BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 10, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Don’t worry if you drank the Austin tap water. It was fine all along. (KUT)
The water flowing out of Austin taps is now safe to drink — and apparently was all along.
Austin Water issued a boil-water notice on Saturday night, asking that all customers of the public utility boil their water for at least two minutes before drinking it or cooking with it.
A spokesperson for the utility told KUT on Wednesday that the state, which has to clear the city to rescind a boil-water notice, did not find any contaminants in tests of the water the city sent over the past several days.
“Though our water disinfection parameters were strong and remained within regulatory levels, we issued a boil water notice as a precaution, because the risk of contaminants is raised when there are suspended particles, or high levels of turbidity, in the water,” Amy Petri, a spokesperson for Austin Water, said in an email. “No contaminants have been detected in the water.”
When the utility asks residents to boil their water, it is often just a precaution.
“Austin Water issues boil-water notices even if the possibility of contamination is remote to safeguard the health of the community,” the utility’s website reads.
According to a preliminary timeline provided to KUT, Austin Water staff first noticed high levels of "turbidity," or cloudiness, in the water at the city’s Ullrich Water Treatment Plant at 8 a.m. on Saturday. Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros said the problem was caused by employee error… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin City Council Member Kathie Tovo moving forward in mayor campaign (KVUE)
Austin City Council Member Kathie Tovo has filed a campaign treasurer appointment, marking a move forward in an apparent campaign to run for Mayor of Austin, according to public documents published on the City's website.
The document was filed on Feb. 8, after Tovo confirmed with KVUE last month she was "seriously considering" a 2022 run… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Community weighs in on governance of ATP, Cap Metro (Austin Water)
At least 165 community members participated Tuesday night in the first of two virtual meetings designed to gather feedback about the future of Austin’s Project Connect, which is currently in the design stage. In addition to specific questions about where the different lines will be built, groups such as the Austin Justice Coalition and People United for Mobility Action have raised questions about the governance of the Austin Transit Partnership, the agency formed by the city and Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority to design and build the $7.1 billion transit system.
Voters approved an 8.75-cent property tax increase in 2020, including $300 million dedicated to anti-displacement efforts to preserve and build affordable housing along the project’s transit corridors. While ATP will have to answer questions about the use of that funding in the future, the big question now is about governance and leadership at ATP and Capital Metro. Capital Metro CEO Randy Clarke also serves as executive director of the Austin Transit Partnership, giving him two full-time jobs. A change to that structure would require action by the board of ATP.
João Paulo Connolly of Austin Justice Coalition, who is a member of the ATP community advisory committee, said what may be in the best interests of operations at Capital Metro may not be in the best interests of ATP, and vice versa. He said having one person hold the top position at both agencies could easily lead to a conflict of interest.
In December, ATP authorized Eno Center for Transportation to study and report on Project Connect’s governance and leadership. Consultants have released a preliminary report and promised a final report will be delivered to the ATP board in March.
An email message from PUMA inviting recipients to attend Tuesday’s meeting said, “Currently, the governance of ATP and CapMetro are structured to have the same executive director at the helm of each organization. ATP and its leadership and governance structure will impact Austin for generations to come. In order to keep the promises made to Austin’s voters, it must avoid conflicts of interest and build a relationship of trust with communities that rely on transit service. To that end, there needs to be clear, independent and well-defined relationships between ATP, CapMetro and the city of Austin. It is crucial that we ensure that this promise made to the voters will be kept.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
2,200-home neighborhood planned for Hays County (Austin Business Journal)
A massive new subdivision is coming to Hays County from the nation’s largest volume homebuilder.
Continental Homes of Texas LP, a subsidiary of Arlington-based D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI), is developing about 1,000 acres southeast of Buda’s Sunfield master-planned community. The community will be called Prairie Lakes and ultimately have about 2,200 lots for single-family-homes, as well as apartments and duplexes.
The developer registered 11 Williamson Road in Niederwald as the address for the municipal utility district formation. According to executives, this is where the first phase of construction will begin.
The tract is somewhat unique, split between two jurisdictions and with two reservoirs within it. One third of the tract is within the Niederwald extraterritorial jurisdiction, and the other two-thirds are within Kyle’s ETJ. The reservoirs — one about 30 acres and one about 75 acres — bisect the property. About half of the total area of the tract is actually developable, according to company executives.
