Watson Wire: A Big, Smart Deal
Austin has an incredible chance to take a big step toward our affordable housing goals.
And our climate goals.
And our transit goals.?
All at the same time.?
On Thursday, the Austin City Council will consider buying 107 acres located very near the future light rail line along Riverside Drive . This will build off our voter-approved investment in Project Connect. As I said the other day at SXSW, transit is clearly a hub in achieving multiple results. Sure, it obviously helps with transportation. But, importantly, it also addresses our climate needs. And, also importantly, it is key to affordability in Austin. This $87 million acquisition will help more folks to afford creating a life in Austin while also doing right by the environment.
The land is the former Tokyo Electron campus. The vision is for a dense, transit-oriented neighborhood that could conservatively accommodate 1,100 living units. Think about something akin to the Mueller neighborhood – but intentionally built around public transit and with the benefit of the lessons learned about ensuring affordability and other challenges in a much-in-demand planned community.
The 2017 Strategic Housing Blueprint set out an ambitious goal to create 135,000 housing units by 2028, including 75,000 market rate units and 60,000 affordable units that require differing levels of public subsidy. Using voter-approved affordable housing and anti-displacement funds, we’re going to be able to make some real progress toward that affordable housing goal.?
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I’m also excited about the potential for workforce housing on the site. What can we do for city employees working at the airport? Perhaps something for fire, police and EMS cadets while they’re going through their training and after? Teachers? Just think of the possibilities.
The proximity to public transit creates so many opportunities for community benefits and access and truly makes the most of our voter-approved investments in affordable housing and transit. It also means many residents would be able to get around town without a car. According to AAA, owning a car costs more than $12,000 a year on average. That’s a monthly cost of about $1,000 for a single car. And for a two-car family? You do the math.
This Council action item is only the beginning. We’ll need to be disciplined in the planning and how we carry out this big deal. We need to be smart and professional and avoid turning it into a Christmas tree, loading it up with every idea that gets thrown our way. Again, we have Mueller as an example and, like Mueller, the potential here is great. I’m incredibly hopeful about what we as a community are going to create here. ?
Engineering Consultant at HV Engineering, LLC
8 个月Here's a thought...why don't you start by hiring more police, supporting your police, and locking up criminals. I suspect Austin residents care more about that, than your pie in the sky climate needs...which unfortunately you have no control over.
Staff Software Engineer, Tourism Commissioner for the City of Austin, Housing and Transit Advocate
8 个月1,100 housing units is a lot, but it’s nowhere near enough for the size of the problem. I’d love to see at least 5,000, which should be possible if it is well thought out!
Economic and Land Development | City Management | Public Policy | Published Author | The Dallas Assembly | Presidents Award - Greater Dallas Planning Council | Partnership Award - Texas Trails & Transportation Conference
8 个月Kudos Kirk Watson and team City of Austin. Future proofing work.
Sr. Energy Executive
8 个月Let’s discuss the climate goal for one min. Getting out of the Lagrange power plant early will not have any impact on climate change. That plant will continue to be dispatched as it is today till it retires. The only difference is AE’s name will not be on it. In return we will be paying more $$$ for less reliable intermittant resources. We are paying dearly for the biomass plant built by Southern Power and sold to AE, that was a $1B power purchase agreement that was out of the $ from day one with a capacity factor of less than 5% for years. AE and City Council then decided to buy out of contract for ~$480M. Because that would cut our losses. The plant was not operating during Uri and AE took grief for it and proceeded to running it for the next year bringing in over 100,000 truckload of wood for as much as $10/ton above market and WE the citizens and rate payers have been paying for the waste. One final question, what is the carbon footprint of all the semi trucks hauling the wood into the plant outside of Nacogdoches ~150 miles round trip each trip?
Experienced Pricing and Product Professional
8 个月I encourage you to look beyond the conservative 10 housing units per acre! With transit oriented development, we could help many more people and get a lot closer to meeting our goals and needs!