At Tuesday’s Travis County Commissioners Court meeting, TxDOT’s Carlos Swonke defended his department’s work on State Highway 45 Southwest’s environment impact study. Swonke, the Texas Department of Transportation’s Environmental Affairs Division director, said top scientists helped put together the findings, and he believed their efforts were on par with federal studies. In public testimony, Swonke presented a three-pronged argument to commissioners. He said the city and county enacted the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan with the expectation that SH45 SW would eventually cut through the land. He pointed out that they approved the BCCP in 1996, but the SH45 SW project was approved in 1989. Swonke also argued that TxDOT’s use of modern environmental road improvements on SH45 SW would have less of an effect on the Edwards Aquifer than if it funneled traffic through older roadways. Citing past City of Austin projects involving BCCP caves, Swonke said, “No one has shown us any evidence that anything bad happens to a cave when you build a road 350 feet away from it,” referring to the distance SH45 SW would be away from the federally protected Flint Ridge Cave. Pct. 2 Commissioner Brigid Shea asked if the SH45 SW’s environmental impact study took the proposed connection to I-35 into account, or the recent addition of four toll lanes in the MoPac South project. Swonke said they did not mention I-35 in the study because it is not yet formally approved. He said he did not remember if the EIS included two or four toll lanes on the MoPac South project. County Judge Sarah Eckhardt pointed out several flaws in Swonke’s arguments. An advocate of SH 45 SW, Pct. 3 Commissioner Gerald Daugherty said the issues now are really about “just not building this road.”

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority’s board of directors has unanimously approved two policy changes that will prohibit some vehicles from toll roads while providing free access to others. At Wednesday’s meeting, board members decided to prohibit vehicles with more than two axles — like shipping trucks or a towing trailer — from using variably priced toll lanes. For now, the only variably priced toll lanes will be included in the MoPac Improvement Project, but staff requested the policy because larger trucks would affect the shifting toll prices. CTRMA will adjust prices by using roadside equipment that monitors real-time traffic conditions and adjusts the price periodically throughout the day, based on the average speed and number of drivers using the express lanes. Board members also approved a policy change that would waive fees for Capital Metro’s MetroAccess Program for persons with disabilities and its Vanpool or Carpool programs, which are aimed at commuters. The current fee exemption includes “public transportation vehicles with a carrying capacity of 16 or more individuals that are owned or operated on behalf of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority or the Capital Area Rural Transportation System.” The proposed amended exemption applies to “a vehicle used exclusively to provide transportation to a member of the public under a transit program established and managed by the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority or the Capital Area Rural Transportation System.”

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority’s Executive Director Mike Heiligenstein said no on Wednesday to the Travis County Commissioners Court’s request for a comprehensive environmental and traffic study. The requested study would look at the planned State Highway 45 Southwest, a proposed portion connecting to Interstate 35 and the proposed MoPac South Improvement Project as a “loop,” measuring its cumulative impacts. Heiligenstein told the Austin Monitor that he takes everything from the commissioner’s court seriously, but the transportation agency will not do the cumulative studies. “When we do traffic modeling for a project, we actually do look at the entire network. But, as far as a study, I don’t have money in my budget,” he said. “If another entity wanted to fund that, we could do the work.” CTRMA board members requested an attorney consultation before providing a response to the county. The board will hear a briefing on the indirect and cumulative effects of the proposed roadways in an environmental review at its next meeting, Heiligenstein said.

Council Member Kathie Tovo reminded her colleagues at Tuesday’s Council work session that some of them have yet to appoint members to the Austin Integrated Water Resource Planning Community Task Force created in a December resolution. She noted that Austin Water is waiting for the task force to meet before issuing a solicitation to hire a consultant that would help craft an Integrated Water Resource Management Plan for the city. “It’s my understanding that the integrated water task force was not able to meet because it can’t reach quorum, so I was just going to add a plea to Council members who haven’t appointed their task force member, if you would consider doing that, that would be great,” Tovo said. “It was really a value of the community to have a community-based task force in place to work with the utility and so … I really want to honor that commitment and make sure that we have community members who are working with our utility in that way.” She noted that there is a list of recommended appointees on the Council message board. Task Force liaison Danielle Martin confirmed with the Austin Monitor Tuesday that Council Members Don Zimmerman, Ellen Troxclair, Sheri Gallo and Ora Houston have yet to make appointments. The next meeting is scheduled for May 5 at Waller Creek Center.

On May 6, the City of Austin is inviting the public to discuss the process of creating a new master plan for the south shore of Lady Bird Lake. The event, titled “Remaking the Urban Waterfront,” will feature speaker Alex Krieger, an architect and expert on riverfront planning as well as a Harvard University professor. Krieger will discuss the principles for creating “vibrant, beautiful and welcoming waterfronts.” The free talk is open to the public and begins at 7 p.m. on May 6 at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St. Free parking is available. More information about the event and the South Central Waterfront Initiative can be found here.

