BG Reads | News You Need to Know (April 26, 2021)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
BG Podcast EP. 139: Q1 20201 Review: COVID-19's Impact on the Built Environment with Michael Hsu
On today’s episode we speak with return guest, Austin-based Michael Hsu, Principal and Founder of Michael Hsu Office of Architecture.
He and Bingham Group CEO A.J. catch up from their June 2020 show, updating on impacts to the design/built environment sector through Q1 2021.
You can listen to all episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. New content every Wednesday. Please like, link, comment and subscribe!
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
Action taken by the City Council during the meeting of: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Next Regular Meeting of the Austin City Council: Thursday, May 6th (No Agenda Posted)
[THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE]
LINK TO FILED HOUSE BILLS (5,777)
LINK TO FILED SENATE BILLS (2,629)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Council to change Downtown Density Bonus fees, consider new FAR rules (Austin Monitor)
Long-awaited changes to the Downtown Density Bonus Program are back on track after City Council passed a resolution Thursday aimed at maximizing the affordable housing fees generated through the program.
“I am very confident that the changes that we’ve initiated, including and especially the fees, are going to yield more affordable housing dollars,” said Council Member Kathie Tovo, who sponsored the resolution.
The resolution is Council’s first substantial effort to address Austin’s housing crisis since a judge struck down the Land Development Code rewrite last year.
The Downtown Density Bonus Program offers developers greater floor area ratio (translating to denser, taller buildings) in exchange for community benefits – on-site affordable housing and/or in-lieu fees toward affordable housing in addition to adherence to green building and urban design standards.
The program is one of several the city uses to generate on-site affordable housing or fees-in-lieu in areas where the market doesn’t supply affordable housing.
The resolution, passed unanimously, does two things. First, it directs city staff to update affordable housing fees that developers pay instead of providing on-site affordable housing. The fees were last calibrated in 2013. Second, it begins a conversation about how to capture more community benefits from developers that ask Council for permission to exceed floor area ratio limits.
City staffers have until late August to recalibrate the fees, a process that involves updating 2019 calculations to fit current market conditions. Council will vote to establish temporary fees on May 22.
Though the interim fees may not be calibrated perfectly, staffers deemed the risk that poorly calibrated fees could jeopardize participation in the program “somewhat limited.”
“Even if they’re not exactly right, they’ll only be in place for a short period of time,” said Erica Leak with the Housing and Planning Department.
Everyone on the dais supported the recalibration of fees, though some opposed changing the requirements for projects that exceed the FAR cap. Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison, echoing housing advocates, urbanists and real estate groups, made a motion to strike that part of the resolution. Her motion failed 4-7.
Tovo said she’d like to see developers provide even more community benefits for the building area above the FAR limit, including requiring on-site affordable housing. The discussion is set to take place over the coming weeks, first at the Planning Commission, then at Council.
Some Council members took issue with Tovo’s piecemeal approach, preferring a comprehensive update in one go.
“I’m not sure that I would have chosen to do it this way,” Mayor Steve Adler said, “because it has our staff doing (the work) twice.”
Tovo said, “I don’t think that broader body of work should prevent us from moving forward with these changes today, which are much needed.”
Having passed the resolution, Council is now set to comprehensively update other density bonuses around the city. Tovo said she plans to bring another resolution this week to initiate that work… (LINK TO STORY)
Three second-half goals create Austin FC history (Austin American-Statesman)
History was made in Colorado Saturday night when Austin FC earned its first ever win in a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids. Second-half goals by Diego Fagundez and Cecilio Domínguez erased a one-goal deficit at halftime.
"I'm excited for the team, organization and for the city," Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff said. "We fought together and we won together. It was a momentous day for this club and for the city."
Fagundez scored the first goal in club history in the 60th minute when he slid a Jared Stroud pass into the bottom left corner with his right foot. Domínguez gave Austin FC its first ever lead in the 67th minute when he curled a shot into the right side of the goal. He increased the lead to 3-1 when his deflected shot beat Rapids’ goalie William Yarbrough.
The second-half performance was especially gratifying following the loss to Los Angeles FC. Austin FC gave up two second-half goals in that loss, and Wolff himself said the team came out flat in the final 45 minutes last week. Not against Colorado.
"Our intensity, desire and energy was the difference in the second half," Wolff said. "Our willingness to compete was contagious."
