Austin, Monitored: I-35 park plan, the last BLM settlement and DB90 changes on the way?

Austin moves forward with plan for parks over I-35

From Nathan Bernier, KUT News:

Austin City Council has approved paying for infrastructure that would allow for parks over I-35, a plan made possible by a state project to widen and lower the freeway.

Council members voted Thursday to pay $104 million for support columns that would allow decks to be installed over I-35 from Cesar Chavez to Seventh streets and 11th to 12th streets.

The council also gave the OK to build columns for a pair of smaller, 300-foot-long stitches from 41st Street to the Red Line.

The overall proposal, advanced by Council Member Zo Qadri, is less than half the size of the full 26-acre vision originally presented to the City Council.

THIS WEEK AT CITY COUNCIL

Changes to come for DB90?

By the time you’re reading this, you can head over to the Council message board and odds are Mayor Kirk Watson will have posted a draft resolution to make changes to the DB90 density bonus program that seemingly everyone on the dais agrees are needed. At the start of public comment and discussion on the contentious rezoning of the Acacia Cliffs apartment complex in northwest Austin, Watson said he’d be unveiling a potential fix for the program that he admitted wasn’t performing anywhere close to what was intended when it was adopted early last year.

“I have been working and cajoling and hoping and begging that we figure out a way that we achieve our positive goal, our well-motivated goals for DB90, and mitigate or eliminate the pain that DB90 has caused,” he said. “When you try to fix things that had been broken before, it’s not always gonna work. It’s not always gonna be perfect.”

Discussion on Thursday focused on how the vast majority of DB90 cases are concentrated in District 1 and District 3, with new projects typically failing to produce the desired amount of affordable housing units. In acknowledgement of that shortfall, Council changed the program late last year.

Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes signaled a need for future density bonus cases to replace all existing affordable units.

“Hearing the concerns from our community, I too want to ensure that we are updating our programs, that we’re calibrating it, pending the feedback that we’ve heard about these programs. We’ve had a number of DB90 cases, particularly on the east side,” she said. “We’d love to see an update to that program. And I’m particularly interested in looking at the one-for-one replacement on affordable units.”

— Chad Swiatecki

City settles final lawsuit stemming from 2020 BLM protests

The city of Austin will pay $4.5 million to Samuel Kirsch for injuries he sustained during the police response to 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

City Council on Thursday approved the settlement amount, with Council Member Mike Siegel noting that the case marks the last of nearly two dozen lawsuits brought by plaintiffs who were injured by Austin Police’s use of “less-lethal” beanbag munitions in May 2020.

Kirsch was shot in the face, resulting in the loss of an eye and multiple facial fractures.

“I will now have to live the rest of my life with only one eye and still with constant nerve pain and balance issues,” Kirsch told the Council. “I want to thank the city of Austin for finally offering me restitution, but even as I move on with my life you all, as our elected policymakers, are stuck here with some serious questions to reckon with as we are once again under a Trump presidency.”

Ahead of the vote, Siegel said he’s committed to working with his colleagues to ensure that individuals can protest peacefully without fear of police violence. “I’m thankful we can provide Mr. Kirsch with some monetary compensation, even if what he lost was priceless,” he said.

Thursday’s settlement brings to the total amount paid by the city to plaintiffs injured during the 2020 protests to more than $26 million.

— Amy Smith

TRE’d lightly

Not to discount the thought and effort that went into crafting the decision tree tool included in backup for Thursday’s City Council meeting, but for all appearances, it looks likely that voters will decide on whether to increase city property taxes above the caps put in place by the state this November. Council didn’t vote to put a tax rate election on the ballot, but did approve a framework for deciding when and how to have a tax rate election.

Council members stressed during discussion about the resolution (and amendment from Council Member Mike Siegel), that the intent was to create a consistent, transparent process to guide future decisions on the proposed election, as well as those that may be needed in the future. The resolution directs the city manager to propose an annual budget that does not exceed the voter-approved tax rate but allows for the possibility of a tax rate election, or TRE, when additional investment needs are identified. In addition, TREs will be generally limited to once every four years, unless triggered by a financial emergency or an unexpected funding loss due to state or federal actions. Any proposed election must clearly outline what services would be funded with the additional revenue and what would happen if the measure fails.

And there was also that decision tree, which was thrown into the mix at a recent Audit and Finance Committee meeting.

Siegel’s amendment removed a specific constraint from the resolution that specified “a TRE should not be used to address base cost drivers but can be proposed to address identified gaps in service and new or expanded services.” As he explained on the Council message board, Siegel sees employee salaries and other base cost drivers as worthy of coverage by a TRE, should those expenses contribute to future budget shortfalls.

— Chad Swiatecki

Vape fear

The City Council moved forward on an effort to ban the sale of synthetic nicotine products and e-cigarettes within 1,000 feet of a public or private school or daycare.

Citing the dangers of e-cigarettes among young people, Council Member Krista Laine’s first resolution directs the city manager to explore options to regulate the sale of such products and to propose amendments to the Land Development Code to prohibit their sale near schools.

Several speakers spoke in support of the measure, including Betsy Jones of Texans for Safe and Drug-Free Youth and the Austin Drug-Free Youth Coalition. “Research tells us that greater access to substances equals greater use of those substances,” she said, noting the variety of flashy marketing tactics used to target young people.

As the resolution states, “The adolescent brain does not fully develop until about the age of 25 years old, and nicotine exposure during adolescence can harm the developing brain and cause addiction.” Children under the age of 18 make up 17 percent of Austin’s population, the resolution further notes.

In her remarks before the vote, Laine said that during her many years of working with schools in the Austin area, “the issue of vaping on campus has come up consistently. Our kids are impacted by the availability of e-cigarettes in countless ways – from negative health impacts to harsh state-mandated disciplinary measures.” She added she is most worried about the state’s disciplinary requirements because they often lead to the school-to-prison pipeline.

— Amy Smith

ELSEWHERE IN THE NEWS

Austin parks took a tumble in the Trust for Public Lands ParkScore report this year. The annual ranking evaluates cities’ park systems based on “access, investment, amenities, acreage and equity,” according to KXAN.

The Texas House has passed a bill that would prevent cities (like Austin) using public funds to support abortion seekers.

And, yeah, Tesla robotaxis are coming to Austin.

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