Conversations with the cities have been ongoing for two years now, according to Jake Straub, land acquisition manager at D.R. Horton. On Feb. 1, Kyle City Council officially approved a development agreement for its side of the project.
The community will include a mixture of housing types. There will be single-family houses, with a minimum size of 1,200 square feet, according to city documents. Straub said there are also duplexes planned, as well as about 20 acres of multifamily. There will also be about 20 acres of commercial property throughout the community. Straub said none of the commercial partners are locked in yet, and they’ll likely be the final pieces of the puzzle.
“Commercial and multifamily become more marketable once rooftops are up,” Straub said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Leander council calls May election for 3 council seats, 13 charter amendments (Community Impact)
Leander voters will cast ballots for three City Council seats and 13 city charter propositions in the May 7 election.
Leander City Council approved election ordinances Feb. 7 for council seats and city charter amendments. These elections will be in addition to the Capital Metro election, which was called in January.
Early voting will run April 25-May 3. Election day is May 7. The last day to register to vote is April 7… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
California startup OhmConnect Energy dives into Texas retail electricity market (Houston Business Journal)
A startup that pays hundreds of thousands of Californians to use less power is now selling electricity in Texas, with an ERCOT veteran leading the expansion effort.
Oakland, California-based OhmConnect Energy announced Feb. 8 it has entered the Electric Reliability Council of Texas retail electricity market.
Founded in 2014, OhmConnect pays residents to briefly cut power usage in their homes, through smart plugs and thermostats, by giving them credits.
Over the past few years, the nearly 200,000 Californians who signed up for the startup’s program have created a demand-response unit of 160 megawatts, the equivalent of a medium-sized solar farm, said Don Whaley, OhmConnect's Texas president. In Texas, the company is offering that demand-response incentives program to anyone who buys OhmConnect's residential power.
“We provide them price, billing, customer care, and then we give them the tools for this demand response capability to reduce their bill even further,” Whaley said in an interview. “We pay them to back off consumption during periods of high pricing and high volatility.”
Whaley joined OhmConnect in April, leaving an ERCOT retail markets consulting practice that he started over a decade before. His involvement in those markets dates back to before they even opened, when he led Centrica's Texas subsidiary, Republic Power, which eventually became Houston-based Direct Energy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Home list prices in Dallas-Fort Worth hit record $400K; new builds make up 22% of all sales (Dallas Business Journal)
Median home listing prices in Dallas-Fort Worth ballooned more than 14% year-over-year to a record $400,000, and new construction now makes up more than 20% of all sales in the North Texas housing market.
Those are the findings of two unrelated studies, the first by Realtor.com and the second by AEI Housing Center.
Lower-priced areas attracting homebuyers from more expensive metros generally have a higher share of new construction sales, yet the months’ supply of inventory remains depleted, according to the American Enterprise Institute.
That describes the situation in Texas to the capital “T”, with new builds making up over 20% of home sales in Austin, San Antonio and Houston as well as Dallas, the AEI Housing Center metrics show.
Nationwide, new construction sales make up 10% of all home sales.
In Dallas, new-builds account for 22% of all sales. New construction accounts for 27.7% in Austin, 22.8% in San Antonio and 22.3% in Houston.
Turning to the Realtor.com report, median asking prices for homes in North Texas hit $400,000 last month, an increase of over 14% from January 2021.
Nationwide home sales listing prices in January rose 10% higher than they were in January 2021.
In the Austin area, asking prices soared 28% over the year to a median $545,000 in January. That ranked as the third-highest price increase in the U.S., behind Las Vegas at 35.3%, and Tampa at 28.7%, according to Realtor.com.
List prices were up 18.6% for the year in the San Antonio area to a median of $350,000.
Houston fell short of double-digit asking price appreciation, with list prices up 8.5% to $358,000 in January compared to the first month of 2021... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
White House faces new pressure to back lifting mask rules (The Hill)
The White House is facing pressure to revise its position on wearing masks, as declining COVID-19 cases and pandemic fatigue among voters leads an increasing number of Democratic states to lift requirements on public masking.
Some governors and local health officials are calling for the White House and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to release guidance for an off-ramp for mask usage.
Mask requirements are one of the only remaining COVID-19 restrictions in place in many areas of the country. But agency director Rochelle Walensky is insistent that it's not yet time to lift mask requirements anywhere… (LINK TO FULL STORY)