City of Austin Council Message Board

Colleagues, After weeks of research and consultation with privacy experts, I have developed grave concerns over the proposal to reinstate the Automatic License Plate Reader program for our police. These concerns are shared by many in the community, from local constituent groups to national organizat...

Colleagues, It appears we can use TIRZ funds for affordable housing not just on a particular site, but anywhere in the city. The information comes from a TIRZ handbook prepared by the University of Texas Law School: https://law.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2019/09/2019-ECDC-TIF-TX-Advocate...

Colleagues, I have compiled a brief summary of my office's reasoning for conducting groundwater testing around the Fayette Power Project. Fayette uses a combination of a coal ash pond and a coal landfill to store waste on the plant’s property. These practices are sufficient to meet regulatory standa...

Colleagues, I am sharing the first draft of my amendments to the ALPR item, along with links to the Minnesota and New Hampshire laws that I used as a basis for my amendments to CM Kelly’s item. I also used the ACLU model ALPR bill, which is also linked. I appreciate the usefulness of ALPRs, but I ha...

Colleagues, Thank you for sharing your budget amendments and riders at yesterday's work session. Below are the amendments and rider I will be sponsoring. Vela 1 - Housing Rental Assistance Program, allocating additional $5 million one time fund to the housing rental assistance program http://assets....

Colleagues, Thank you for sharing your budget priorities and amendments. Below I list my budget priorities and potential amendments for your consideration. I may post additional priorities as a result of community feedback and our conversations this week. I am also a cosponsor on a handful of other ...

CM Harper-Madison, Thank you for offering this amendment, I support it. I share your concerns about the residential parkland dedication fee doubling every year and its impact on housing for Austin residents, especially renters. The HousingWorks report released in June shows that 25% of District 4 re...

Thanks, Mayor. This schedule looks great. Just as a reminder to all, we have a press conference scheduled at noon. If we could break for lunch just before then, it will allow us to attend the press conference and then resume the meeting shortly thereafter. The press conference is posted as a public ...

Thank you so much to CM Pool and CM Alter for all your work protecting and defending critical and fundamental rights for our people. I appreciate and welcome your cosponsorship of the GRACE Act resolution. I look forward to working with you to get this important item passed.

Saludos,

Chito

Thank you to the person who informed me that my links were not working. The links below should be fixed.

GRACE Act full text:
http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 105310.pdf

GRACE Act FAQ:
http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 105134.pdf

Colleagues, In light of today’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, CM Fuentes and I have requested a special called meeting as soon as possible in order to pass the GRACE Act - Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone. The GRACE Act protects abortion rights from prosecution thro...

The changes regarding affordability levels and 2 bedroom units are fine. For the other changes in lines 90-95, I suggest this language: "The City Council directs the City Manager during the MDA negotiations to pursue a sale of the St. John Property to a public facility corporation controlled by...

Colleagues, Thank you to CM Kelly for bringing this important item for our consideration. I am intrigued by the potential benefits of a license plate reader program as a force multiplier and to improve efficiency and response times. This technology also raises legitimate concerns about privacy, data...

Colleagues, In light of the likely Supreme Court on Dobbs decision, I have prepared the legislation linked below, titled The GRACE Act. GRACE stands for Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone. The Texas trigger ban on abortion will devastate our residents and violate their bodily autonomy....

Colleagues, To facilitate Council’s review of various potential corridors for changes to compatibility standards, staff has created a GIS map where various layers showing different corridors and zoning uses can be turned off and on. I just want to pass this along for your use. Thanks to staff for cr...

Colleagues, I join CM Kitchen and Tovo in urging that we move forward on this critical item before our summer break. As a major purchaser in this state of renewable energy, we have the opportunity and ability to make a significant impact to not only protect workers, but ensure project timeliness and...

Colleagues, The Housing and Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 31st is posted for discussion and possible action regarding proposed changes to Vertical Mixed Use buildings. I will offer the following proposal to the Committee, with the hope that we can make a recommendation to the full counc...

Colleagues, Thank you for the draft proposal, I am heartened to see Council looking at increasing housing capacity on our corridors. However, I want to make sure our decisions on compatibility along the corridors are based on an outcome-oriented approach guided by data. Staff's analysis of the propo...

CM Fuentes, Your leadership on the issue of reproductive health is invaluable to our city. I am already a co-sponsor for item 88, but I would like to be added as a co-sponsor to item 89 as well. My commitment to reproductive health and freedom is unwavering, especially in light of recent national ev...

Colleagues, I appreciated the discussion today on looking at compatibility and parking more broadly than just on our core transit corridors. These changes are badly needed. However, the VMU2 item is before us and ready for action, and we should not miss the opportunity to add both market rate and af...

Thank you, CM Kelly, for bringing this opportunity forward.

Our fallen peace officers deserve every consideration from the city. I fully support this resolution, and my heart goes out to the families of all those we've lost. Please add me as a co-sponsor.

Thank you,

Chito

In the interest of avoiding an unnecessarily long discussion on this item, I agree that we should postpone. In additon to CM Kelly's questions on this forum, CMs Pool, Tovo, Alter and myself had questions that were answered by staff on the Q and A Report. Addtionally, I'd prefer to have everyone on ...

Colleagues, The 2016 Tenant Relocation Ordinance is one of the best renter protections Austin has and I’m so grateful to all its original supporters – Mayor Adler; Council Members Tovo, Renteria, Kitchen, and Pool; and former Council Members Casar, Garza and Houston – for passing the ordinance. I es...

Colleagues, Last week, the citizens of Austin were startled by the frightening news that the median home appraisal in Travis County jumped over $200,000 to $632,000. We have been talking about rewriting our land development code for a full decade. Since the Code Next process started in 2012, housing...

Colleagues, Our VMU-zoned sites are all on major transit corridors, places where everyone agrees we need to focus development. Getting development on our corridors right is critical to the success of Project Connect, to our efforts to address our housing crises, and to reach our climate change goals...