BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 22, 2021)
Downtown Austin
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
City Council to meet for special session on housing supply (Austin Monitor)
City Council is convening Nov. 30 to discuss what Mayor Steve Adler has called one of Austin’s “greatest present challenges” – housing supply.
In a City Council Message Board post last Wednesday, Adler outlined the strategy up for discussion at the special session: allowing residential housing units in commercially zoned areas.
In a proposed resolution, Council would begin the process of amending the Land Development Code to allow for residential construction in CS, CS-1, GR, LR, GO, and LO zoning districts, a number of areas that are currently zoned for commercial purposes.
The proposal would direct City Manager Spencer Cronk to put together an affordability bonus requiring that 10 percent of units built are affordable to households at 60 percent of the median family income.
The resolution also has some more granular objectives; for example, it includes a provision that would “provide an incentive” to raise the ground floor of buildings by 5-10 feet for retail spaces, though the finer points still need to be fleshed out.
The resolution draft is looking to add 46,324 housing units to the city’s housing supply as a result of these code changes. The figure comes from a 2018 estimate from a Planning Commission working group.
These changes to the zoning code come at a time when Austin’s housing market continues to be in a frenzy. In October, the median sale price for a home in Austin was $550,000, 20 percent higher than last year, according to Redfin. For renters, who make up the largest share of the population, the average monthly rent is now around $1,600 a month, according to Apartment List data.
So far, the proposal has strong support in Council. Posting to the message board, Council Member Leslie Pool wrote, “I support the concept of residential uses being permitted in certain commercial zoning districts. These specific amendments should increase the possibility of live-work spaces around the city, especially in areas of high transit opportunity, and with corresponding affordability requirements.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by Council members Greg Casar, Ann Kitchen and Kathie Tovo – though it’s also clear that more needs to be done to ease the city’s housing pains as demand continues to outpace supply… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
88K flyers projected to pass through ABIA this weekend ahead of Thanksgiving (KXAN)
They say that the early bird gets the worm — and that same sentiment rings true for travelers heading to the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport this holiday season.
Friday marked the official start of Thanksgiving holiday travel, said Bryce Dubee, a spokesperson for ABIA. He confirmed nearly 31,000 passengers went through security on Friday alone, with over 26,000 people passing through on Saturday.
Projections for Sunday anticipate an additional 30,000 people will travel via ABIA, and nearly 29,000 on Monday, he added.
Comparatively, roughly 26,000 people traveled through ABIA the Monday prior to Thanksgiving in 2019, and less than 10,000 passed through security in 2020… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
The Austin Chamber of Commerce announces new leadership and board members (Community Impact)
The Austin Chamber of Commerce announced Nov. 17 Fred W. Heldenfels as its 2022 board chair and Ali Khataw as its 2023 board chair-elect, according to a news release.
Heldenfels, president and CEO and Heldenfels Enterprises Inc and Khataw, president of Encotech Engineering Consultants, will begin their terms Jan. 1, 2022. Heldenfels has served on the Austin Chamber board and executive committee for over a decade while Khataw has served on the board since 2016. Both have extensive and award-winning backgrounds in the business industry and look forward to working with the Austin Chamber to create economic opportunities throughout the greater Austin area during a time of rapid economic growth, they said in the release.
“The Austin region’s moment has arrived to be an economic powerhouse and global destination for investment and job creation,” Heldenfels said in the release. “[The Austin Chamber of Commerce must be] intentional about planning for a super-regional economy, in cooperation with the business communities and economic development organizations in San Antonio, and the vital corridor communities connected to the two metro areas.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Justices could rule on Texas abortion ban as soon as Monday (Associated Press)
The Supreme Court could rule as soon as Monday on Texas' ban on abortion after roughly six weeks. The justices are planning to issue at least one opinion Monday, the first of its new term, the court said on its website Friday. There's no guarantee the two cases over the Texas law, with its unique enforcement design that has so far evaded judicial review, will be resolved Monday. Those cases were argued Nov. 1, and the court also is working on decisions in the nine cases the justices heard in October. But the court put the Texas cases on a rarely used fast track, raising expectations that decisions would come sooner than the months the justices usually spend writing and revising their opinions. The law has been in effect since Sept. 1.
With Thanksgiving approaching, Monday also is probably the last day the court could decide the Texas cases before the justices hear arguments Dec. 1 over whether to reverse nearly 50 years of precedents and hold that the Constitution does not guarantee the right to an abortion. The case is about Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks. The Texas law bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected in the fetus, often around six weeks, before some women know they’re pregnant, and it makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Six weeks is long before the court's previous major abortion rulings allow states to prohibit abortion. The focus at the Supreme Court, though, is over the design of the Texas law, which deputizes private citizens to enforce it by filing lawsuits against clinics, doctors and others who facilitate abortions. The court is trying to sort out who can sue to challenge the law and whether a federal court can effectively block the law from being enforced… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Greg Abbott, GOP leaders allocate $4 million to fund county-level election audits (Texas Tribune)
GOP leaders on Friday approved shifting $4 million in emergency funds for the Texas secretary of state’s office to create an “Election Audit Division” at the agency, which will spearhead county election audits as required by the state’s new election law set to take effect next month.
The additional funding, first reported by The Dallas Morning News, was requested by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this week and approved by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dade Phelan and the Republican budget-writers of the two chambers, state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, and state Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood.
In a Nov. 18 letter to Patrick and Phelan, Abbott said the emergency shift in money — which is coming from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — was necessary because the secretary of state’s office "does not currently have the budget authority to adequately accomplish the goals sought by the Legislature.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Biden and aides tell allies he is running in 2024 amid growing Democratic fears (Washington Post)
President Biden and members of his inner circle have reassured allies in recent days that he plans to run for reelection in 2024, as they take steps to deflect concern about the 79-year-old president’s commitment to another campaign and growing Democratic fears of a coming Republican return to power. The efforts come as the broader Democratic community has become increasingly anxious after a bruising six-month stretch that has seen Biden’s national approval rating plummet more than a dozen points, into the low 40s, amid growing concerns about inflation, Democratic infighting in Washington and faltering public health efforts to move beyond the covid-19 pandemic. The message is aimed in part at tamping down the assumption among many Democrats that Biden may not seek reelection given his age and waning popularity, while also effectively freezing the field for Vice President Harris and other potential presidential hopefuls.
“The only thing I’ve heard him say is he’s planning on running again,” said former senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), a Biden friend. “And I’m glad he is.” At a virtual fundraiser this month, Biden told a small group of donors that he plans to seek a second term, underscoring the message he gave the nation in March at his first White House news conference before cautioning that he had “never been able to plan 3½, four years ahead, for certain.” “What he is saying publicly is what he firmly believes. There’s no difference,” said former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, who attended the fundraising event. “He will not run if he feels he can’t do the job physically or emotionally.” But interviews with 28 Democratic strategists and officials, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak more frankly, show that the assurances have not stopped the internal debate over whether Biden will appear on the ticket. Some Democrats take a skeptical view of any public and private signals Biden and his team send about reelection, reasoning that there is an incentive for them to project interest in a second term, regardless of his true intent, to avoid weakening his standing. Another presidential bid, others worry, would involve a much more rigorous schedule than the relatively calm 2020 campaign, which was largely conducted remotely because of the covid-19 pandemic… (LINK TO FULL STORY)