United Way for Greater Austin has named Ingrid K. Taylor as its new chief executive officer, with a March 1 start date. Taylor brings more than 20 years of nonprofit leadership experience, including positions at Ascension Texas, the University of Texas at Austin, the Texas Comptroller’s Office and the United States Senate. She also served as an elected trustee for Austin Independent School District for four years. Taylor succeeds David C. Smith, who has led the organization for the past nine years, expanding early childhood education programs and advocating for the successful Affordable Childcare Now ballot initiative in Travis County. A longtime Austin resident, Taylor holds degrees from UT-Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. United Way for Greater Austin serves Travis and Williamson counties, working to break the cycle of poverty through early childhood education, social services and advocacy. Taylor will be introduced at the organization’s annual “A Night United” event on March 1.

The city is seeking public feedback on the Austin Core Transportation Plan, a strategy aimed at enhancing transportation and mobility in and around downtown Austin that is currently under review by various city boards and commissions. The ACT Plan builds on previous initiatives and anticipates significant upcoming projects, such as I-35 Capital Express Central and Project Connect, to create a transportation framework for the downtown core. The public is encouraged to participate by providing feedback on the SpeakUp Austin website or by attending upcoming public meetings. The schedule for these presentations is as follows:

• Small Area Planning Joint Committee: Feb. 5
• Design Commission: Feb. 24
• Planning Commission (Briefing): Feb. 25
• Joint Sustainability Committee: Feb. 26
• Urban Transportation Commission: March 4
• Planning Commission (Recommendation): March 11
• Council Mobility Committee: March 20

The ACT Plan is anticipated to be presented to City Council for adoption in spring 2025.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport saw 21,762,904 passengers in 2024, marking a slight decrease from the previous year, which saw more than 22 million arriving and departing passengers. According to a press release from the city, it was the second-busiest year on record. In addition to the number of travelers, “AUS concessions delighted passengers with over 1.1 million tacos sold, 169,377 pounds of Salt Lick BBQ brisket, and 71,576 beers poured at The Beerdrop. Local flavors and merchandise continued to shine, with 9,794 Tyler’s T-shirts and 7,607 ‘Keep Austin Weird’ shirts sold.” And, bearing the mantle of the Live Music Capital airport, the arts and music program hosted 1,351 live performances and 19 art exhibits.

Organizations in Austin and Travis County will receive nearly $14 million in federal funding to support housing and services for individuals experiencing homelessness, marking the largest award to date from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care program. The funding represents a $2 million increase from last year and will support 16 projects across eight local organizations. Recipients of the grants include Caritas of Austin, the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, the Housing Authority of the City of Austin, the Housing Authority of Travis County, Integral Care, LifeWorks, the SAFE Alliance and Sunrise Community Church. The funding will support three new permanent supportive housing projects for youth and young adults, survivors of domestic violence and people with serious mental illness. These projects build on ongoing housing developments such as Espero Rutland, Pecan Gardens, Seabrook Square II and Cairn Point Cameron, which either opened or broke ground in 2024. Last week, City Council adopted a new system model outlined in ECHO’s 2024 State of the Homelessness Response System report. The model identifies the need for 4,175 new permanent supportive housing units, 550 additional shelter beds and 2,355 rapid rehousing units to address homelessness over the next decade.

Tesla has announced plans to launch its robotaxi service in Austin this June. The paid service will utilize a fleet of driverless Tesla vehicles equipped with the company’s unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology. Initially, the fleet will comprise existing Tesla models, with the specialized Cybercab expected to enter production in 2026. The move will put Tesla in competition with other autonomous vehicle companies like Waymo, which has been testing in Austin and plans to launch a service in collaboration with Uber later this year. State laws limiting regulations on autonomous vehicles have forced Austin officials to push the companies to cooperate in finding solutions for incidents where the driverless vehicles are unable to navigate emergency response scenes or other unusual conditions. Tesla has been in discussions with Austin officials to establish safety standards for its autonomous vehicles.

The Watershed Protection Department will host a virtual public meeting on Feb. 14 on its proposed ordinance to expand erosion protections along the Colorado River south of the Longhorn Dam after the approval process for the ordinance was delayed last month. The Monitor previously reported on the details of the ordinance, which would expand a 100-foot erosion hazard zone on either side of the river to 200 feet and require developers to evaluate whether any new construction in the area would fall within the new EHZ. Readers can find more information and register for the virtual meeting at this link on the Watershed Protection Department website.

