TipSheet: City Council, 8.10.17

City Council will hold its regular meeting again today, and here are the things we have our eye on. With planned absences from Mayor Steve Adler and Council Member Pio Renteria, this meeting will probably be a short one that avoids the bigger issues, but we’ll be there anyway. In the interest of space, we’ve decided not to post the entire agenda. The Office of the City Clerk posts a copy on its website, here.

10. Approve adoption of the Aquatic Master Plan as developed by Parks and Recreation Department.

Monitor’s Take: Oh boy. Puzzle-solver Adler called the city’s pool situation a “near impossible issue” if that’s any indication of how thorny this plan has become. Today, we are expecting a continuation of Tuesday’s debate over whether to postpone the plan – which has been years in the making – in order to figure out some other path for the city’s aquatic future.

12. Approve a resolution authorizing the City Manager to allow deployment of sidewalk-based personal delivery robot demonstration projects within the city limits of Austin, under conditions determined by the City Traffic Engineer.

Monitor’s Take: Aw, we’ve been waiting for these lil’ robot deliverers for a while, and we hope this is the week that they finally join us. What could possibly go wrong?

15. Approve a resolution accepting the recommendations of the City Manager Search Advisory Task Force concerning a City Manager recruitment profile and additional Task Force activities, and defining the City Manager selection process.

Monitor’s Take: Over the past few months, the City Manager Search Advisory Task Force has been hard at work. Today, Council is asked to accept the result of some of that work – a profile of our dream city manager – and give the task force the OK to (confidentially) interview the final candidates for the job.

19. NPA-2017-0009.01 – 1139 ½ Poquito Street – Conduct a public hearing and approve an ordinance amending Ordinance No. 20011213-041, the Central East Austin Neighborhood Plan, an element of the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan, to change the land use designation on the future land use map (FLUM) on property locally known as 1139 ½ Poquito Street (Boggy Creek Watershed) from Single Family land use to Multifamily land use.

20. C14-2017-0013 – 1139 ½ Poquito Street – District 3 – Conduct a public hearing and approve an ordinance amending City Code Title 25 by rezoning property locally known as 1139 ½ Poquito Street (Boggy Creek Watershed) from family residence-neighborhood plan (SF-3-NP) combining district zoning to multifamily residence moderate-high density-conditional overlay-neighborhood plan (MF-4-CO-NP) combining district zoning.

Monitor’s Take: This case has an interesting history. The property was mistakenly downzoned 16 years ago, according to staff and the Planning Commission, but neighborhood leaders don’t feel a rezoning is warranted, despite what is currently on the lot. Now Council will consider that rezoning, probably, and the compromise that came out of the Planning Commission.

28. Conduct a public hearing and consider a resolution adopting the recommendations of the Electric Utility Commission Resource Planning Working Group for the Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan, including long-range planning through 2027.

Monitor’s Take: Though the plan is to hold off on adopting the plan until Adler and Renteria are back on the dais, we will still be tuning in to see what’s up, as there is still a presentation planned for sometime after 4 p.m. For the thin slice of humanity that won’t be watching, but can’t wait until Friday morning, here are the recommendations from the Electric Utility Commission working group.

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