BG Reads | News - August 2, 2022
[HEARINGS/MEETINGS]
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[AUSTIN METRO]
Development panelists share thoughts, and some silence, on Austin’s affordability issues (Austin Monitor)
It took a question about the political pressures involved in the slow-moving, fractured process of updating the Land Development Code to bring an uncomfortable silence to a recent panel of real estate leaders discussing housing affordability issues in Austin.
During last week’s Urban Land Institute Austin breakfast panel talk about affordability, moderator Theresa Alvarez, CEO of the Austin Economic Development Corporation, read an audience question asking why members of the public who are uninvolved in local development seem to have more sway over the process of reshaping the city’s housing market amid surging demand than planning and development leaders.
After a few moments of silence and looks between the three panel members, Janine Sisak, senior vice president of DMA Development Company, would only wryly offer, “I can’t answer that. I’m not taking that one.”
There was plenty of discussion throughout the roughly hourlong session, with Sisak and others sharing details of the projects they’ve completed or have in process using policy and financial tools such as tax credits or components from the city’s Affordability Unlocked policy package.
The surge in demand caused by newcomers to the Austin market and investors looking to profit from property acquisition and redevelopment is largely to blame for the problems of affordability and displacement.
Heather Way, co-director of the UT Austin School of Law’s Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic, said public subsidies such as the $350 million affordable housing bond proposal OK’d last week by City Council are required on top of tax credits and other policy such as the city’s much-debated land use code.
“You’d have to increase supply 300 percent just to keep up with the demand that’s taken place from all the money that’s being poured in by outside capital during the pandemic and people wanting to size up,” she said. “We’ve got to draft changes to the land use code. We’ve beat that horse to death, but we have to do things like address compatibility and other barriers standing in the way to create denser housing in the city.”
Three projects containing significant affordability considerations are either complete or underway, including one that will feature more than 90 units at the Plaza Saltillo site. Sisak said Austin has a well-earned reputation of not following through on pledges to prioritize affordability in its planning and permitting processes. She said the incentives included in the SMART housing program typically haven’t been difference-makers for developers trying to reduce the time and cost involved in creating housing in the city.
“Austin has always had a reputation for being difficult to get deals through the regulatory process. Everyone who does projects right now knows it’s not getting better,” she said. “I would love to see SMART housing come with expedited review for affordable housing projects. I would love to see affordable projects go to the top of the pile. That’s not happening.”…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Statesman redevelopment remains in holding pattern — here's where negotiations stand (Austin Business Journal)
The future of a development that would redefine the banks of Lady Bird Lake in Austin — effectively bringing the city's downtown skyline across the water — remains on the table before City Council.
During its regular meeting on July 28, Council postponed final approval of changes to land use designations and zoning for the 305 South Congress planned unit development, with members sharing concerns for just how many affordable housing units the deal would create for a city burdened by rising housing costs.
Following the decision, the matter now will be reviewed by Council during its Sept. 1 meeting.
The immense?19-acre project, located at the site of the Austin-American Statesman's former headquarters, is planned to include 1,378 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of offices, a 275-room hotel and 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space across six towers — with its tallest reaching a height of 524 feet, or about 47 stories.
The project could continue to feed Austin's growing economy with substantial investment, starting with the work of thousands to bring the project to fruition over the course of about a decade.
It's also the centerpiece of what is known as the South Central Waterfront Initiative, the city's vision to lure dense, mixed-use development to the south side of Lady Bird Lake.
Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate Group LLC is the project’s master developer for the land owners, the newspaper-steeped Cox family, and Chicago-based architecture and urban planning firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP is leading design efforts…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council funds further review of Austin police practices, culture (Community Impact)
A new round of reviews into the Austin Police Department’s practices and past alleged misconduct will proceed over the coming months.
City Council?unanimously voted July 28 for a $350,000 contract extension with Kroll Associates, the consulting firm that has served as an outside evaluator of APD for nearly two years. Kroll has completed several deep dives into Austin police culture ranging from its?cadet academy?to overall?law enforcement work.
