BG Note | News - What We're Reading (October 10, 2017)
[Austin Metro]
New Housing Keeps Pace As Austin Grows, But It’s Not All Affordable (KUT) LINK TO STORY
Developers that want to build low-income housing in wealthier neighborhoods should engage more with neighborhood groups to convince them of the merits of affordable housing.
That’s one recommendation in a study published today by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
The study assessed the state of low- and middle-income housing in Austin with input from local developers, community representatives and affordable housing experts. One of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, JPMorgan Chase & Co., funded the study, along with similar studies of Miami and Denver.
Developer sues Austin ISD over Alamo Drafthouse dealings (Austin American-Statesman) LINK TO STORY
An Austin developer is suing the Austin school district over the Baker Center, a former school that is one of the surplus properties the district is considering selling or leasing.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Colina West Limited, owned by developer David Kahn, alleges the district chose Alamo Drafthouse Cinema for a “significantly lower bid” than Colina West for the Hyde Park property, and that the district did not follow requirements for impending the sale.
“The purpose of the lawsuit was to insure that the bidding and award process was compliant with the bidding package and/or applicable law,” said Mitchell Savrick, the lawyer representing Colina West. “The highest bid was apparently not accepted and Colina West wants to make sure that a full and open vetting of that process occurs. Colina West has full confidence that a Texas court is the best place for such vetting.”
Mapping CodeNEXT: Units and Height (Austin Monitor) LINK TO STORY
Austin’s proposed land use code rewrite would line major city corridors with narrow strips of dense, mixed-use development zoning. But just behind those ribbons of mixed-use street design, vast swaths of Central Austin neighborhoods would remain much less dense.
These two effects are brought into stark light by two new interactive maps produced for the Austin Monitor that visualize how the second draft of CodeNEXT would shape future development.