At its Jan. 28 meeting, the Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit requested by the Parks and Recreation Department that would allow alcohol sales at the Waller Creek Boathouse. The issuing of the permit is part of a wider project by Parks and Rec to bring alcohol sales operating within parks into compliance with the city code, which the department discovered would be necessary during a 2020 review of then-current vendors. The change may not mean buzz for boaters, though: Perch Cafe, which had sold beer and wine along with coffee and foodstuffs at the boathouse, permanently closed last year. No other vendor has stepped in so far.

The Planning Commission voted to support historic landmark zoning designation for 610 Baylor St., also known as the Perry House, to City Council at its Jan. 28 meeting. The Monitor previously reported on the case, advanced by homeowners Hayes and Jessica Barnard through an LLC, which would add certain preservation protections and responsibilities for the Barnards in return for a property tax abatement. Planning commissioners approved the petition on the consent agenda for the meeting. Commissioner Felicity Maxwell of District 4 abstained from the vote. “I appreciate the historic preservation and fully support the work that’s been done on this house, but have strong concerns about the related tax abatement, specifically for our school district, which as we know is chronically underfunded,” Maxwell said during public comments on the consent agenda.

Though a freeze on federal grants is itself frozen for now, it’s safe to say that the landscape has changed, though the need for help funding infrastructure has not. In a moment indicative of this change, City Council moved forward with a grant request from the U.S. Department of Transportation that could award $25 million to the Bergstrom Spur Trails to Transit project, with one key difference. “Delete the words ‘Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity’ and add the words ‘Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development,” said Mayor Kirk Watson, striking the former name of the discretionary grant program from the resolution.

Despite pleas from about two dozen people to reject the two items, City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to authorize an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station to conduct a study of wildland fire fuels on properties managed by the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve. The agreement relates to an update to a study done by Baylor University in 2009 on those properties. Council allocated up to $198,467 for the project for a term of three years.

Council also authorized contracts with four companies “for vegetation management for wildfire mitigation.” Although the agenda indicates that the total contracts will not exceed $7.5 million, only $200,000 is available in the Parks and Recreation Department’s operating budget. “Funding for the remaining contract term is contingent upon available funding in future budgets,” according to the agenda. The prescribed burns done by these contractors are far more controversial than the study.

Austin ISD student testing scores are returning to prepandemic levels and are higher than the state, peer-districts and the nationwide average, according to results from a reading and math assessment given to a sample of fourth and eighth grade students nationwide. The National Assessment of Educational Progress “results are an encouraging sign that Austin ISD has a strong academic foundation and learning is on the rise,” a news release from the school district said. Specifically, it pointed out, “The district scored significantly higher than the state in eighth-grade math and both reading levels. Austin ISD was significantly higher than national public schools in fourth-grade math. The district was significantly higher than the larger cities grouping and all Texas peer districts (Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth) in all grades and levels tested.” However, marginalized and economically disadvantaged students still have lower scores. “The council applauds large city schools for their improvement in academic performance and the progress they are making in turning to pre-pandemic levels thanks to target investments that have addressed setbacks and driven recovery,” said Ray Hart, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools. For more details on the results, click here for the district’s report.

At its meeting last week, the Ethics Review Commission affirmed chair Michael Lovins’ earlier determination that the commission lacks jurisdiction over a complaint filed in December by Jeb Boyt against recent City Council candidate Gary Bledsoe. The December complaint alleged violations of Chapters 392 and 393 of the Texas Transportation Code, Section 39.02 of the Texas Penal Code and Section 4 of the city charter. Lovins decided that the alleged violations did not fall within the commission’s jurisdiction, which is limited to specific sections of the city code and charter. During public comments at the start of the meeting, Boyt said Bledsoe had accepted $61,000 in city funds as part of the Austin Fair Campaign Chapter and had used the money to print oversized signs that were placed in public right-of-way areas. The commission was required to review the decision and voted unanimously to uphold, emphasizing that the complainant bears the responsibility to identify specific violations that fall within the commission’s jurisdiction. Commissioners noted that the dismissal does not prevent Boyt from refiling a more specific complaint in the future.