Even though both the city of Austin and the 18 plaintiffs who sued it were ready to meet again in Travis County District Court, and even though they expected that hearing to happen sometime this week, it won’t happen just yet. The Austin Monitor received an email late Tuesday afternoon from Doug Becker, attorney for the plaintiffs. Becker wrote, “A few minutes ago the District Court coordinator informed me that our case will not be heard this week because there are not enough Judges available. The hearing will have to be reset. I am very disappointed. Both sides wanted the case heard this week.” As of Tuesday evening, a hearing date had not yet been announced.

An Aug. 28 memo from assistant city managers Veronica Briseño and Robert Goode gives more details on the permitting knot that has tied up popular East Austin restaurant Nixta Taqueria, forcing it to close. The memo acknowledges the public interest in the issue, and provides “an update concerning the life safety and permitting challenges at the restaurant as well as immediate next steps to ensure the property is safe to operate.”

The memo explains that burned wires indicating excessive amperage were found on the property, and that presented “a severe risk of fire or explosion and a threat to public safety.” Further inspection revealed unpermitted air conditioning units that threatened the structural integrity of the roof, an overload of the building’s electrical system and an unpermitted patio area that needs to be inspected by the Fire Department.

“The safety issues identified above are limited to what was visible outside of the building. The most significant issues are the result of unpermitted work and pose critical safety concerns to the restaurant’s staff, customers, and the community,” according to the memo. “The Development Services Department (DSD) recognizes that navigating the permitting process can be complex and strives to provide support and guidance throughout the process to help business and property owners understand these challenges while still prioritizing safety.”

The closure, which has been the focus of media scrutiny this week, was top of mind for Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison during Tuesday’s work session discussion on permitting. She brought up the case as an example of a “tornado of conflicting permitting and processes.”

In the meantime, the taqueria has raised more than $103,000 through a GoFundMe and will be participating in pop-ups at other restaurants to make it through. “We thought it was going to be an easy-ish fix, but it has now escalated to a place we could have never imagined. Something that can be fixed in a matter of hours is now a 3-6 month project due to some classic bureaucracy and red-tape. We’re still reeling,” the business wrote in an Instagram post earlier this week. “By some miracle, we’re hopeful we can survive this, too.”

Getting through an ever-busier Austin-Bergstrom International Airport lately can feel like an Olympic sport. On Tuesday, the airport issued a Labor Day travel advisory, saying the holiday weekend passenger traffic could be “possibly record-breaking.” Airport leaders urge passengers to get to the terminal at least two and half hours before their flight (and three hours early for international flights).

“AUS saw over half of its top 10 busiest days ever just this year, so passengers should prepare and plan for a busy airport and plan accordingly,” according to a news release.

Some tips, per the airport’s advisory:

• Make sure the contents of your carry-on luggage are compliant with Transportation Security Administration rules.
• Reserve airport parking in advance, or if you’re getting dropped off, consider unloading in the Arrivals zone instead of Departures.
• Use a mobile boarding pass.

Find the latest info at austintexas.gov/airport.

Updates on collections of the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax revenues presented favorable financial pictures for both the Live Music Fund and Cultural Arts Funding Program. A presentation at this month’s Arts Commission meeting showed that total hotel tax collections in July (for hotel business conducted in June) was $36.2 million. That total means about $2.8 million was generated for cultural arts, with staff reporting that collections are on track to exceed $14 million.

This month’s Music Commission meeting included a presentation that showed $492,495 from hotel tax receipts was allocated to the Live Music Fund, which will go into its second round next year with a budget of $5.2 million. That money will be available as grants for musicians and event promoters, as well as music venues, which are being added to the candidate pool for the first time.

Commission members asked Economic Development Department staff questions about the low four- and five-digit contributions in some months, with the April and December totals ($12,938 and $5,509, respectively) looking especially low. Staff said collections in the slower “shoulder season” months for local hotels always tend to be low, but they planned to double-check the reports to confirm the presentation was accurate.

