At the April 24 meeting of the Historic Landmark Commission, Amy Thompson spoke as a concerned East Austin resident to offer up a “preservation postmortem” during Citizen’s Communication in the hopes of changing how demolitions move forward in East Austin. In February, a demolition permit was released for the home at 1409 East Third Street. “Before you panic about me bringing up an old cold case, I’m doing this as a case study to bring up a particular challenge we have with researching residents and architecturally interesting homes on the east side,” said Thompson. She explained that, though staff and neighbors had a sense of the history based on its Masonic associations, they weren’t able to prove that it was built by a group of Masons until two weeks after the hearing. The home was built by the Third Street Masons – a group responsible for building such things as the entrance to the UT Tower and the stonework at Pease Mansion, among other local landmarks. “It is incredibly hard to document the lives of people who have been historically marginalized. We simply cannot do it in 30 to 60 days,” she concluded, asking that the commission consider using the full allotment of time to hold demolition permits for structures identified as historic in the 2016 East Austin Historic Resources Survey. “It takes so much,” she said. “These histories aren’t written down, we have to find oral histories … and you can’t do that in 60 days with volunteers.”

The pedicab driver who stopped a downtown sexual assault last year has been officially recognized by the Austin Police Department. On Thursday, the department awarded Luis Palos with a Distinguished Service citation for his help in stopping a sexual assault and identifying a suspect in the case. Nearly a year ago, in May 2016, Palos was driving a pedicab downtown when he heard a scream and saw a man sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Palos not only stopped the encounter by offering the two a ride, but would later chase the suspect into a nearby creek bed and have passerby call 911. APD later identified the suspect after finding his wallet in the creek bed.

The city’s of Austin’s Cemetery Master Plan, which was approved by City Council in September 2015, earned another accolade last week. The American Planning Association announced Austin is a 2017 National Planning Achievement Award recipient. That makes it one of 12 cities recognized this year for outstanding work in urban design. The plan will revitalize the city’s five cemeteries to make sure they are accessible to the community, incorporate green infrastructure and preserve the city’s history. “The (master plan) has united our community around a vision for how to preserve and activate these unique and complex spaces,” said Kimberly McNeeley, the acting director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, in a press release last week. The first project, a $2 million revamp of Oakwood Cemetery, was delayed late last year due to unmarked graves found underneath the chapel building. Austin will be honored along with the other winners at a luncheon in New York City on May 8, and will also be featured in next month’s issue of Planning magazine. We’re sure you’re all subscribers…

Though it will still be several months until any decisions are made, budget season is upon us. City Council has slowly been working through the upcoming budget, which looks like it may be a doozy. And, the Austin Monitor would like you to remember that you can play along at home! Each year, the city’s Budget Office puts together a plan to help get residents involved in the process. This year, that strategy involves a revamp of the city’s budget simulator that allows anyone to play around with increasing and decreasing funding in 11 city departments funded by the General Fund to illustrate the real-time change to the budget, taxes and fees. There are also snapshots of the current state of different city budgets. For all that fun, and a bonus video, head over to the city’s website.

The Environmental Commission received a legislative update at its meeting Wednesday evening. The update focused primarily on legislation related to the Watershed Protection Department. According to Chuck Lesniak, the department’s environmental officer, Watershed Protection is tracking approximately 115 bills at the Texas State Legislature, with about a dozen of those bills being looked at with a closer eye. “We keep a top three list (and) we share them with our government relations office and our lobby team to help us track (of them),” explained Lesniak. The top three bills of concern – while the list changes on a weekly basis, he said – are House Bill 2851, HB 898, and HB 1135/Senate Bill 1385. SB 1385, which requires that more than 55 percent of a property remain undeveloped, is the only bill of the three to have a Senate companion. The regular session ends May 29.

Legislation that would prevent the city of Austin, or other cities, from adopting fees linked to new construction for the purpose of funding subsidized housing is on its way to the Texas House of Representatives floor. House Bill 1449 by state Rep. Ron Simmons (R-Carrollton) won unanimous approval from the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this month and is set for the House calendar on Tuesday. Senate Bill 852, a companion piece of legislation by state Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound), is in the Senate Committee Business & Commerce, where the House bill is likely to go after it wins full House approval. Although City Council had merely discussed the possibility of enacting a linkage fee, Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo expressed frustration that a tool they had merely thought about using would be removed from their toolbox. The Simmons legislation specifically excludes density bonuses, which the city uses on a regular basis.

