Planning commissioners pay tribute to former leaders

Planning commissioners paid tribute to their former leaders, Chair Conor Kenny and Vice Chair Fayez Kazi, at the board’s Tuesday night meeting. Kenny left to join Kazi at Civilitude Group to work on affordable housing developments together. New chairman Todd Shaw thanked the two for advancing affordable housing in Austin. “Conor and Fayez really took it to heart to do brick-and-mortar and get affordable housing done,” Shaw said. Greg Anderson touted their work on pushing revisions to the Land Development Code. “They did a good job of calling out the endless bullying and whatnot that comes along with throwing your hat in the ring in Austin, Texas, and trying to do the right thing,” he said. “So I love them both for that.” Robert Schneider said he also learned a lot from the former commissioners. “They really embodied the spirit of service and the service of commitment to the city,” he said. The tributes rounded up an unusually light agenda for the Planning Commission, with the only extended discussion revolving around the annual Imagine Austin report. Commissioners used a variety of green items to signal their yea votes; while most held up green cards to approve the consent agenda, Schneider, Claire Hempel, James Shieh and Greg Anderson used a lime, a green Uno reverse card, a green pencil sharpener and a houseplant, respectively.