BG Reads | News You Need to Know (June 3, 2022)
[HEARINGS]
Monday, 6/6
Tuesday, 6/7
Thursday, 6/9
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin mayoral candidate unveils 6-part housing affordability plan (KXAN)
Gina Vasquez and her husband bought their East Austin home off Cameron Road for $58,000 in 1993. These days, it is appraised at $612,000.
“My payment was $436, and that included taxes and insurance,” Vasquez told KXAN. “My [most recent] payment was $850. There’s no way we can afford it.”
At 71 years old, Vasquez said she hopes Austin’s next mayor can help. She is currently throwing her support behind State Rep. Celia Israel.
Israel on Thursday unveiled her six-part plan to improve housing affordability within the city. It includes making it easier to build lower-priced duplexes and quadruplexes rather than single-family homes and building on more city-owned land.
The candidate acknowledged her ideas would be tested by obstacles we’ve seen again and again, like zoning regulations… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
City asks public to vote on options for East Austin affordable housing development (Community Impact)
Members of the public may now give their input on proposals for an affordable housing development in East Austin, the city of Austin and the Austin Housing Finance Corp. announced May 31.
The 3-acre property at 3515 Manor Road, owned by the Austin Housing Finance Corporation and the city of Austin, is set to be transformed into a multifamily rental housing development for low-income families, with permanent supportive housing for homeless individuals. With three different proposals on the table, residents can vote or give comments until June 19.
“Right now, soaring housing costs are pushing our working-class residents to the suburbs and lower-income neighbors to the streets and creeks,” said Natasha Harper-Madison, District 1 Austin City Council member. “That’s why I’m super excited that we as a municipality are leveraging this city-owned property to create hundreds of new units in a high-opportunity area.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin is challenging its 2020 census numbers, saying the count missed thousands of residents (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin city officials have filed an appeal with the U.S. Census Bureau over 2020 census figures, saying the city has more than the 961,855 residents that were counted during the decennial process. In doing so, Austin became the largest U.S. city to challenge its census numbers, which have a direct impact on how much federal funding the city can receive.
City officials say they think about 7,000 housing units were missed in the 2020 count, mostly in newly developed neighborhoods.
Lila Valencia, the city demographer, said some housing units were put on the wrong block within the city.
“The Census Bureau’s mission is to count everyone, count everyone only once, and count them in the right place,” Valencia said. “Any changes to our population count will not affect any redistricting that's already taken place and it won't change our 2020 population count number. But what it will do is update the figures that are used in the Census Bureau population estimate.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council to consider new ADU policies, ditch pre-approved blueprints (Austin Monitor)
City Council shifted priorities this week on policies related to accessory dwelling units, with members showing little interest in creating preapproved ADU blueprints and instead considering a new measure aimed at making ADUs easier to build.
At Tuesday’s Housing and Planning Committee, members soured on preapproved ADU plans – an idea floated for years to make ADUs more attainable – after city staffers explained that a seemingly simple solution in theory proves complicated in practice.
For one, said Brent Lloyd with the Development Services Department, complex regulations stand in the way. He pointed to the McMansion ordinance, which “requires determining whether a structure fits within a tent that’s based on the geometry of the site,” as particularly troublesome.
“Even if ADU plans are designated preapproved, unless Council would be prepared to potentially waive or modify some of the site-specific regulations with regards to McMansion, it would be quite likely that, in many cases, an applicant would come forward with preapproved plans and they ultimately couldn’t actually be approved,” Lloyd said. He also mentioned floor area ratio and tree regulations as additional constraints… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Stratus completes $260M sale of downtown block home to W Austin hotel (Austin Business Journal)
Nashville-based Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc. has officially staked its claim in Texas.
On May 31, Ryman Hospitality (NYSE: RHP) closed on the acquisition of Austin’s Block 21 from Stratus Properties Inc. (Nasdaq: STRS), according to an announcement. That is the site of the W Austin Hotel & Residences and music venue Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater.