The win was dampened by the absence of Tomás Pochettino and an injury to Ben Sweat. Pochettino, the club’s second designated player, was a late scratch after Major League Soccer discovered an issue with his player registration. The team put out a statement during the game that indicated the move was out of caution and that it is hoping to receive a resolution soon.
Sweat, who started at left back for the second consecutive game, went down with an apparent knee injury halfway through the first half and was replaced by Žan Kolmanič. No update on Sweat was available after the game. He’ll be evaluated further once the team returns to Austin.
Austin FC received three points for the victory and move into eighth place in the Western Conference on goal differential. Only four teams in the conference possess more than three points after two games… (LINK TO STORY)
Jay Paul Co. gets first approval from Council for office project in East Austin (Austin Business Journal)
California-based Jay Paul Company plans to build two mid-rise office towers in East Austin that would collectively be larger than any office development downtown. It initially sparked concerns from neighbors and Planning Commission members that it could set a precedent for tall development in the area.
But Austin City Council members weren't as concerned by the request for a height increase during their April 22 meeting when they first considered the proposed planned unit development. Instead, the conversation focused on whether the project was offering the maximum community benefits possible — a growing concern from Council as it faces a rapidly developing Austin and mounting affordability challenges. Council ultimately approved the first reading of the PUD zoning and will consider the request again on May 20.
Jay Paul Co. plans to build two six-story office buildings totaling about 800,000 square feet on a 30-acre tract off Springdale Road near Airport Boulevard. The site was once a tank farm where oil companies would store fuel and other chemicals. That adds a layer of complexity to the project because of intense reclamation requirements. Housing cannot be built on the site "due to its environmentally challenged past," according to city documents.
The developer is asking for a PUD zoning that would allow a height limit of 93 feet. The area currently allows buildings up to 60 feet in height.
The proposal was unanimously approved by the city’s Environmental Commission and Saucedo Street residents — the closest residents to the proposed project, according to city documents. There has been pushback from other neighborhood associations, such as the Springdale-Airport Neighborhood Association and the Govalle/Johnston Terrace Neighborhood Plan Contact Team, because of concerns that the height will set a precedent for the neighborhood.
Overall, Jay Paul Co. is proposing a package worth $6.7 million in community benefits in exchange for the added height. That includes a $700,000 donation to the city’s affordable housing trust fund; $75,000 to the East Austin Conservancy to help provide property tax assistance to longtime area residents; $250,000 toward a nearby city urban trails project; 15 acres of creek and floodplain restoration; and the removal of any remnants of the old tank farm. The team will also spend millions of dollars to ease the flooding burden on nearby residences, which will include doubling the size of its detention pond to take on the neighborhood’s stormwater.
The only true financial requirement under the PUD guidelines is the affordable housing component — the others are added benefits that the development team is proposing to sweeten the offer for Council.
Council Member Sabino "Pio" Renteria, who represents District 3 where the project would be located, spoke in favor of the flood mitigation work.
"I really appreciate the community benefits we'll get out of that and the environmental cleanup," he said at the April 22 meeting. "I know some people don't like the density... but the Saucedo [residents] came to me last year because their land was flooded. ... I've been trying to figure out what to do to help (them) out, and this would be the perfect solution."
Council Member Ann Kitchen said the environmental work will be a positive move for the community but would only be felt by the people who will ultimately work at the office park. Kitchen also noted that the proposed affordable housing fees met the requirement from the PUD but seemed to stop short of saying she wanted the development team to pledge more funding.
Kitchen added that she would be reluctant to support further approval if there were still concerns from area neighbors. Council Member Alison Alter agreed that there could be more ways to make the community benefits more beneficial for the community. Kitchen and Alter abstained from the vote.
Michael Whellan, an attorney at of law firm Armbrust & Brown PLLC, is representing Jay Paul Co. through the entitlement process. He told Austin Business Journal that the team “will continue to communicate with neighborhood groups and contact teams concerning the community benefits that we have agreed to provide."… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas Republicans targeting voting access find their bull’s-eye: Cities (New York Times)
Voting in the 2020 election presented Zoe Douglas with a difficult choice: As a therapist meeting with patients over Zoom late into the evening, she just was not able to wrap up before polls closed during early voting. Then Harris County introduced 24-hour voting for a single day. At 11 p.m. the Thursday before the election, Douglas joined fast-food workers, nurses, construction workers, night owls and other late-shift workers at NRG Arena, one of eight 24-hour voting sites in the county, where more than 10,000 people cast their ballots in a single night. “
I can distinctly remember people still in their uniforms; you could tell they just got off of work, or maybe they’re going to work — a very diverse mix,” said Douglas, 27, a Houston native. Twenty-four-hour voting was one of a host of options that Harris County introduced to help residents cast ballots, along with drive-thru voting and proactively mailing out ballot applications.
