BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 14, 2021)
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
The Austin Council next meets for regular business on July 22.
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin brings permitting, development support under one roof with launch of new Highland service center (Community Impact)
Austin's Permitting and Development Center, a new facility the city says is designed to streamline its commercial and residential development experience, opened for the first time to in-person customer visits July 6.
Work on the four-story, 251,000-square-foot building, located in Highland at 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Drive, Austin, was completed last year at a cost of $120.7 million. The building sits at a staff of around 780 working across staggered shifts to limit on-site attendance; once fully staffed, the city expects the building to house as many as 950 employees across several city departments.
Robbie G. Searcy, spokesperson for the Austin Development Services Department, said the presence of several department representatives at the Permitting and Development Center will provide developers an easier route through the city's permitting system.
"This facility brings all the city departments involved in providing development services together, under one roof, for the first time ever. We expect this will help simplify the experience for customers and improve communication as customers move through different stages of the development process," Searcy said… (LINK TO STORY)
City staffers propose Great Streets fees-in-lieu (Austin Monitor)
City staffers have recommended new fees-in-lieu for the Great Streets requirement of the Downtown Density Bonus program, as City Council directed last year. On June 28, they presented their recommendations to the Design Commission.
Establishing fees-in-lieu for Great Streets is a “specific solution to a specific problem,” as Design Commission Chair David Carroll put it. Downtown towers that apply for a density bonus – which gives more entitlements in exchange for community benefits – are required to build sidewalks that comply with Great Streets, the city’s most pedestrian-friendly street design that’s used only in downtown. But after two recent projects couldn’t comply with Great Streets because they front Interstate 35 (whose right of way is controlled by the Texas Department of Transportation), Council asked staffers to create a fee-in-lieu option.
TxDOT severely limited what the two projects, the East Tower and River Street Residences, could put in the right of way. TxDOT was particularly strict with the East Tower, prohibiting any enhanced sidewalk treatments like trees, benches or bike racks, essentially mandating a bare sidewalk.
“We have begged TxDOT to let us do anything across that boundary and they have not given us any flexibility there,” Leah Bojo, agent for the developer of the East Tower, told the Design Commission last November. The East Tower voluntarily committed a Great Streets fee-in-lieu and added extra streetscape features on its property.
Council, having learned about the right-of-way complications last year, directed staff members to consider a fee-in-lieu option for such situations. That way, Great Streets could be built in places where they might not otherwise… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin drops more on esteemed Best Places to Live list (Austin Business Journal)
The Austin metro again ranked as one of the best places to live in the U.S. in this year's U.S. News & World Report analysis, though the metro's rising affordability crisis forced Austin to fall back a few spots on the list.
Austin landed at No. 5 on the 2021-22 list, down two spots from the year prior, according to U.S. News & World Report data released July 13. Before that, Austin topped the national list for several years, dating back to 2017. The continued fall in the ranks — though Austin is still ahead of other Texas metros and other competitive markets — shows the weight affordability issues can have on a bright star like Austin.
The list is one of the more highly regarded rankings, and it has undoubtedly played a role in Austin's popularity in recent years.
With people pouring into the Austin metro, affordability concerns are at an all-time high as housing stock is slim and prices skyrocket. Austin has been the fastest-growing large metro in the U.S. for the last decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, and has gained 34% population growth since 2010. Since then, household income in Austin has grown 38% while home prices have escalated 138% in the last 10 years, according to recent Austin Board of Realtors data. These affordability concerns also rest against the wider backdrop of Austin's outdated land development code, which many have said is a barrier to timely and affordable development.
The Best Places to Live ranking measures the nation's 150 largest metros across the five following categories: Quality of Life Index, which carries a 26% weight; Value Index (also called the Housing Affordability Index), 23.7%; Job Market Index, 21.2%; Desirability Index, 16.3%; and Net Migration, 12.8%. U.S. News uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Labor, the FBI and its own internal resources for the ranking. More information on the methodology can be found here.
Austin's rank slipped this year because of decreased scores for the Value Index, which considers median annual household income and housing costs; the Net Migration Index and Quality of Life Index, which considers factors such as crime rates, commute times and quality and availability of health care, according to U.S. News & World Report... (LINK TO STORY)
Travis County halts the eviction of 85 families who were told to leave because of damage from the Texas Freeze (KUT)
Nearly 90 families living in a Travis County-backed affordable housing complex will not be evicted at the end of the month.
Residents at the Rosemont at Oak Valley apartment complex in South Austin were given notices to vacate at the start of the month by Capstone Real Estate Services, which manages the property. Capstone cited winter storm-related repairs and renovations as the reason why the 85 families were being evicted.