Kroll’s next analyses will focus on several general subject areas including: APD’s compliance with both state and federal discrimination and harassment laws; the past decade of lawsuits and related settlements stemming from alleged police misconduct; and patterns of systemic racism as well as the effects of APD culture on its female, LGBTQ and minority employees. Kroll's reporting will also include action plans for implementing recommended improvements.
Once underway, Kroll’s assessment will last about six months. The city said it expects to provide the firm with the materials needed to begin its reviews “as quickly as possible” after council’s July vote…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
New Austin ISD police chief shares security protocols in place ahead of school year (KXAN)
On the first day in his new role,?Austin?ISD police chief Wayne Sneed shared his goals and discussed the upcoming school year.
When it comes to infrastructure, new security measures include upgraded cameras and alarms funded by a 2017 bond. TEA grant money also provided funding to install bullet-resistant material at school entryways which should be completed shortly.
The police department also has a?mental health?division which Sneed has led in the past. They partner with local mental health authorities to meet students’ needs.
AISD police use a third-party company to monitor social media as well – but Sneed noted they need everyone’s help.
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"Safety and security is everyone’s responsibility - it’s the students', parents' - if you see something say something," he said. "I would also say it’s our teachers, our administrators, our campus custodians; everybody plays a role in this."…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Cousins may spark new wave of redevelopment in Austin's Domain (Austin Business Journal)
Plans for the next big phase of development at The Domain are taking shape. It could result in even more high-rises towering over busy shops and eateries.
In our latest?Crane Watch update, we noted that Atlanta-based Cousins Properties Inc. wants to add yet another office tower to its expansive portfolio in the North Austin mixed-use hub.
Now, we have more details about that tower, known as Domain Central 1, although there is some uncertainty with regard to its construction timeline. It appears this will be the start of a a wider district by Cousins called Domain Central.
Domain Central 1 will stand 26 stories tall, with three levels of underground parking, 13 levels of above-ground parking and 13 office levels. The tower will be 997,426 square feet and cost $143 million to build, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, although it should be noted that such estimates can change.
At that height and square footage, Domain Central 1 would be the tallest and largest building at The Domain.
Cousins (NYSE: CUZ) told investors in a?June presentation?that the development site is a parking lot at 3008 Esperanza Crossing, next to the Domain 4 office building. That is a little east of the Rock Rose entertainment district of popular bars and eateries…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas man who stormed Capitol with gun gets 7-plus years in prison (Associated Press)
A Texas man convicted of?storming the U.S. Capitol?with a holstered handgun, helmet and body armor was sentenced Monday to more than seven years in prison, the longest sentence imposed so far?among hundreds of Capitol riot cases.
Prosecutors said Guy Reffitt told fellow members of the Texas Three Percenters militia group that he planned to drag House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the Capitol building by her ankles, “with her head hitting every step on the way down,” according to a court filing.
Reffitt’s prison sentence — seven years and three months — is two years more than the previous longest prison sentence for a Capitol riot defendant. But it’s less than half the length of the 15-year prison term requested by a federal prosecutor, who called Reffitt a domestic terrorist and said he wanted to physically remove and replace members of Congress.
Reffitt was the?first person to go on trial?for?the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, in which supporters of then-President Donald Trump halted the joint session of Congress for certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Almost 600 Texas youth are trapped in a juvenile prison system on the brink of collapse (Texas Tribune)
Texas’ juvenile prison system is nearing total collapse.
Its five lockups are dangerously understaffed, an ongoing problem that worsened dramatically last year when its turnover rate hit more than 70%. The state has desperately tried to recruit employees, but most new hires are gone within six months.
Teachers and caseworkers routinely work in security roles so the prisons’ nearly 600 youth can get out of their cells to go to the bathroom or take showers. Still, children have reported being left to use water bottles as makeshift toilets.
On weekends, youth are often locked alone in cramped cells with only a mounted bookshelf and a thin mattress on a concrete block for up to 23 hours a day. The lucky ones have a small window to the outside.
