The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority welcomed its newest board member on Wednesday morning. But before new Travis County appointee John Langmore took his oath of office, CTRMA board Chair Ray Wilkerson showered his predecessor, Charles Heimsath, with praise and more than a handful of souvenirs. “It’s tough to say goodbye to a board member, especially when you’ve worked so close together,” Wilkerson said before handing Heimsath a framed proclamation honoring his service, a framed portrait of the board at the MoPac Improvement Project’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, and a state flag that had flown over the Capitol (courtesy of state Rep. Celia Israel). “Wow, awesome,” Heimsath, who had served on the board since 2011, said with some gravity as he was handed the flag. Before taking one last group photo with the board and Executive Director Mike Heiligenstein, Heimsath remarked, “I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished. It hasn’t been without controversy, but we stayed true to our course and have delivered exceptional roadways throughout central Texas, and I’m really proud of that.”

The Travis County Commissioners Court postponed a vote on Tuesday to release $6.6 million in certificates of obligation that would partially fund a brand-new facility for female inmates at the county jail complex in Del Valle. County Judge Sarah Eckhardt’s decision to delay the action came after activists showed up to oppose the plans, which have changed to include more capacity than previously expected. Originally, the new facility was slated to contain 336 beds. That number has since grown to 411. Senior planner Mark Gilbert explained the new number is based on recent modeling that showed the share of female inmates increasing, even as the total jail population is expected to remain relatively stable. Currently, women’s housing and other programs are spread across four different buildings at the Del Valle campus. The new facility, whose total price tag stands at $97 million, would bring all of that under one roof. “This is not about quantity, this is about quality, and it’s about helping women get the programs and the support and the medical needs that they need,” Sheriff Sally Hernandez told the court. But citing statistics that show crime rates largely trending downward, Doug Jones of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition asserted that the court should prioritize diversion programs over increasing jail capacity. “What we are looking for is not a new jail facility,” he said. “We’re looking for a commitment to seriously reducing the rate of incarceration inside this safe county.” Eckhardt said she would bring the decision back before the court next week, along with other related considerations that she pledged will make up a “multipronged approach” to the issue.

Vowing to “set the record straight,” the Austin Neighborhoods Council released an official statement on Draft 3 of CodeNEXT Tuesday, saying the group “believes it continues to pose significant threats to the homeowners, renters, and businesses that make up Austin’s neighborhoods” and countering reports that it was relieved by the latest iteration of the Land Development Code rewrite. Specifically, the statement to the press calls out the ability to divide lots that are 5,000 square feet or larger, potentially doubling density in “Blackland, Bouldin, Cherrywood, Crestview, and Tarrytown.” According to ANC, “The value of the above land will soar as a result, and with that rise in value will come a dramatic jump in property-tax assessments throughout Austin. Homeowners who choose not to demolish, subdivide, and sell will be punished with property taxes even higher than those they are now paying, and local rental rates will follow suit.” The statement also refutes claims that the plan would lead to the construction of new, moderately priced housing, saying that it incentivizes demolition of existing affordable housing, ultimately leading to the acceleration of displacement in the city.

Precourt Sports Ventures, the group attempting to move a professional soccer team to Austin, appears to be moving on from its ambitions to build a soccer stadium on Austin parkland.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Precourt says it plans to continue its Austin ambitions, but it did so with no mention of Roy G. Guerrero Colorado River Park, the East Austin parkland that is still under consideration as a possible site for a proposed 20,000-seat stadium. The statement came just hours before the Parks and Recreation Board was set to consider a resolution asking City Council to remove Guerrero Park from stadium consideration, suggesting the for-profit group is bowing to objections from East Austin residents over private use of city property.

The statement:

Precourt Sports Ventures continues to work with the Austin community to secure an appropriate urban core site for a soccer-specific stadium that will serve as the home of Austin’s first major league professional sports franchise. We announced our serious interest to work with Austin prior to the start of the 2017 playoffs, an announcement that embodied risk, urgency, and a genuine desire to work with Austin to find the right site.

With the right site, we can build a world-class, privately financed $200 million soccer park and grounds. As we have said from the onset of this exploratory process, a location in the vibrant urban core where people live, work, and play is of paramount importance. This stadium location is a critical driver to the club’s long-term success.

