Builders and other leaders in the Austin housing industry hope the release of the third draft of the city’s CodeNEXT planning document later this month will alleviate the confusion and contradictory objectives they say have plagued the first two drafts. That was one of the consensus points Tuesday at a luncheon hosted by the Real […]
Real Estate Council of Austin
501(c)6 for “more than 1,700 commercial real estate professionals representing the top leaders in the Central Texas business community.” RECA is a donor to the Capital of Texas Media Foundation, the parent of the Austin Monitor.
Posted inHousing
As foreclosures rise, has the Greater Austin housing market finally peaked?
Realtor Barrett Raven was showing one of his clients a duplex off of Cameron Road. Matthew Weilbacher was interested in buying one of the units, maybe the entire duplex, but he was wrestling with how to make use of the home’s oddly sloping backyard. Weilbacher peered over the neighbor’s fence and decided he could build […]
Posted inCity Hall
Fred Lewis appointment stirs controversy
Fred Lewis, an attorney who served as the main architect of the city’s new lobbying ordinance, surprisingly became the center of an ethics controversy on Thursday when City Council appointed him to serve on the 2018 Charter Review Commission. Lewis worked for many months on an ordinance specifically aimed at preventing lobbyists from serving on […]
Posted inAustin
Is Austin’s ‘economic segregation’ here to stay?
“Today you are going to find out that we are really not quite as good as we claim to be.” On that ominous note, Austin Board of Realtors CEO Paul Hilgers opened Tuesday’s luncheon hosted by the Real Estate Council of Austin. Steven Pedigo, who is the director of research for the Creative Class Group, […]
Posted inAustin
Adler speech calls for optimism, hard work ahead
Mayor Steve Adler warned the crowd at the Real Estate Council of Austin luncheon Thursday that the CodeNEXT maps showing all the new zoning classifications for the entire city to be released on April 18 will be “wrong,” but the solution is for everyone to take a deep breath and get to work. It’s not […]
Posted inDevelopment
Real Estate Council seeks commissioner’s apology
Nick Moulinet, board chair of the Real Estate Council of Austin, was extremely concerned when he heard about some anti-growth comments made by Urban Transportation Commissioner Kelly Davis during a January discussion of a small change to the city’s transportation plan approval process. As a result, Moulinet took the unusual step of asking City Council […]
Posted inCity Council
Council OKs rules for expedited permitting
Working with advocates for developers and construction workers, City Council Member Greg Casar carefully negotiated the details of an ordinance requiring developers of large commercial projects to pay a living wage and follow other rules set forth in the Better Builder Program in order to qualify for expedited permitting. The ordinance applies to commercial projects […]
Posted inTransportation
Capacity, regional cooperation take center stage at transportation forum
Standing beside four other representatives from local and regional governments on Tuesday, Mike Heiligenstein of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority declared that Central Texas has to build its way out of congestion. “We cannot solve our problem without adding capacity in every sector of the region. Not just Austin, but the entire region,” Heiligenstein […]
Posted inCity Council
Biz groups oppose more rules for permitting
Four Austin business groups are opposing a plan to require extra steps in the city’s permit review process. The steps would lead to more protection for construction workers, but they would also involve extra time and paperwork as well as additional fees on projects going through the proposed expedited review process at the Development Services […]
Posted inLand Development Code
Coalition asks to keep CodeNEXT on track
A coalition of eight Austin organizations got together to ask the city to honor a January 2017 deadline for the new land development code draft on Wednesday. Pointing out that four years have passed since the rewrite was laid out in the Imagine Austin comprehensive plan, representatives from AURA, the Austin Apartment Association, the Austin Board of Realtors, […]
Posted inAustin
Biz leaders ponder how to maintain Austin’s soul
Elsewhere in Texas, a conversation about how to save a town’s soul may lead to talk of a mass baptism. But in Austin, the discussion centers more on music and housing. “Maintaining Austin’s Soul” was the subject that a panel of four business leaders discussed before a crowd of about 250 real estate professionals and […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Could it be … Satan?
The devil is in the details… It may be a while before City Council members are willing to accept amendments offered to their resolutions by Council Member Don Zimmerman, no matter how inoffensive they appear at first glance. On Thursday, a discussion over a symbolic resolution to declare Austin a “compassionate community” was prolonged significantly […]