The Texas House of Representatives’ debate on the state’s “sanctuary cities” bill – Senate Bill 4 – raged on well into Wednesday night. After fending off hordes of amendments, Republicans were able to pass the proposal punishing jurisdictions that choose to limit cooperation with federal immigration officials yesterday. The final vote was 94-53. In a conference call Thursday, the ACLU of Texas condemned the “draconian state legislation” that it said would increase instances of racial profiling, damage public safety and tie law enforcement hands. City Council Member Greg Casar added, “The Legislature is attempting to blackmail cities into violating our residents’ constitutional rights. We must not comply with this unconstitutional, discriminatory and dangerous mandate. We will fight this bill to the end — at City Hall, in the courts, and protesting in the streets.” On Wednesday, Mayor Steve Adler, who was in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, said he was told by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that Austin isn’t technically a “sanctionable” city by federal standards. Adler also said he suspected the law, if passed, would quickly draw a legal challenge.

The search for the next Don Pitts is on. That was the common refrain in Austin music circles this week when word got out that the city of Austin has posted the job opening and description for the position akin to the one Pitts held until earlier this year when he resigned as manager of the city’s Music and Entertainment Division. His resignation came after he was put on administrative leave over a convoluted investigation into his failure to report and discipline an employee who was found to have received $2,500 in city funds for her own benefit. The listing for the new music program manager makes the position seem largely business and strategy focused. Its pay structure for candidates with mid-level qualifications puts it at almost $93,000 annually, which is just below the $95,180 Pitts was scheduled to earn prior to his resignation, which goes into effect today.

Amid the flurry of activity at the Capitol this week, yesterday the Texas Senate approved SB 693, which would require that new school buses are outfitted with three-point seat belts. The provision comes courtesy of state Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston), and now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration. Garcia’s office pointed out in a Wednesday press release that the law simply holds buses to the same standards as “all motor coaches nationwide.” Furthermore, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends all school buses be equipped with the 30-year-old technology. “New buses equipped with seat belts will save lives,” Garcia said. “We can’t wait any longer.”

Occasionally we here at the Austin Monitor get to put down the notebook and keyboard and play expert for an hour or so. Make that expert/referee, sometimes, since on Tuesday I moderated a panel assembled by the city of Austin’s Music and Entertainment Division that looked at the pros and cons of a pair of city policies that will affect the local live music scene: the so-called “agent of change” policy and a proposed entertainment license required of all music venues in Austin. This is an issue I’ve been covering closely for the Monitor, along with other policies and pressures that are making life tough for venue operators and the musicians playing for them. With guests Kim Levinson (vice president of Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association), composer and Music Commissioner Graham Reynolds, and venue co-owner Will Bridges, we spent an hour looking at the new rules from the view of music enthusiasts and wonks alike. You can watch the session here and participate in a series of upcoming presentations on the issues scheduled to take place throughout May.

Work on the Mopac Improvement Project is slowly trudging to its long-delayed completion, but for many commuters in that part of town, construction-related delays will only shift to the north a few miles. On Wednesday, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority Board of Directors voted unanimously to exercise its right to build the 183 North Mobility Project, which will add six new lanes to the eight-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 183 between Mopac Boulevard and R.M. 620. Four of the lanes will feature variable-priced tolling. Drivers will be able to access the other two lanes without paying a direct fee. The board’s vote came after CTRMA Director of Engineering Justin Word informed the directors that the Texas Department of Transportation had given them the green-light by issuing a Finding of No Significant Impact (also known as a FONSI) in response to the project’s environmental assessment. According to the project’s website, its preliminary construction cost is $650 million. As for the schedule, the site remains mum about specifics but says that the project will now enter the final design stage. It goes on to say, “Additional funding for final design and construction must be identified in order for the project to move forward.”

Next year three Austin Independent School District high schools – Crockett, Eastside Memorial and Lanier – will be early college high schools, meaning students that attend those campuses can earn up to 60 hours of credit and the opportunity to earn an associate’s degree. The Texas Education Agency gave the OK for the three schools to participate in the partnership with Austin Community College, and the schools will each have a year to implement the plan. LBJ, Reagan and Travis high schools already went through that process, and were approved to continue on with the program.