City Council Member Ryan Alter is among the city leaders frustrated with a long-planned agreement with local hotels that was intended to help the city provide support services to the homeless. The Austin Tourism Public Improvement District is on the agenda for Thursday’s Council meeting, with that approval being one of the steps needed for the city’s largest hotels to levy an additional 2 percent tax on room nights. Much of the money generated from that tax would fund marketing incentives for hotels to generate new business, with a portion – estimated at $7 million per year – passed through to the city’s General Fund and likely used for homeless services. That passthrough, which has some stipulations attached, is necessary because the hotel association that helped to conceive the ATPID in 2017 was recently successful in changing state law to restrict the ways those revenues could be directly spent. During a presentation on the ATPID at last week’s Audit and Finance Committee meeting, Alter shared his feelings on the new structure of the agreement. “I’m a little frustrated in how we got here in that there were agreements and prior Council discussion, but there were other agreements that would have potentially allowed for us to get guaranteed dollars, and the law was changed by those involved in this negotiation that prevents us from now doing that. And now we’re stuck in a place where we’re trying to get dollars here and there.” At the same meeting, Council Member Alison Alter said she was also discouraged by the direction the city now has to take for the ATPID to be useful toward the city’s homelessness relief efforts.

Austin Energy has asked customers for input in its update to the utility’s Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2030. The goal of that plan is to keep up with customer demand while also pursuing the city’s climate protection and sustainability goals in its 437-square-mile service territory. Increasing price volatility within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the move toward more carbon-free energy production, and the need to diversify sources of energy production are some of the main components of the plan’s update, which City Council called for in a late 2022 resolution. An in-person community input session will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Austin Energy Headquarters on Mueller Boulevard, with a pair of virtual sessions scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Parks and Recreation Department has scheduled a virtual community meeting for 6 p.m., Sept. 19 to provide updates on the effort to conduct DNA and isotopic analysis of the unidentified remains discovered in 2016 during construction work at Oakwood Cemetery. The analysis work is being conducted free of charge by archaeology teams from the University of Texas and the University of Connecticut in the hopes of learning more about the life experiences, diets and regions of origin of the remains. The researchers’ work is expected to continue for two more years, and those who think they may have familial connections to the deceased may submit a saliva sample for DNA analysis. More information on the Oakwood Cemetery project and registration for the online meeting are available online.

The start of construction on the Little Walnut Creek flood risk reduction project has caused the closure of Mearns Meadow Boulevard from Rutland Drive to Parkfield Drive through next spring, when work on the first phase is scheduled to conclude. The project, which is expected to last until early 2026, is intended to reduce flooding for homes and roads near the creek, with the city’s Capital Delivery Services and Watershed Protection Department collaborating to manage the work. Crews will excavate a 20-foot-deep trench along Mearns Meadow Boulevard to install concrete box culverts measuring 13 feet by 10 feet, diverting floodwater under Mearns Meadow Boulevard from Quail Valley Boulevard to the Mearns Meadow Detention Pond in Quail Creek Park. More information on the project is available online.

This Saturday, Aug. 26, the Ann Richards Bridge will close for the 17th annual Bat Fest. The Congress Avenue bridge will be closed from Cesar Chavez Street to Barton Springs Road from 5 a.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Sunday. The closure will allow the fest to take place in the evening, where music, food, drink, and arts and crafts will take over. More information on the fest can be found here.

Right now, the city is proposing “connectivity enhancements” to the Shoal Creek Trail, and they’d like a little public input to help them decide how to move forward. The enhancements would span the last major gaps between West 24th and West 34th streets. This Saturday, community outreach folk will be at the intersection of Shoal Creek and North Lamar boulevards from 9 to 11 a.m. and again on Saturday, Sept. 16, across from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. If you can’t make it out in person, though, anyone is welcome to share their feedback through the project web page or virtual survey, which will be open until Sept. 24.

A new report from the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute has examined Austin’s Affordability Unlocked housing initiative in comparison to other affordable housing programs in seven major U.S. cities. The report – Local and State Policies to Improve Access to Affordable Housing – looked at the basic components of Austin’s plan since it was instituted in 2019 and examined the effectiveness of similar long-standing policies around zoning incentives in Colorado, Maryland and California. It found that in strong housing markets, those incentives can make affordable housing projects more appealing to developers and can lead to a modest increase in housing supply, especially at the higher end of the income spectrum. The study also notes as of July 2023, there were 76 approved projects representing 7,678 housing units, with 5,330 of them priced at affordable levels for lower-income households. That result caused the study’s authors to find “it appears that the program is meeting its intended affordability goals.”