Based on the direction of the City of Austin Council and staff, we are conducting due diligence on a variety of sites, including city-owned parkland and city-owned land (non-parkland) suggested by the City on December 14, 2017 (Council Resolution No. 20171109-046). Independently, we also continue to explore a select list of privately held parcels.

The initial list of sites provided by the city contains a variety of options, and we continue to carefully analyze each site recommended by the City. We started the process in earnest with Butler Shores because we were given early indications from city leaders that it is a viable, under-utilized site.

Precourt Sports Ventures’ extensive due diligence work on the Butler Shores site included architectural renderings, landscape design, light, sound, parking, traffic and engineering studies. Understanding that parkland is a treasured community asset, and the creation of a successful soccer park and grounds within the landscape of parkland is a responsibility we take seriously, we also began to develop a package of community benefits tied to the creation of a soccer park on parkland. Based on our analysis, a public-private partnership of this nature could deliver community benefits in excess of $400 million in the club’s first 25 years, in the form of community investments, park improvements, soccer wellness and programming, wages and construction services, among others. If an MLS club were to play at a soccer park and grounds on city-owned parkland, the Austin community would also benefit from the broader social and economic impact. We encourage the City of Austin to independently verify this.

We are still in the process of identifying the right stadium site in Austin, TX. We recognize some would prefer if this process were to move faster, however we believe that ultimately there is value in being thorough as opposed to being fast. And although we are willing to dedicate significant time and expense in this effort, we are not in a position to move to Austin if the right site is not identified.

Additionally, we have engaged and hired a team of experts to help bring an Austin team to life, including: JP Morgan for financial expertise; Armbrust & Brown for legal and real estate counsel; CAA/ICON for project management oversight and feasibility; Gensler for sports architecture and design; Elizabeth Christian Public Relations for local media relations; two local branding and advertising agencies; local political advisors and consultants; among others.

“As we continue a dialogue with Austin about possible locations for a soccer facility in Austin’s urban core, we welcome new ideas and community input before any further decisions are made or actions are taken.

Elected officials and community leaders, as well as thousands of citizens, have repeatedly stated that they support the concept of establishing a home for Major League Soccer in Austin. We are hopeful that, if in the context of this conversation the best site is either parkland or city-owned land, the will of the people, across a spectrum of perspectives and districts, would be heard.

 

In November, the Cultural Arts Division announced the open call for its 2018 Faces of Austin short film competition, and now 13 finalists have been chosen from over 70 submissions. The 13 films will be screened as part of the South by Southwest Film Festival. They will also air periodically throughout the year on ATXN, the city of Austin’s television station. Four of the films have been chosen for extra consideration by this year’s celebrity judge, Macon Blair, a director and actor who lives here in Austin. He will choose one film to win the Judge’s Choice Award of $1,000. The semifinalists will receive $750, and the other nine directors will receive $500. Awards will be announced at the SXSW screening, which will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 10, at Austin Film Society Cinema, 6406 N. Interstate 35. The screening event is free and open to the public.

The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors on Monday authorized $390,000 to build a trail connecting Austin Community College’s new San Gabriel Campus in Leander to the MetroRail station just a quarter-mile away. Of the nine bids received for the work, Clearfield Construction came in the lowest. The trail’s price tag includes a bridge crossing over the north fork branch of Brushy Creek. The city of Leander will chip in $92,000 for the trail that will provide access to the new campus for riders on the Red Line, a route that, according to the most recent ridership report, provided 3,200 weekday trips in the month of December.

In 2014, boosters of Project Connect’s original light rail proposal campaigned under the slogan of “Rail or Fail.” Now, just four years after that vision went down in flames, voters might get another chance to weigh in on the renewed search for high-capacity transit investments. At Monday’s Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors meeting, Todd Hemingson, vice president of strategic planning and development, noted that agency staff would like to seamlessly move from the Project Connect planning phase to preliminary engineering and the feasibility studies of its proposed routes as mandated under the National Environmental Policy Act. “That takes additional funding,” he told the board. “We, of course, are strapped for cash ourselves, so one thought was, ‘Would it make sense to have a request for some bond dollars for that NEPA and preliminary engineering work?’” That would require asking City Council to place the request before voters as early as this November, a contingency that Council members Delia Garza and Ann Kitchen suggested should be considered sooner rather than later. After Chair Wade Cooper pointed out that the board will discuss Project Connect during a March 9 work session, Kitchen signaled her desire to have the board take action on the matter at its voting session on March 26. “I think it would have more weight if it’s an official request to the City Council to add it,” she explained.