The new alternatives, tailored to a diverse workforce struggling amid a pandemic in Texas’ largest county, helped increase turnout by nearly 10% compared with 2016; nearly 70% of registered voters cast ballots, and a task force found that there was no evidence of any fraud. Yet Republicans are pushing measures through the state Legislature that would take aim at the very process that produced such a large turnout.
Two omnibus bills, including one that the House is likely to take up in the coming week, are seeking to roll back virtually every expansion the county put in place for 2020. The bills would make Texas one of the hardest states in the country to cast a ballot in. And they are a prime example of a Republican-led effort to roll back voting access in Democrat-rich cities and populous regions like Atlanta and Arizona’s Maricopa County, while having far less of an impact on voting in rural areas that tend to lean Republican.
Bills in several states are, in effect, creating a two-pronged approach to urban and rural areas that raises questions about the disparate treatment of cities and the large number of voters of color who live in them and is helping fuel opposition from corporations that are based in or have workforces in those places… (LINK TO STORY)
Texas lawmakers, lobby firm react to allegations that a lobbyist gave date rape drug to Capitol aide (Texas Tribune)
After the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed Saturday it’s investigating an allegation that a lobbyist used a date rape drug on at least one Capitol staffer, a prominent Austin-based lobby shop said Sunday it had launched an internal investigation into the matter, telling state lawmakers in an email that the firm and its employees “do not and will not tolerate a culture where anyone is not valued with respect and dignity."
The DPS investigation, first reported by the Austin American-Statesman, stems from a complaint recently made by a Capitol staffer, though officials have so far declined to comment on further details — including the names of anyone allegedly involved.
“This is an ongoing investigation,” DPS spokesperson Travis Considine told The Texas Tribune on Saturday, “and further details cannot be released at this time.”… (LINK TO STORY)
'This is not SpaceX property - this is my property': SpaceX looks to recast South Texas town as 'Starbase' (San Antonio Express-News)
When he’s in town, Elon Musk surely can’t miss neighbor Rosemarie Workman’s frayed “Come and Take It” flag whipping in the coastal breeze. Workers tinker in the side yard of the SpaceX founder’s temporary home on Weems Street. Across the road, Workman stands on her porch, her gaze gliding past them — and the Teslas parked on the street — to focus on the South Bay and the bright afternoon sky. Truck engines drown out the songs of the area’s many birds. A quarter-mile down the street, a silver rocket nose cone marks the skyline, and behind the small ranch homes, massive tracking antennas aim skyward.
So goes another afternoon for the holdouts in the tiny community next to SpaceX’s Starship facility near Boca Chica Beach, about 25 miles east of Brownsville. Many things merge in this part of Texas: land and sea, the Rio Grande and the Gulf, Mexico and the United States, big business and the federal government, and now the Earth and space. The relationships are complicated, and so is SpaceX’s with the Rio Grande Valley. SpaceX has followers around the world who devour every scrap of news about the pioneering commercial space company and Musk. But not all of SpaceX’s South Texas neighbors are thrilled with a rocket factory and launch pad in their backyard. Musk, who also founded electric vehicle-maker Tesla, is trying to incorporate Boca Chica and the surrounding area. He announced SpaceX’s plan on Twitter on March 2: “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas” and “From thence to Mars, and hence the stars.”… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
US has started preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, top general says (The Hill)
The United States has begun the process of preparing to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, months before President Biden’s goal of pulling all troops from the region.
U.S. Army Gen. Scott Miller, commander of US Forces Afghanistan and NATO’s Resolute Support Mission, confirmed to reporters in Kabul on Sunday that “all of our forces are now preparing to retrograde.”
“Officially, the notification date will be the first of May. But at the same time, as we start taking local actions, we've already begun that,” Miller continued, when asked during a news conference if American withdrawal from bases had begun.
Earlier this month, Biden announced that the U.S. would withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that led to the longest war in American history.
In a speech from the White House, Biden said that the reasons for keeping troops in the war-torn country have become “increasingly unclear,” as the terrorist threat has become more dispersed in recent years.
Miller told reporters “I now have a set of orders” and "some very clear objectives," adding that the U.S. will “conduct an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan," and "ensure that the Afghan security forces are in the best possible security posture."… (LINK TO STORY)