TipSheet: Austin City Council, 9.14.23

At the risk of seeming optimistic and bad at defining “fun,” today’s City Council meeting seems like it could be just that. There are a few things in particular that caught our eye, and those are detailed below. The agenda (and backup) can also be read in its entirety here. 

As usual, most of the more “fun” items come via City Council resolutions. This week, Council will consider a resolution that asks for an “open policing data release” in order to enhance transparency at the city. Council Member Chito Vela’s resolution asks the city to publish “an extensive set” of data each month, dating back to three years ago. If you want to know what the data will consist of, it’s probably best to read through the resolution, but the proposal includes calls for service, police staffing like overtime and cadet counts, response times, warrant arrests, searches, use-of-force incidents with demographic data and complaints against police.

Council is also tackling the issue of windowless living spaces, which is apparently a growing problem in the growing West Campus area. At the same time, they are poised to embrace tiny homes. Here’s the new resolution on that, which addresses questions about short-term rentals and code issues.

In a rare case of exciting zoning news, we’ll see a public hearing on the creation of a zoning category for music venues and creative spaces.

A plan to dam the South Llano River might face some trouble from the city, with an agenda item that would direct the city to file a contested case against the plan, “to proactively engage with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in opposing any permits for the project, and to explore with the Lower Colorado River Authority additional opportunities to oppose the permit application.”

In news that represents a big shift in how the city does business, Council is considering economic incentives for NXP Semiconductors. (We wrote about the deal here.) And after a long negotiation, there is finally an EMS contract ready to be approved on today’s agenda.

At their last meeting, Council members punted the creation of a new tourism district that is intended to take hotel dollars to fund services for the homeless. The delay allowed enough time to hatch a new structure designed to make sure more of that money actually goes toward homelessness, and we detailed the new plan here. 

Council is also asked to adopt the updated plan for developing the airport – an expansion that is projected to last the next decade – and  $544,788,638 for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport capital improvements. (A more thorough explanation of this was presented at Tuesday’s work session.)

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