Though it’s still unclear which committee will address the city’s flood buyout policies, Mayor Steve Adler has added some questions to the pending conversation. On City Council’s message board, Adler raised the following queries (with applicable Council committees indicated in parentheses):

1. What are the City’s policies for prioritizing buyouts in the 25- and 100-year flood plain and/or other flood prone areas? (Public Utilities)
2. What are the City’s policies regarding financing of flood buyouts? (Audit and Finance Committee)
3. What actions does the City currently take to ensure that elderly property owners are connected to services that may allow them to safely age in place, before a buyout is recommended? (Health and Human Services Committee)
4. What policies are in place with regard to zoning and development approvals in flood prone areas to avoid the need for future buyouts? (Neighborhoods & Planning Committee)

A staff presentation on the topic is expected within the month.

Mayor Steve Adler heard the concerns about items being referred to multiple City Council committees at last week’s work session. Posting on the Council message board, Adler’s Chief of Staff, John Michael Cortez, has invited a conversation about whether it would be better to address these multifaceted items as a whole in a Council work session.

Last week, fifth-graders from Hill Elementary marked the 10th anniversary of the Clean Creek Campus program by completing a service project to pick up litter and spread seed balls in Northwest Park. Afterward, Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo presented the students with a “Clean Creek Campus” banner for their school and thanked them for their stewardship and service to the community. For 10 years, Clean Creek Campus has provided an opportunity for schools to combine environmental learning with a community service project. The program is a partnership between Keep Austin Beautiful and the City of Austin’s Watershed Protection Department. Since 2005, Clean Creek Campus has visited 16,000 students in 204 schools and completed 260 projects. For more information, go here.

Today, in what appears to be City Council’s last scheduled “deep dive,” Austin’s elected body will take a look at “resiliency.” Specifically, Council members will discuss the city’s “resilience as it relates to responding to and recovering from disruptions due to disasters, extreme weather events, and economic downturns,” according to the agenda posted online. The meeting will take place at 9 a.m. at City Hall.

With an announcement that “it is time to modernize the Texas voter registration process and allow Texans to complete voter registration online,” Elaine Wiant, president of the League of Women Voters of Texas, declared the group’s support of two online voter registration bills up for public hearing at the Texas State Legislature. HB 76 and HB 953 are both scheduled for the House Elections Committee meeting today. According to a news release from the League of Women Voters of Texas, “The same Texas system that allows renewal of driver’s licenses, vehicle registration, setting up tax payment plans, applying for and renewing concealed handgun licenses and many other government transactions should also include voter registration.”

On May 16, the city will host a self-guided walking tour and panel discussion of “missing middle” housing in the North Loop area. Missing middle housing refers to housing types such as duplexes, town homes and accessory dwelling units. The conversation will take place at 1 p.m., followed by an invitation to tour preselected sites. Panelists will be Jonathan Tomko, from the City of Austin; Mandy De Mayo, from HousingWorks Austin; Elizabeth Mueller, from the University of Texas; and David Whitworth, from David Whitworth Development. It will take place at Ridgetop Elementary, 5005 Caswell Ave. Those interested in attending can RSVP here.

Storms and high volumes of debris have delayed City of Austin yard trimming collections. As the city works to catch up with the backlog, it asks that residents proceed as usual and leave their yard trimmings at the curb until they are picked up. A city update also took the opportunity to remind residents of yard collection guidelines, which are:

• Yard trimmings are grass clippings, leaves and small branches that are no longer than 5 feet and no thicker than 3 inches in diameter.
• Place yard trimmings in paper lawn-and-leaf bags or reusable containers that are no larger than 34 gallons and no heavier than 50 pounds.
• Use string or twine to tie small branches into bundles that are 50 pounds or less.

After eight months, the project at 8528 Burnet Road is moving forward. City Council voted Thursday to grant developer Sackman Enterprises MF-6 zoning, with a conditional overlay that limits the height of the building to 60 feet and the number of units to 300. That’s more than was approved on second reading, which limited the units to 225. Council Member Greg Casar presented the prevailing motion with the 300-unit cap. That motion also had an increase in affordable units. Instead of the planned 34 affordable units, the project will now include 45, which will be available at 80 percent of the Median Family Income. The new agreement also stipulates a mix of units, unlike the terms of the second reading. The developer agreed to create 20 studio, 15 one-bedroom, seven two-bedroom and three three-bedroom affordable units. Council voted 7-4 to approve the change, with Council Members Leslie Pool, Ann Kitchen, Kathie Tovo and Ora Houston opposed. A last-ditch effort by Pool to change the zoning to CS-V was not successful. Though that zoning change had not been discussed before, Pool suggested the switch as a way to ensure affordable housing. Though the developer in this case agreed to affordable housing under multifamily zoning, under state law Council cannot require affordable housing in that zoning category.

County Commissioners approved the new Travis County Master Plan on Tuesday with an amendment that allocates proceeds from its more than $500,000 sale of properties toward paying down bond debt, with a priority given to paying down debt on a new courthouse. With a possible $30 million generated in one-time real estate sales, County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said it could potentially cover 10 percent of the proposed $291 million Civil and Family Courthouse. Commissioners approved a concept and space program in January for the new facility. Plans for the proposed courthouse provide for approximately 520,000 square feet of building space and a four-level underground parking facility with over 500 spaces. The courthouse would be 14 stories and provide 28 courtrooms in the initial build-out, according to Travis County documents. Eckhardt also asked commissioners to propose suitable properties listed in the master plan that could be converted into affordable housing units.

Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court put off taking action on Mass Gathering permits, specifically action involving permit review and standards for orderly conduct. The court will take it up at a later meeting. Mass Gathering permits are commonly issued in areas where there are no zoning regulations. The permits became an issue after residents around Carson Creek Ranch, a farm-turned-venue near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, complained about the noise and security during the venue’s recent festivals. At the court’s April 14 meeting, Brent Johnson, an organic farmer adjacent to the ranch, said the venue’s recent Euphoria Fest resulted in noise until 4 a.m. as well as several cars parked on his private property. Johnson said he received little help from the Travis County Sheriff’s Office regarding his issues. TCSO had several officers contracted for event security. Commissioners said they were under the impression that Euphoria Fest stopped at 2 a.m. on Saturday, but Scott Davison, representing SFX LLC, the event promoter, said his permits stipulated 4 a.m. on certain stages. The venue is set to host Levitation Festival and Life in Color, among other events, in the upcoming weeks.

MobilityATX will discuss Austin’s growth and its challenges Monday in a live-streamed, interactive discussion that will take aim at how to work through those challenges as a community. Panelists include Austin City Council Member Ellen Troxclair, RideScout CEO Joseph Kopser, Downtown Austin Alliance CEO DeWitt Peart and AURA Board Member Brennan Griffin. Austin Monitor Publisher Mike Kanin will moderate. The event will be broadcast on www.mobilityatx.com/ at 2 p.m. Viewers are invited to submit questions for the panel via @MobilityATX on Twitter.

City Council members will be doing something of a doubleheader today. The Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee, whose members include the mayor and all 10 Council members, meets at 9 a.m. at City Hall. The committee will discuss a number of Austin Energy-related topics, including the Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2025 and the Austin Energy business model. The committee will adjourn when it has completed its work and members will reconvene at 11 a.m. as the Austin City Council, moving on to the day’s Council agenda items.