BG Reads | News You Need to Know (October 6, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Capital A working to finalize two affordable housing projects (Austin Monitor)
Just a little over two years ago, Conor Kenny and Fayez Kazi, chair and vice chair, respectively, of the city’s Planning Commission, stepped down from their posts and began working on an ambitious plan to help the city out of what Kazi calls a “looming generational housing crisis.”
Kazi is the founder and CEO of the engineering firm Civilitude and its affordable housing arm Capital A and construction arm Constructinople and property management company Fabitat. After leaving the Planning Commission, Kenny joined Civilitude and its various branches as director of public affairs. Now, Capital A is in the midst of negotiations on two affordable housing projects.
While Aspen Heights Partners, the NHP Foundation and Capital A work to craft a final agreement with the city to create affordable housing and other amenities at the old Brackenridge Hospital site, city staffers are also working with Capital A and NHP to reach a deal to build affordable housing and other amenities at the Seabrook Square site. While all those involved with the downtown site hope to complete negotiations to bring the deal back to City Council next spring, NHP and Capital A are also working to complete an agreement on the Seabrook Square development… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Plan advances to turn HealthSouth site into 2 towers with nearly 1,000 apartments (Austin Business Journal)
A plan to transform downtown Austin's old HealthSouth building has taken a significant step forward.
City Council last week approved moving ahead with negotiations for a master development agreement with Aspen Heights Partners LLC.
The Austin-based real estate development firm wants to build two apartment high-rises on city-owned sites at 1215 Red River St. and 606 East 12th St. They will be within the quickly changing Palm District and some expect this could serve as a catalyst for more development on the northern end of the Central Business District.
Of the 921 units planned across the two 37-story towers, 232 — about 25% — will be affordable housing for low-income residents. That represents an increase from the 116 affordable units offered in prior plans and showcases how the city is negotiating for more community benefits in real estate projects, especially on public land… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
BAE Systems grows in Austin but demands less real estate (Austin Business Journal)
Defense contractor and longtime Austin corporate denizen BAE Systems Inc. on Oct. 4 officially opened the doors to its new $150 million home within the Parmer Austin business park.
The move from the East Austin campus it had owned to a smaller, leased site in North Austin represents a long-term pivot, said Scott Hatch, site director of what BAE Systems calls its Austin Business Center.
Through the move, BAE Systems shrunk its local footprint from roughly 539,000 square feet in East Austin to about 390,000 square feet at the new site at 825 E. Howard Lane. The relocation fits into an ongoing transition for portions of its workforce to adopt hybrid work — a trend that's top of mind for many company leaders and one that has the potential to significantly impact commercial real estate.
"This site was designed for more flexibility than our old site," Hatch said. "The ability to have more flexible work was part of the plan before the pandemic and I think the pandemic really accelerated everybody's view of how we do that and how to do that effectively."
Even with the smaller footprint, BAE Systems plans to double its Austin headcount in the coming years, from about 700 today to around 1,400… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
City seeks federal transit funds to improve east-west connections along I-35 (Austin Monitor)
The city has hopes of securing federal transportation funds intended to reconnect communities severed from economic and other opportunities by transit infrastructure, specifically Interstate 35.
Last week City Council approved a resolution to submit the Our Future 35: Connecting Equitably Study to the U.S. Department of Transportation for funding consideration as part of the new Reconnecting Communities pilot program.
The $1 billion pilot provides $250 million for planning costs and $750 million for capital projects to communities to “restore connectivity through the removal, retrofit, mitigation, or replacement of eligible transportation infrastructure.”
The resolution, which passed 8-0-1 with Council Member Mackenzie Kelly abstaining, specifies the Texas Department of Transportation’s proposed cap-and-stitch approach to lowering much of I-35. An amendment from Council Member Chito Vela directs city staff to include the entire Capital Express Central Project between U.S. Highway 290 East and State Highway 71/Ben White Boulevard in the scope of the plan for possible funding.
Vela said burying the roadway through sections of his District 4 portion of the city would greatly improve east-west access that is severely limited in areas around 51st Street and Rundberg Lane… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Buda road project causes strife among Hays, Travis county commissioners (San Antonio Express-News)
Tensions are boiling over in the Hays County Commissioners Court over a a multimillion-dollar Buda road project that is slated to help create a traffic loop around Austin. The dispute centers on a not-yet-constructed portion of State Highway 45, a four-lane highway that runs on the outskirts of Buda in Hays County and mostly through Travis County, around Austin. A 3.7-mile gap exists in Buda between where SH 45 ends at FM 1626 and then begins again at Interstate 35. If the gap is closed, it essentially would create a traffic loop around Austin. Austin is the only major metropolitan area in Texas that does not have a traffic loop. San Antonio has loops 1604 and 410.