Including the assumption of existing mortgage debt around $136 million, the purchase totaled roughly $260 million.
Austin-based Stratus, formed in 1992 and led by chairman and CEO William Armstrong, agreed to the acquisition in December 2019, but it was stalled by the pandemic. The deal was put back on the table in October 2021.
Armstrong, known as "Beau," said in a statement that the Stratus board and executives "expect to meet soon to make decisions regarding the uses of proceeds from the sale of Block 21 and the recent sale of The Santal. We will carefully explore several compelling opportunities, which will be based on evolving market conditions and may include a combination of further deleveraging, reinvesting in Stratus’ project pipeline and returning cash to shareholders."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, says it’s a “slap in the face” to be left off committee responding to shooting (Texas Tribune)
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat who represents Uvalde, said his exclusion from a special legislative committee designed to make legislative recommendations in response to the Uvalde shooting was a “slap in the face” to the people of that community.
"I do consider it a slap in the face to the people of Uvalde," said Gutierrez, who has been one of the most vocal Democratic lawmakers on the need for gun safety measures since the school shooting last week. "They didn't have their representative there."
Gutierrez also said the selection of the committee's members was an affront to residents of El Paso and Santa Fe, two communities rocked by mass shootings in 2019, who also will not have their state senators on the committee. The committee members are appointed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican whom Gutierrez has been critical of in the past… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Police inside Uvalde school not aware of children’s 911 calls, Texas senator says (Dallas Morning News)
The narrative surrounding the Uvalde school shooting continued to evolve Thursday with new information emerging that police inside the building were not aware of 911 calls coming from children locked in a classroom with an 18-year-old gunman. That included Uvalde schools police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the incident commander during the shooting. Previous police accounts said Arredondo was aware of the 911 calls when he made the decision to hold back as many as 19 officers gathered in school hallways from entering the classroom. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, whose district includes Uvalde, revealed the information during a briefing in the city. He called the response to a shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead, as well as 17 injured, a “system failure.” It was the latest piece of information that differed from original accounts from Texas top law enforcement officials and Gov. Greg Abbott about the May 24 mass shooting. The near daily revelations have seemingly poured salt in the wounds of a small tight-knit community that continues to reel from one of the worst school shootings in the history of Texas and the U.S.
“We need transparency and that hasn’t happened here,” Gutierrez said. “We’ve had several press conferences from local entity law enforcement, which is DPS, Department of Public Safety. We’ve gotten some answers. And we’ve gotten some bad answers. We’ve gotten information that the next day turns out to be different.” Gutierrez said he learned about the 911 call misinformation while examining why officers stayed in the hallways of Robb Elementary School for 47 minutes while an 18-year-old gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle remained in a classroom with children. “What we do know is that the 911 calls were not being communicated to the so-called incident commander officer Arredondo,” Gutierrez said. “They were being communicated to a Uvalde police officer, and the state agency I have spoken to has not told me who that is.” A message seeking comment from Uvalde police was referred to a Texas Department of Safety officer, who did not respond. The incorrect information released in the aftermath of the shooting, as well as questions about why officers did not immediately try to take out the gunman as soon as they arrived — as mass shooting training dictates — have sowed doubts and confusion among a community with strong ties to law enforcement. At the center is Arredondo, the embattled police chief who was recently elected to the Uvalde City Council. He has almost disappeared from public view since details have emerged that appear to indicate he mismanaged the response… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Episode 158: Managing Growth in the City of Kyle - A Discussion with Council Member Dex Ellison
Today’s episode (158) features City of Kyle Council Member Dex Ellison. He and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss the growth and associated challenges with one the fastest growing cities in Texas.
According to the U.S. Census, the city grew from a populations of 5,000 in 2000, to just over 52,300 (and growing) in 2020.
First elected to Kyle City Council in November 2019, Council Member Ellison was re-elected in November 2019. -> EPISODE LINK