BG Reads | News You Need to Know (December 20, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO]
With new faces, will Austin City Council shift policies on housing, homelessness? (Austin American-Statesman)
Most of the current and new City Council members have expressed to some degree that the city needs to update and modernize its land development code to allow for more housing. The current code rules were adopted in 1984 with few changes made since.
In the past decade, city leaders have tried to rewrite the city's land use plans. A major revision, dubbed CodeNext, was in the works for several years before it was scrapped in 2018. In 2020, the council also put forward a plan that would have relaxed upzoning restrictions and promoted density in traditional neighborhoods.
In 2020, Council Members Leslie Pool, Kathie Tovo, Ann Kitchen and Alison Alter opposed changes to the land development rules. With Tovo and Kitchen no longer on the council, their successors could attempt to tip the scales back in the direction of seeking more housing density.
Velásquez, Qadri and Ryan Alter have all said they favor more dense housing, and have said they want to expedite the city's permitting processes and reform zoning rules while preserving what affordable housing already exists… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Audit shows flaws in city’s plans for cold weather shelters (AUSTIN MONITOR)
An audit presented to the City Council Audit & Finance committee last week says the city is not keeping up with planning for cold weather shelters and that city staff have not received sufficient training in dealing with people seeking shelter during extreme cold. In addition, the city does not appear to be consistently following its own rules on when to open the shelters. The audit says because the city has not always opened cold weather shelters when it planned to, some people “may have suffered from freezing and subfreezing temperatures.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Entrepreneur’s death at hands of Austin Police prompts calls for change (Wall Street Journal)
Rajan Moonesinghe thought there was someone in his house.
Mr. Moonesinghe, a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur known as Raj, grabbed a rifle. He told a neighbor there was an intruder and he was going to call 911. Across the street, a private security guard for his neighbor, a technology chief executive, was watching.
Within minutes, police would shoot and kill Mr. Moonesinghe on the front porch of his home in an affluent South Austin neighborhood. His Nov. 15 death has sent shock waves through Austin’s tech community, putting a city with a recent history of high-profile police shootings in a difficult situation with the influential new residents it has tried so hard to woo.
Now InKind, the finance and technology app Mr. Moonesinghe co-founded with his brother, is grappling with its future in Austin. His family and friends, including wealthy entrepreneurs and private-equity investors who are part of the tech community that flocked from California to Texas’ “Silicon Hills,” are mobilizing millions of dollars to fund police reform efforts… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
City moving forward with new floodplain maps from Atlas 14 rainfall study (Austin monitor)
The city is moving forward with its effort to update its floodplain maps, in anticipation of an expected increase in dramatic rainfall and flooding events caused by climate change over the next decade.
Earlier this month, the Watershed Protection Department began mailing notices to properties located in or near a potential floodplain once the new maps are finalized. The new maps could change the development requirements for affected parcels, with a new “freeboard” requirement holding that the finished elevation of designated buildings going through substantial renovation or development would need to be 2 feet above the revised 100-year floodplain.
The city has scheduled three virtual public meetings next month regarding the new maps and the potential impacts of the process that includes the NOAA Atlas 14 rainfall study, which found that future increases in rainfall will make 100-year floods similar to the previous benchmark of 500-year floods. Information on the meetings is available at ATXFloodplains.com… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As markets shift, big office campus near Apple won't expand until anchor tenant is landeD (Austin Business Journal)
Starting at the existing Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. fabrication plant, a trip up Parmer Lane in North Austin takes a driver past outposts of major technology companies, eventually reaching two campuses for Apple Inc.
That is unsurprising, said Aquila Commercial LLC Principal David Putman. This part of the metro still has large swaths of available land, plus proximity to both the city of Austin and growing suburban communities with more housing supply and highly rated school districts. Parmer Lane crosses multiple highways and major thoroughfares for speedy travel.
For tech company looking for a large campus, the area near the border of Travis and Williamson counties is an alluring place. And less developed Williamson County has an edge, Putman said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Roy Spence named Austinite of the YeaR (Austin business journal)
The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce has given advertising pioneer Roy Spence its highest honor: the title of Austinite of the Year.