The agency?has largely stopped accepting?newly sentenced teenagers from crowded county detention centers, fearing it can’t even protect the children already in its care.
And more and more, children are hurting themselves — sometimes severely — out of distress or as a way to get attention in their isolation. Nearly half of those locked in the state’s juvenile prisons this year have been on suicide watch.
The emergency is the predictable result of a state agency that has been entrenched in crisis for more than a decade. The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is?under federal investigation?for an alleged pattern of mistreatment and abuse, and it has gone through several iterations of major and moderate reform following scandals marked by sexual abuse and violence, including a full restructuring in 2011…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Republicans' next big play is to 'scare the hell out of Washington' by rewriting the Constitution. And they're willing to play the long game to win. (Business Insider)
As former Republican senator Rick Santorum addressed Republican lawmakers gathered in San Diego at the American Legislative Exchange Council policy summit, he detailed a plan to fundamentally remake the United States. It would become a conservative nation. And the transformation, Santorum said, culminates with an unprecedented event: a first-of-its-kind convention to rewrite the Constitution. "You take this grenade and you pull the pin, you've got a live piece of ammo in your hands," Santorum, a two-time GOP presidential candidate and former CNN commentator, explained in audio of his remarks obtained by the left-leaning watchdog group the Center for Media and Democracy and shared with Insider. "34 states — if every Republican legislator votes for this, we have a constitutional convention."
The December 2021 ALEC meeting represents a flashpoint in a movement spearheaded by powerful conservative interests, some of whom are tied to Trumpworld and share many of Trump's goals, to alter the nation's bedrock legal text since 1788. It's an effort that has largely taken place out of public view. But interviews with a dozen people involved in the constitutional convention movement, along with documents and audio recordings reviewed by Insider, reveal a sprawling, well-funded — at least partly by cryptocurrency — and impassioned campaign taking root across multiple states. Notably fueling them: success. This isn't an exercise, either. State lawmakers are invited to huddle in Denver starting on Sunday to learn more about the inner workings of a possible constitutional convention at Academy of States 3.0, the third installment of a boot camp preparing state lawmakers "in anticipation of an imminent Article V Convention." Rob Natelson, a constitutional scholar and senior fellow at the Independence Institute who closely studies Article V of the Constitution, predicted to Insider there's a 50% chance that the United States will witness a constitutional convention in the next five years…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Biden: 'Justice has been delivered' after US drone strike kills al-Qaida leader (Associated Press)
President Joe Biden announced Monday that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, an operation he hailed as delivering “justice” while expressing hope that it brings “one more measure of closure” to families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The president said in an evening address from the White House that U.S. intelligence officials tracked al-Zawahri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out Sunday. Al-Zawahri and the better known Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of al-Qaida. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, in operation carried out by U.S. Navy Seals after a nearly decade-long hunt.
“He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens,” Biden said. “This terrorist leader is no more,” he added. The operation is a significant counterterrorism win for the Biden administration just 11 months after American troops left the country after a two-decade war. The strike was carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to five people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Neither Biden nor the White House detailed the CIA's involvement in the strike. Biden, however, paid tribute to the U.S. intelligence community in his remarks, noting that “thanks to their extraordinary persistence and skill” the operation was a “success." Al-Zawahri’s loss eliminates the figure who more than anyone shaped al-Qaida, first as bin Laden’s deputy since 1998, then as his successor. Together, he and bin Laden turned the jihadi movement’s guns to target the United States, carrying out the deadliest attack ever on American soil — the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings. The house aFal-Zawahri was in when he was killed was owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to a senior intelligence official. The official also added that a CIA ground team and aerial reconnaissance conducted after the drone strike confirmed al-Zawahri’s death…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)
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Today's special weekend episode (160) features Kristin Marcum, owner and CEO of ECPR, Austin's preeminent public relations firm.
Kristin and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss her path into PR and her career leading to the C-suite and ownership of the firm.->?EPISODE LINK
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