Cure boundaries

Council looks to roll back CURE zoning

Driven by concerns over gentrification, City Council is poised to do away with the final remnants of a policy that was put in place two decades ago to encourage redevelopment downtown. The central urban redevelopment (CURE) combining district that Council…

New rules for Central Health don't satisfy critics

The Travis County Commissioners Court has concluded another chapter in the extended controversy over Central Health, but one of the hospital district’s lead critics says he is not ready to quit. On Tuesday, the court amended the district’s financial policy…

Environmental Commission stalls on CodeNEXT 2.0

CodeNEXT once again took center stage at a meeting of the Environmental Commission earlier this month, when commissioners refrained from recommending the second draft of the Land Development Code rewrite, with a hope that they would have comments prepared just…

Austin loosens rules for designating buildings historic

It may be easier for properties in Austin to be zoned historic now. Until a few weeks ago, if a property owner filed written opposition to the designation, the city’s Historic Landmark Commission needed a two-thirds vote to override those…

CodeNEXT density increase could mean parking requirement decrease

The spirit of road rage sometimes goes beyond Austin’s congested highways and injects itself into debates revolving around the city’s transit problems. That angst could be felt at the Oct. 10 Planning Commission meeting, when staff presented how parking requirements…

Mentors help drive attendance at Austin schools

Students in Central Texas miss more days of school than kids in any other part of the state. Around 10 percent of local students are chronically absent, meaning they miss more than 18 school days a year. A quarter of…

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Urban Transportation Commission reacts to Capital Metro route changes

In September, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority informed the Austin public that there would be a major restructuring of citywide bus lines to kick-start the Connections 2025 transit plan. To elaborate on the exact changes, on Oct. 10, Caitlin D’Alton,…

Commission considers a house by other name

Much like Tara and Wuthering Heights, historic homes in Austin have names of their own. But a recent bid for immortality on Judges Hill at the Historic Landmark Commission revealed the naming process might stand to have a few established…

City debuts robot car roadmap

The dawn of the robot car future is just around the corner but the full obsolescence of human drivers is still decades away, according to Austin Transportation Director Robert Spillar. More specifically, Spillar told the Mobility Transformation Advisory Council earlier…

Texas Disposal Systems unhappy with proposed new lobbying rules

City Council is scheduled to take up a recommendation from city staff at its meeting on Thursday that will make changes to the longtime Anti-Lobbying Ordinance in response to problems the city has encountered with its waste contracts. The main…

Wagner accused of misusing city resources

The Office of the City Auditor’s investigative unit has issued a report concluding that a city employee who serves as an Austin Independent School District board trustee has misused city resources. According to the report, which was released Thursday, Trustee…

Reporter's Notebook: Sticking with what we know

Such a tease… Travis County Commissioner Jeff Travillion’s recent appointment to the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors was probably all but guaranteed given the circumstances – his avowed interest in transit on top of the need to politically…