Spence, who co-founded ad agency GSD&M in 1979 and remains chairman, was named the recipient on Dec. 19. He will be honored at the chamber's annual meeting on Feb. 8.
Over the decades, GSD&M has worked to capture the nation's and the globe's attention for bands like Southwest Airlines, The PGA Tour, Walmart and the U.S. Air Force.
In addition to courting major clients, Spence has used his expertise to create public service announcements that have helped in the aftermath of September 11, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Harvey… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Records reveal medical response further delayed care for Uvalde shooting victims (Texas Tribune)
Law enforcement’s well-documented failure to confront the shooter who terrorized the school for 77 minutes was the most serious problem in getting victims timely care, experts said. But previously unreleased records obtained by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and The Washington Post for the first time show that communication lapses and muddled lines of authority among medical responders further hampered treatment… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Migrants brave freezing temperatures, struggle to secure travel out of El Paso (El Paso Times)
Customs and Border Protection has released hundreds of migrants to city streets each day this week, with the non-profit and shelter system at capacity. Ports of entry have mostly been closed to asylum seekers under Title 42, a public health protocol by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Trump administration beginning in March 2020. Many of the people arriving to El Paso currently are from countries like Nicaragua where the U.S. cannot expel them. With Title 42 set to be lifted on Tuesday, Dec. 21, the city is preparing for even higher numbers of arrivals. Mayor Oscar Leeser said Thursday that the city was providing transportation to shelter and hotels but that some migrants had declined the support. "We’ve seen the pictures when they get off and are out on the street," he said. "But if you come back in the night like I do, you'll see they’re not on the street any longer." "Last night I was out there… you’ll see there are some people out there," he said. "We’ve talked to them. We’ve asked them to get on the bus so we can provide shelter for them.... We don’t want to see people out on the street."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
To ease looming West Texas water shortage, oil companies have begun recycling fracking wastewateR (texas Tribune)
Recently, Texas convened water experts for a state-funded study of recycling that so-called “produced water,” the term for wastewater from oil wells. Released this year, the Texas Produced Water Consortium report estimated Permian Basin wastewater production at approximately 11 million barrels, or 462 million gallons, per day in 2019, the last year of available data. Since then the figure has likely increased in step with soaring Permian oil and gas output.
In response to a survey by the Texas consortium, fracking companies on average said they were already reusing about 30% of their wastewater. Even if they satisfied 100% of their need with recycled water, they would still have millions of barrels of produced water left over every day… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Jan. 6 panel pushes Trump’s prosecution in forceful finish (AssociateD Press)
The House Jan. 6 committee is wrapping up its investigation of the violent 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, with lawmakers expected to cap one of the most exhaustive and aggressive congressional probes in memory with an extraordinary recommendation: The Justice Department should consider criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. At a final meeting on Monday, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are poised to recommend criminal charges against Trump and potentially against associates and staff who helped him launch a multifaceted pressure campaign to try to overturn the 2020 election. While a criminal referral is mostly symbolic, with the Justice Department ultimately deciding whether to prosecute Trump or others, it is a decisive end to a probe that had an almost singular focus from the start… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Many Senate Republicans aren’t protecting Trump after Jan. 6 panel’s nod to criminal charges (The HIll)
Senate Republicans are stepping out of the way of the House Jan. 6 committee’s recommendation that the Justice Department prosecute former President Trump for crimes related to the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
GOP senators, especially those allied with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), say the Jan. 6 committee interviewed “credible” witnesses and added to the historical record in a substantial way, even though they have qualms about how Democrats have tried to use the panel’s findings to score political points… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Bingham Group Week in Review Part I and Part II (12.16.2022)
Bingham Group Associate Hannah Garcia and CEO A.J. discuss the results of the 2022 Austin Council runoff elections for mayor along with Districts 3, 5, and 9.
The BG Podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, and Spotify
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