After backlash last week, county commissioners on Tuesday invited testimony from residents, who argued the repairs were longstanding issues related to mold and flooding that predated February's winter storm. After hours of testimony, commissioners voted to halt the eviction process and directed county staff to find housing alternatives and resources for those who may need to relocate.
"I don't think it's acceptable to any of us to have that notice hanging over your head," Travis County Judge Andy Brown said.
Travis County has owned the 85-unit affordable housing apartment complex since 2019. It's overseen by the Housing Authority of Travis County and has been managed by Capstone since March… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Senate presses forward passing GOP voting and bail bills, as Texas House in chaos over Democrats’ decampment (Texas Tribune)
As Democrats fled the state to avoid voting on a GOP priority elections bill that would restrict voting rights in the state, the Texas Senate approved the bill Tuesday with a party-line vote of 18-4.
The Senate passed the controversial elections bill — and bail legislation — a day after 51 House Democrats decamped to Washington, D.C., to avoid voting on the elections bill in their chamber. If the Democrats don’t return before the special session ends, the Senate bills will languish.
Eight Senate Democrats announced Tuesday they had also fled to the nation’s capital — a ninth was expected to arrive that evening — on the same day as their chamber was set to vote on the elections bill. But the Senate kept a quorum with 22 of its 31 members present and was able to vote on the bill.
Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, the elections bill’s author, pushed back against Democratic criticisms of the bill as a means of voter suppression and said his legislation included “common sense reforms” to ensure the integrity of elections.
“This bill is about making it both easy to vote and harder to cheat,” he said, and blamed criticism of his bill on a “horrible, misleading, false national debate coming out of Washington.”
Senate Democrats said they flew to Washington to put pressure on Congress to pass elections legislation to protect voting rights, which Republican legislatures across the country have targeted after former President Donald Trump baselessly claimed there was voter fraud in last year’s presidential election. Texas Republicans made changing the state’s election laws a priority issue during the regular legislative session earlier this year… (LINK TO STORY)
Can Texas really arrest House Democrats after flight to D.C.? Yes. Here's how. (Houston Chronicle)
What started as a threat from the governor could become a promise. After Texas House Democrats left the state Monday for Washington D.C. to deny Republicans the quorum needed to pass their controversial “election integrity” bill, Gov. Greg Abbott said in an interview with Austin TV station KVUE, if they don’t show up to vote in Austin, he will have them arrested.
As governor, Abbott cannot issue the warrant. That duty is reserved for the Speaker of the House, according to the Texas House of Rules. When a call of the house is moved to secure and maintain a quorum for the consideration of a specific bill, and is seconded by 15 members and ordered by a majority vote, “all absentees for whom no sufficient excuse is made may, by order of a majority of those present, be sent for and arrested, wherever they may be found, by the sergeant-at-arms or an officer appointed by the sergeant-at-arms,” according to House Rule five on floor procedure. The House voted to do just that on Tuesday. Another caveat — absent members can only be arrested in the state of Texas. From there, the House decides on what conditions members can be fired. The rule also states that members can be locked in the hall to secure a quorum. “The main entrance to the hall and all other doors leading out of the hall shall be locked and no member permitted to leave the house without the written permission of the speaker,” according to Texas House Rule five, section eight. And as long as House members are absent and until a quorum appears, there’s no telling how long this process will drag on before a decision is made. “No business shall be transacted, except to compel the attendance of absent members or to adjourn,” according to the rule. “It shall not be in order to recess under a call of the house.”… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Democrats unveil $3.5T go-it-alone plan to fulfill Biden’s agenda (Politico)
Senate Democrats announced a top line budget number late Tuesday that will propel their plan to enact the full array of President Joe Biden’s social welfare and family aid promises without Republican votes.
The proposal sets an overall limit of $3.5 trillion for the spate of Democratic policy ambitions that won’t make it into a bipartisan infrastructure deal, if Congress can reach one. If the still-forthcoming budget resolution can clear both chambers with lockstep party support, it will unleash the power to circumvent a GOP filibuster using the so-called reconciliation process, the same move that Democrats used to pass the president’s $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package in March.
Combined with a bipartisan infrastructure compromise that's still getting shaped into legislation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the budget's investments in infrastructure, the middle class and more would total about $4.1 trillion, “which is very, very close to what President Biden asked us for.” Biden will also attend Democrats’ lunch on Wednesday to discuss the plans, Schumer said… (LINK TO STORY)