For the past six weeks, the Lower Colorado River Authority lowered the levels of lakes Austin and LBJ to accommodate dock repair and maintenance by property owners on the shoreline. It’s a standard procedure to keep docks and other related infrastructure intact, as well as to regulate the lakes’ aquatic vegetation. Any work going on will have to be completed by Monday, Feb. 13, when 4 feet will be restored to Lake LBJ while Lake Austin regains 10 feet. The water used to refill the two lakes comes from Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis, respectively, though the impact to those lakes could vary based on rainfall. Find out more than you ever wanted to know on LCRA’s website.

Austin Water is in the process of putting together a 100-year plan for managing the city’s water supply called Water Forward. Help out by providing feedback at the second public workshop on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 6 p.m. in the AISD Performing Arts Center (1500 Barbara Jordan Blvd.). Members of the project team will present an overview of the plan and take input on ways the city can meet future demand. There’s free parking in the PAC garage, and no expertise in water issues is required. Find out more about the future of water conservation in Central Texas on the project’s website.

The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is working on a public art project to remodel the bus stop at 12th and Chicon streets. It’s an effort backed by more than half a dozen local entities (including the Austin History Center, Austin Community College and Huston-Tillotson University) to celebrate African-American history in East Austin. Aid the effort with your input on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at a public meeting held at Huston-Tillotson’s Dickey-Lawless Auditorium, 900 Chicon St. Representatives from Capital Metro and the other partnering organizations will be on hand to answer questions and take community feedback.

In yesterday’s newsletter, when we mentioned the Moody Foundation grant that was awarded to the Waller Creek Conservancy to fund a public amphitheater for Waterloo Park, we mistakenly referred to it as a $1.5 million grant. The grant is actually for $15 million and will pave the way for a “unique steal and translucent stage-house” that will hold 5,000 people and host a wide range of cultural and educational events. We regret the error.

Curious about what’s happened to that resolution that would change how the city handles demolitions of civic buildings? Well, as of last Thursday, the amendment that would require civic-use buildings 50 years or older to appear before the Historic Landmark Commission has been “postponed indefinitely,” which is a delicate way of saying it won’t be moving forward anytime soon. At the last meeting of City Council, Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo, who was the person leading the charge to change the rules this past summer, made the motion to postpone. She explained that Council has “heard concerns about this item from Travis County, from the school district and from some other organizations” and that the city had begun work on other policies and practices that Tovo hoped would “further increase preservation of civic buildings and other kinds of buildings within our community.”

Austinites interested in knowing exactly what went wrong at the city’s DNA lab might want to pay attention to this week’s Public Safety Commission meeting, where three separate items on the agenda are dedicated to answering just that question. Commissioners are scheduled to receive an update about where the backlog stands now (and when it will be eliminated), an update on the expert review of the lab and a briefing on the DNA lab freezer. The meeting starts at 4 p.m. today and is expected to run until 6 p.m.

After Gov. Greg Abbott made good on his promise to cut criminal justice funding to Travis County last week, Austin’s philanthropic and political communities combined in an effort to find the money elsewhere. The $1.5 million means a lot to the county, going toward programs dealing with a range of community issues, including – but not limited to – family violence, prostitution prevention and veterans courts. The Travis County #StrongerTogether campaign, fronted by state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez with help from the nonprofit Austin Community Foundation, kicked off on Friday and raised more than $50,000 in the next 24 hours. “These funds were spent on special programs that helped the County serve women, children and veterans, and these populations will suffer if the programs are abruptly eliminated,” the group wrote in a statement on its website. “Together, we will raise the funds necessary to ensure that our community’s vulnerable do not suffer during these uncertain times.”

Starting Feb. 10, the city is making it a little easier on applicants working their way through the residential plan review process. Before, residents proposing a new construction that would remove a regulated tree, affect its critical root zone or significantly prune its canopy were required to file a separate Tree Ordinance Review Application and pay an associated fee. That redundancy has been eliminated, and the tree components will be folded into the residential plan review process – no need to go through additional bureaucracy.

Construction due to start this week on a new bridge over Highway 183 South will create delays for commuters for the next six months. To complete the bridge work, which is part of the 183 South project, crews will have to take away lanes of FM 969 (MLK Boulevard). According to a press release from the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, the first stage of the project will require restripping of MLK, which will cause a lane reduction so that “westbound traffic can be moved over to one of the two eastbound lanes.” When part of the work on the bridge itself is completed, “traffic in both directions will be detoured onto the new bridge so demolition of the old bridge can take place, and the remainder of the new bridge can be constructed.” Learn more at the agency’s website.

The Housing Bond Review Committee will meet Friday to discuss Saigebook Development LLC’s application for a mixed-income project at Elysium Park on Oak Creek Drive. The North Austin project was delayed in August due to traffic and flood concerns from surrounding neighbors. The application up for review this time was filed on Sept. 30 and is set to include “85 units with a mix of affordability” on a little over 7 acres. The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3, in the Street-Jones Building, 1000 East 11th St., and is open to the public.

Even in Austin, it appears, some things never change. Thankfully, one of those things is the Zilker Kite Festival, a yearly spring tradition that’s had Austinites of all ages braving allergy season since 1929. That’s not going to change anytime soon: The company that owns the festival, ABC Home & Commercial Services, announced Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with the nonprofit Exchange Club – which founded and oversees the festival – to keep the tradition going another 50 years. On Friday, Feb. 3, the festival’s board of directors, along with Mayor Steve Adler and other festival sponsors, will gather in the City Hall media room to announce the particulars of the arrangement. That will include a new name, logo and attractions to be featured at this year’s event on March 5. Learn more about the festival and its history at www.abckitefestival.org.

Zoning and Platting Chair Thomas Weber broke the news during the Jan. 31 special work session of the land use commissions that he would be resigning from his leadership post effective Feb. 22. He said that he would serve for the next two meetings on Feb. 7 and Feb. 21, but then his time as chair would be over as he plans to leave Austin. “My wife and I are selling our house and moving to northwest Indiana,” Weber said at the meeting. “In Zoning and Platting, we actually had a discussion last year about cycling through chairs every year, and it will have been about a year.” He said that his time as chair has been an invaluable experience and that he was grateful to have served with the other commissioners.