Tag Archives: Watershed Protection Department
Watershed department works with city to clean up homeless camps
The number of people experiencing homelessness is growing in the city of Austin. Last fall, recognizing the crisis on the streets and the pressure on city resources, City Council approved an increased budget to help relieve the situation. In addition…
Austin • By Jessi Devenyns • Feb 11, 2019
City's new flood plain maps would affect building regulations
New federal data on Austin’s rainfall patterns will cause the city to expand the size of areas in the 100-year flood plain and likely lead to a change in development requirements for properties exposed to flash-flooding risk. The city’s Watershed…
Environment • By Chad Swiatecki • Jul 20, 2018
Austin Monitor Radio: Environmental Officer Chuck Lesniak
After 28 years with the city, Environmental Officer Chuck Lesniak is retiring. In this week’s show, he sits down with freelancer Caleb Pritchard and editor Elizabeth Pagano to talk about the lessons that he’s learned during his time at the…
Radio • By Elizabeth Pagano • Jul 16, 2018
Watershed Protection budget accounts for approval of CodeNEXT
This year, as the Watershed Protection Department goes through its annual budgeting cycle, things are looking good. At the June 6 meeting of the Environmental Commission, Watershed Protection staff presented an overview of its upcoming projects and the related finances.…
Environment • By Jessi Devenyns • Jun 12, 2018
Austin's cave frontier gets slowly uncovered
Austin is home to a complex of underground aquifers that we know are filled by a system of underground caves. However, if we know that to be the case, why we don’t see caves everywhere? “Basically, because all of them…
Environment • By Jessi Devenyns • May 22, 2018
Section of Shoal Creek Hike and Bike Trail suffers massive storm damage
Jessica Zarowitz was in for a surprise while walking her dog, Lady Bird, along the Shoal Creek Hike and Bike Trail on Monday: The trail that had been there for years suddenly wasn’t. Trees had fallen over it, and the…
Parks • By Mose Buchele, KUT • May 8, 2018
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Austin’s 100-year flood plain looks more like today’s 500-year flood plain
In Austin, flooding has been a concern for decades, but in the last several years, the urgency with which the city is conducting the conversation has escalated. In the last four years alone, Austin has experienced four federally declared flooding…
Environment • By Jessi Devenyns • Mar 22, 2018
CodeNEXT Draft 3 makes significant changes to water-quality and drainage regulations
After months of waiting, last month the third and final staff draft of CodeNEXT was released. After allowing adequate reading time, on Feb. 21, Matt Hollon, the manager of the Watershed Protection Department Planning Division, gave the Environmental Commission an…
Land Development Code • By Jessi Devenyns • Mar 2, 2018
Another postponement for Champion case
City Council decided Thursday that a legal and political battle surrounding the Champion tract in Northwest Austin that has spanned two decades will be extended yet another two weeks. Council voted 7-4 to postpone action on an amendment to a…
City Council • By Jack Craver • Feb 5, 2018
Environmental Commission recommends Watershed Department issue a middle-of-the-road bond in 2018
The beginning of 2018 marked the beginning of a bond election year. At the latest meeting of the Environmental Commission, the Watershed Protection Department presented plans to ask the public for help conserving Austin’s environment through the acquisition of green…
Environment • By Jessi Devenyns • Jan 15, 2018
CodeNEXT: City says few environmental surprises in store
Conversations today about the city run like clockwork: You can guarantee that at some point CodeNEXT will be mentioned. However, although it is spoken about with regularity, there are so many varying opinions, stances and regulatory improvements being presented that…
Land Development Code • By Jessi Devenyns • Jan 8, 2018
Environmental Commission moves Onion Creek buyout plan forward
Over four years after the 2013 Halloween floods racked the Onion Creek neighborhoods, the Environmental Commission voted unanimously at its Dec. 6 meeting to approve staff’s recommendation to move forward with 128 buyouts of houses at immediate risk of flooding…
