homeless in 2019, calling it “a pretty amazing year.” Still, she thinks some things could have been done better. For example, the city wasn’t really ready to deal with the consequences of Council’s vote repealing the […]
Posted inUncategorized
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 […]
Posted inCity Council
Pool proud of progress at all levels in 2018
Leslie Pool doesn’t restate Tip O’Neill’s legendary adage “All politics is local” when looking back at 2018 and ahead to 2019. Still, when reviewing the policy and on-the-ground actions that have mattered to her the most, the small neighborhood moves get as much time as the larger issues that have grabbed headlines. The District 7 […]
Posted inCity Council
Pool proud of 2017 budget actions
Some of District 7 Council Member Leslie Pool’s biggest accomplishments for 2017 show up on a list of budget riders. That’s not the stuff of big headlines, but the kind of nitty-gritty details that make up the life of a government advocate. For example, Pool worked to make sure that the city budget included $175,000 […]
Posted inCity Council
Survey says: Austinites dissatisfied with traffic, happy with most else
New survey findings show Austin residents are generally happier with city services such as fire, police, library, and parks and recreation than residents of similarly populated cities. But Austin falls behind the national average of satisfaction in an unsurprising category: traffic. Jason Morado, project manager of the Kansas City, Kansas-based ETC Institute, presented the report […]