Tag Archives: Austin City Council
Council to reconsider changes to Zilker Botanical Garden agreement
Zilker Botanical Garden Conservancy and the Austin Parks and Recreation Department released a memo Friday detailing a plan for the future management of Zilker Botanical Garden. The additional detail comes in response to a request last month from Council Member Kathie…
Parks • By Ryan Thornton • Aug 8, 2019
Showdown over hotel tax increases could put city and county at odds
A week after the Travis County Commissioners Court voted to explore tapping a 2 percent increase in the local Hotel Occupancy Tax for its own uses, Austin City Council appears set to claim the same tax increase to fund an…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Aug 7, 2019
Council likely to delay vote on street impact fees
City Council will likely allow two more weeks for dialogue before the Austin Transportation Department begins crafting details of its street impact fee program. With Council expected to adopt street impact fees in January 2020, Council Member Ann Kitchen said…
Planning • By Ryan Thornton • Aug 7, 2019
Updated: Cronk proposes $4.2 billion budget, more help for homeless
“This year, our mission is to build on these successes while at the same time bracing our city’s budget against the future impacts of the state’s decision to lower the cap on local property tax revenue growth,” City Manager Spencer…
Budget • By Jo Clifton • Aug 5, 2019
Council, neighbors plan meetings on how to manage South Austin shelter
City leaders and residents are planning a series of meetings in the coming weeks to help them move forward and provide some clarity on efforts to manage the city’s growing homeless population. The Aug. 8 City Council meeting – the…
Austin • By Chad Swiatecki • Jul 29, 2019
Cronk announces new timeline for code rewrite
City Manager Spencer Cronk announced this week that Council should expect to first vote on the new Land Development Code in early December – not October, as proposed by Council in May. According to the newly released timeline, Cronk has…
Land Development Code • By Jo Clifton • Jul 25, 2019
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Solution to boost revenue for transit leads to broad debate over city signage policy
The Austin City Council will be considering limited exceptions to a city ban on off-premise advertising at its Aug. 22 meeting in order to allow Austin public schools and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority to display simple, non-electronic advertisements at…
City Council • By Ryan Thornton • Jul 25, 2019
Packed homelessness forum calls for more shelters, support: 'We are dealing with human beings here'
As the city adjusts to new rules for panhandling, camping or sitting or lying in public, the Downtown Austin Alliance hosted a forum Tuesday to discuss the road ahead for dealing with homelessness and plans to expand emergency shelter access…
Austin • By Andrew Weber, KUT • Jul 24, 2019
City's new historic preservation grants offer more eligibility, higher limits
Nearly a year after City Council directed staff to increase eligibility for sites in need of funding for preservation of historic structures, a new program will greatly increase funding to those properties. The Heritage Grant Program opened its application process…
Preservation • By Chad Swiatecki • Jul 24, 2019
City finds almost 7,000 unregistered short-term rentals, with enforcement on the way
A vendor hired by the city to determine the number of short-term rental properties active on platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO told the Austin Monitor there are close to 11,000 operators, with less than a quarter of them licensed…
Housing • By Chad Swiatecki • Jul 23, 2019
Reporter's Notebook: Hearsay and opinion
Careful what you read on the internet, folks… Capital Metro’s current incarnation of Project Connect is no different from anything else the agency ever does: complicated, controversial and confusing. Time, however, is running out for the community and the agency…
Reporters' Notebook • By Austin Monitor • Jul 22, 2019
Reports: Running for office is expensive
Mayor Steve Adler’s campaign still owes him more than $449,000 from loans he has made to his campaign starting when he first ran in 2014. When that race was over, the Adler campaign reported owing the candidate more than $418,000.…