Hays County commissioners voted 4-1 — with Judge Ruben Becerra the lone “no” vote — on Aug. 30 to approve spending $2.5 million on an engineering study to determine whether building the 3.7-mile section of roadway would be feasible. Advocates for the roadway say it will alleviate traffic for drivers in Kyle and Buda needing to get to and from Austin by providing a bypass to I-35. Opponents say it will be built over sensitive environment and could threaten the Edwards Aquifer. “The 45 connection is seen by some as very important to the regional transportation network,” said Colin Strother, a former Buda planning and zoning committee chairman. Strother supports building the roadway, since as many as 80 percent of Buda workers drive to Austin for work, but he acknowledges that “there are a lot of environmental challenges” to its construction. The roadway would cross over Onion Creek and possibly Bear Creek, as well as both the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer and the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
University of Texas Tower to receive $26M facelift, first renovation in 88 years (Houston Chronicle)
UT Tower – the most iconic and recognizable landmark looming over the University of Texas System's flagship campus in Austin – is slated for a $26 million renovation, the system's Board of Regents announced Wednesday. The project to restore the 307-foot structure's exterior and update its observation deck and carillon bells represents the first major renovation in the Tower’s 88-year history. “In the 1930s, the UT Tower was a bold statement about the enduring excellence of the University of Texas at Austin,” Board of Regents Chairman Kevin P. Eltife said in a statement. “Our board is deeply proud to support carrying that bold vision forward for generations to come.”
The restoration also will feature fresh landscaping and the beautification of areas surrounding the tower, including the main mall. “The Tower stands on the very spot where our first learning community gathered, and it endures as a beacon for truth-seekers, academic excellence and achievement,” said UT President Jay Hartzell. “I am grateful to Chairman Eltife and the regents for their incredibly generous support. Their investment will enhance and preserve the Tower’s legacy and ensure that it shines even brighter for generations to come.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
DACA remains intact as appeals court sends case challenging its legality back to lower court in Texas (Texas Tribune)
A federal appeals court on Wednesday sent a case challenging the legality of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA — a national program that provides some undocumented immigrants work permits and temporarily protects them from deportation — back to a lower court in Texas.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling that it agreed with the lower court that the implementation of DACA in 2012 was illegal — but it will keep the program in place while the lower court analyzes the latest rule the Biden administration implemented in an effort to save the program from future legal challenges.
Anticipating a loss in the appeals court, the Biden administration in August codified DACA into regulatory law and rescinded the 2012 memo by then-U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that originally created DACA. The legal move was aimed at countering the July 2021 lower court ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Houston, who said the Obama administration had illegally implemented DACA… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Federal judge orders Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to testify in an abortion lawsuit (Dallas Morning News)
A federal judge has ordered Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to testify in a high-profile abortion case, a week after the Republican reportedly fled his McKinney home to avoid being served with a subpoena. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote that Paxton needs to clarify how his office will enforce the state’s sweeping new abortion ban that carries possible penalties of prison time and six-figure fines. In late August, Texas abortion funds filed a lawsuit seeking protections to resume paying for people’s flights, hotels and other expenses to travel out of state for the procedure. The eight funds paused the work after the reversal of Roe vs. Wade, which triggered a near total abortion ban in Texas and threats of criminal prosecution from Paxton and other elected leaders.
Paxton, who is up for a third term in November, has fought testifying in the case. Last week, a process server attempted to deliver a subpoena at Paxton’s home, but wrote in an affidavit that the attorney general drove off quickly, refusing to accept the document. Paxton later said he avoided the server out of safety concerns. Initially, Pitman quashed the subpoena. But on Tuesday, he reversed course, knocking down the assertion that Paxton had been notified only at “the eleventh hour” and saying that only the attorney general can clarify the office’s conflicting approaches to the law. “In this case, Paxton has inserted himself into this dispute by repeatedly tweeting and giving interviews about the Trigger Ban,” Pitman wrote. “It is challenging to square the idea that Paxton has time to give interviews threatening prosecutions but would be unduly burdened by explaining what he means to the very parties affected by his statements,” he said. Pitman set a deadline of Oct. 11 for both sides to agree on the particulars of how Paxton will testify. Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment. His legal team can challenge the decision at the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeal… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Election officials confront a new problem: Whether they can trust their own poll workers (Politico)
Election officials are growing concerned about a new danger in November: that groups looking to undermine election results will try to install their supporters as poll workers. The frontline election workers do everything from checking people in at voting locations to helping process mail ballots — in other words, they are the face of American elections for most voters. And now, some prominent incidents involving poll workers have worried election officials that a bigger wave of trouble could be on the horizon. Michigan, in particular, has been a hotspot: a far-right candidate for governor, who lost the GOP primary, encouraged poll workers to unplug election equipment if they believed something was wrong. A Michigan county GOP organization encouraged poll workers to ignore rules barring cell phones in polling places and vote-counting centers.
And just last week, the clerk of Kent County, Mich., announced that a witness allegedly saw a poll worker inserting a USB drive into an electronic poll book — the list of registered voters that shows who has cast ballots — during the August primary, leading to a pair of felony charges. The Kent County Clerk’s office declined to comment beyond a statement issued by Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons last week, stressing that the “incident had no impact on the election,” and that that specific poll book would no longer be used in future elections. “It is kind of troubling to see, in the wake of 2020, this new element of election workers who are there to more police things …than they are to just perform the function of being an election worker and facilitating the democratic process in communities,” said Justin Roebuck, the clerk of Ottawa County, Mich. and the chair of the Michigan Council of Election Officials. Roebuck is also a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Task Force on Elections, which is working on a forthcoming report on the threats posed by bad-faith poll workers. Election officials are quick to note that the vast majority of poll workers working elections across the country are doing it for the right reasons… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Episode 167: Discussing the Austin Monitor with CEO Joel Gross
Today's episode (167)is an introduction to the Austin Monitor.
The Austin Monitor is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization covering important issues and key decisions at the intersection between the local government and the community.
Joel and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss its history, present, and future.
NOTE: A.J. serves on the Austin Monitor board as Vice-Chair.
-> EPISODE LINK <-
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