Early voting for the March 6 Republican and Democratic primaries started last Tuesday, and as of last night, 37,933 people have voted in Travis County, which is just 5.16 percent of the total number of registered voters in the county. Breaking down the turnout by party lines, 27,647 votes have been cast on the Democratic side (3.76 percent) and 10,286 Republican voters have shown up (1.40 percent). The busiest early voting location has been the Randalls at Research Boulevard and Braker Lane in Northwest Austin; the slowest early voting location has been the Del Valle Independent School District administration building, which has seen only 27 voters. The last day of early voting is this Friday. You can find voters’ guides here or follow the links in our previous whisper for more information about individual races.

A partnership that is expected to reduce or eliminate administrative paper use by the city of Austin is getting underway with a public feedback process that looks at how local government relies on paper, and how its services and operations can be better delivered. The Austin Tech Alliance is the main driver behind the new “paper census” program, which will use a proprietary technology to combine resident feedback and artificial intelligence and gain insights into how residents and city departments interact. The feedback is open through March 23 at Papercensus.org. ATA representatives will also gather input in person at community events in the coming weeks. In addition, those who would like to participate can text their feedback to 806-680-6802. The move to eliminate or drastically reduce the city’s use of paper is a component of the Smart Austin Strategic Roadmap that was approved by City Council last year. Once processes that can be improved and streamlined are compiled after the census, city managers will assess them based on cost, impact to residents, potential savings and potential for volunteers from the tech community to contribute to the process.

A pilot program that brought later outdoor concerts to the Red River Cultural District on weekends appears to be headed toward becoming a permanent city policy. Staff members in the Economic Development Department are careful with their words regarding progress on the program, with a memo last week from Interim Director Rebecca Giello laying out next steps ahead of its April 30 sunset. The memo spells out that department staff will compile data and conduct a stakeholder input process through the end of March, with final recommendations coming afterward. The recommendations from the Music and Entertainment Division are expected to be presented for possible approval to the Music Commission on April 2, with City Council getting a chance to consider them at a meeting proposed for April 12. A potentially alarming line in the memo – “… staff does not anticipate the need for additional extensions of the pilot period” – actually points to the program becoming permanent rather than subject to continual six-month renewals. Club owners with outdoor stages began campaigning for the program in late 2016 because early noise curfews on weekends limited their ability to generate revenue from alcohol sales during busy late-night hours. The program kicked off as a six-month trial on May 1 of last year and was given a six-month renewal in the fall.

Although Butler Shores Metropolitan Park was abandoned as a site for a proposed professional Major League Soccer stadium, other sites have continued as possibilities, including Roy G. Guerrero Colorado River Park. Based on Precourt Sports Ventures’ original plan for a 20,000-seat stadium, Malcolm Yates, the chair of the East Riverside/Oltorf Combined neighborhood planning contact team explained at the Feb. 21 meeting of the Environmental Commission that the group would require 34.75 acres to comfortably situate a stadium and the accompanying parking lot. According to him, “no matter where you put this 35-acre footprint, the channel of the Country Club Creek would need to be shifted” to accommodate the stadium. Doing so, as the city of Austin has already experienced, “would change the hydrology of the entire Guerrero Park” and could lead to additional erosion problems, he said. Yates suggested that the commission request an environmental impact study before the location for this soccer stadium is determined. Gordon Maxim-Kelley, the president of the Waterloo Disc Golf Club, which often plays in Guerrero Park, seconded Yates’ dissent for building the stadium on city parkland saying, “We are very much against the soccer stadium coming.” He explained that putting the stadium in that location would require the city to remove three disc golf holes and ruin the course. The location in question is on the west side of the park, which gives parkgoers a sweeping view of the city skyline and is “the same view that Major League Soccer would like for themselves,” said Maxim-Kelley. He acknowledged, “I think most disc golfers would love to see soccer come to Austin. I would too.” However, he is wary of soccer detracting from other amenities already in the park.

Those who were looking forward to the Traffic Jam this past weekend still have something to look forward to, because the event has been rescheduled to March 28. As a reminder, the workshop offers the public a chance to talk to transportation staff about transportation initiatives underway and give feedback on proposals from the Austin Transportation Department and Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The rescheduled event will take place on March 28, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Austin Central Library.