With the recent changes to how City Council does business, we at the Austin Monitor have also had to shift how we do business. Specifically, we are in the process of reworking our tip sheets in order to provide our readers with a comprehensive guide to Council meetings and Council Committee meetings for the week. We expect that those new tip sheets will be up and running in May, and appreciate you bearing with us in the meantime.

You may remember that the Austin Police Department began enforcing its Don’t Block the Box campaign back on April 6, and it has released results from the first two weeks. The idea behind the program is to keep cars from pulling into busy intersections and then getting caught by the light, blocking cross traffic. According to APD, during Week 1 (April 6-10), 360 moving violations and 106 nonmoving violations were issued. In Week 2 (April 13-17), 293 moving violations and 47 nonmoving violations were given. Over the two-week period, 90 warning citations were issued. The goal of the campaign is to reduce traffic congestion on Austin’s major arterial roadways and in the Downtown Central Business District. APD stationed officers at key intersections during the peak travel times of 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6:30 p.m. The monitored locations were along Cesar Chavez Street where it intersects Guadalupe Street, Lavaca Street, Colorado Street and Congress Avenue. The campaign is part of the city manager’s Traffic Congestion Action Plan. APD has not said whether it intends to expand enforcement of the program to other intersections.

The Texas Department of Transportation provided the Austin Monitor with its response Monday to a letter that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent to Mayor Steve Adler, Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt and others April 15. The letter expressed concerns about the environmental impact that the proposed State Highway 45 Southwest may have on the city and county’s Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan. “As a responsible steward of the environment, TxDOT conducted extensive environmental and technical studies in preparing the impact statement for the project. TxDOT also coordinated extensively with Travis County, specific to the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan,” wrote TxDOT Director of Environmental Affairs Carlos Swonke. “Based on the technical studies discussed in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, we expect the project to have a positive impact on water quality in the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer. It will move traffic off local streets that have little or no stormwater controls, to a new road with state-of-the-art stormwater controls. Based on the technical studies discussed in the Final Environmental Impact Statement, we do not anticipate any negative impacts to the resources described in the letter.” TxDOT approved the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed 3.6-mile, four-lane tolled highway in January and cleared it for construction in March. The city has been a longtime opponent of the project, with Watershed Protection Department Environmental Officer Chuck Lesniak recently calling the associated environmental study unsound. After receiving last week’s letter, Eckhardt asked Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of TxDOT’s partner on the project, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, to postpone further design plans until the environmental concerns have been resolved.

On Monday the Texas House approved on first reading a bill designed to take a number of public corruption cases away from Travis County’s Public Integrity Unit. Final approval is expected today. The bill, House Bill 1690, applies only to corruption allegations against elected or appointed state officials, who would be prosecuted in the official’s home county. Cases against state employees would still be prosecuted in Travis County. Republicans want to take prosecution of elected or appointed officials away from the Travis County district attorney, claiming they can’t get a fair hearing in a Democratic-controlled county. The Public Integrity Unit has been under fire for several years, but came under intense scrutiny after then-Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the unit’s funding in 2013 after Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg would not resign following a drunken driving conviction. Travis County Commissioners later stepped in to fund the office. The veto led to charges against Perry for misuse of power. A trial in that case is pending. The Texas Senate has already passed a similar bill.

The Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce has named its 2015 Small Business Award winners. More than 600 attendees gathered at the downtown Hilton for the ceremonies last week. This year’s awards included the inaugural Native Star Award, which went to George Howell, a CNN anchor who attended high school and college in Austin. Other award winners included a number of small-business owners who have made a mark on the Austin area, including Small Business of the Year honorees Shuronda Robinson of Adisa Communications and Monalisa Sanders of Platinum Dreams Designs. More than a dozen business owners and others received awards. The chamber also presented three Austin-area college students with $3,000 scholarships. For a complete list of winners, go here.

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City Council approved the development of two pet motels near the Austin–Bergstrom International Airport, one private and one public-private partnership. Council members approved the item 7-2, despite naysayers Ora Houston and Don Zimmerman. Houston expressed concern about the propriety of a city-approved pet motel on the airport parking space. Council Member Pio Renteria abstained and Mayor Steve Adler was off the dais. The public-private pet motel was part of a deal between Scott Airport Parking and the airport to build parking lots. Scott Airport Parking was required to build a business amenity along with the parking area, and it chose the pet motel. The kennel will hold about 150 animals. Airport pet motels have become popular around country, with kennels located in airports in Chicago, Atlanta and Minneapolis, among others.