City Council will convene today for a regular Thursday meeting. But, like every meeting, there are a few things on the agenda that we will be paying particular attention to. Those items have been detailed below in this, our humble TipSheet.
Word is out that Austin’s next city manager is almost certainly T.C. Broadnax. Today, Council is poised to make that official by adopting the recommendation of its subcommittee today and executing an employment agreement. That’s huge news for a city that has had an interim city manager for more than a year (though it’s unlikely to be particularly controversial among Council members).
Council will also consider making official a new name for Barton Springs Pool Bathhouse and naming it after Joan Means Khabele, an activist who led the charge to desegregate the springs in 1960.
Council Member Paige Ellis has a resolution aimed at making cycling in Austin safer (and less aggravating). Her resolution makes it illegal to park in bike lanes anywhere in the city as well as asking for a number of measures to increase bike safety in general.
Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison has a resolution that asks for community land trusts to be developed and expanded as a way to broaden the city’s affordable housing stock. Community land trusts allow residents to purchase homes but lease the land that they sit on – as a way of controlling costs and managing resale values. Harper-Madison’s resolution asks the city manager to look at land acquisition for this purpose as well as looking into land banking and partnering with local nonprofits and governments to expand housing options. The resolution also asks to explore these possibilities in the Northeast Planning District.
Austin Energy has a Demand Response Program that is designed to reduce strain on the power grid when it is being overtaxed. Why aren’t all city buildings enrolled in this program? That’s the very good question that Council Member Ryan Alter’s new resolution asks (and then answers by asking the city manager to enroll them already).
Council Member Mackenzie Kelly has a resolution that seeks to fight human trafficking by establishing emergency housing options in hotels, increasing awareness for hospitality workers, providing law enforcement with “covert digital payment resources” to use in investigations and to increase public education on the subject, among other things.
And, to rectify an apparent screw-up in noticing, Council will adopt an emergency change that will allow them to hold the already planned joint meeting on April 11 with the Planning Commission to consider ETODs, compatibility and the HOME ordinance. Normally, legal notice is required 10 days out from the meeting but, according to the backup, “an error related to the deadline occurred” and it will not be published until today. The ordinance changes the notice requirements from 10 to 7 days and “will also require the City Manager to place ads in the Austin-American Statesman, Austin Chronicle, and Community Impact publications to provide essentially the same information as the published legal notice in the Austin-American Statesman” which is justified as “more and different notification for the public” in the agenda.
In order to comply with state requirements, the city will hold a public hearing to adopt official standards of care for parks youth programs. It’s all pretty basic stuff about safety and staffing and the like, but it’s laid out here for the eternally curious.
In terms of zoning, we’re keeping an eye out for the ambitious (and contentious) Bolm East Planning Development Agreement that is slated for a swath of land along the Colorado River just east of U.S. Highway 183. We’re also looking out for a proposed multifamily development in Old West Austin that is unsurprisingly opposed by OWANA and the redevelopment of the Nau’s Drugstore and Cafe Medici, which they do not oppose (the developer has agreed to preserve both Nau’s facade and the Medici house). Council will also consider giving historic zoning to the Women and their Work Gallery and multifamily zoning for a southeast parcel that is supported by the Planning Commission but not city staff.
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