BG Reads 12.11.2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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December 11, 2024  

➡️ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 The December 12th Austin Council meeting agenda

🟪 Austin officials escape looming deadline to fund cap and stitch, for now (Community Impact)

🟪 Cousins Properties to acquire sail-shaped building in downtown Austin for $521.8 million (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 More Texas homebuilders are including blackout protection to brace for potential outages (KUT)

🟪  High-speed rail efforts in Texas have gained some momentum. The Texas Legislature and Donald Trump may change that. (Texas Tribune)

Read On!

🟪 LINK TO THIS WEEK’S CITY OF AUSTIN HEARINGS + AGENDA

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🟪 The Austin Council has one (1) regular meeting left in 2024:

• Tomorrow December 12th @10AM - Austin Council Agenda Link

  • 💡 Item 2: Approve adoption of Austin Energy’s Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2035.

  • 💡 Item 38: Approve a resolution adopting the City’s State Legislative Agenda for the 89th Texas Legislative Session.

  • 💡 Item 39: Approve a resolution adopting the City’s Federal Legislative Agenda for the 119th Congress.

  • 💡 Item 138: Approve a resolution directing the City Manager to propose options and make recommendations to create programs for and allow digital transit-oriented and bikeshare signage along transit lines and corridors; to modify relocation requirements for nonconforming signs, including non-conforming off-premise commercial advertising signs; and to allow for off-premise commercial advertising in the City’s public right-of-way.

🟪 MEMO: City of Austin Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announced (Effective November 4, 2024)

In an October 30 memo, City Manager T.C. Broadnax announced several key additions to the city leadership team, effective November 4.

You can view the memo here: CITY OF AUSTIN MEMO: Executive Leadership Team and Organizational Announcements. An org chart is included on page 3.

We particularly wanted to flag the creation of a Grants Division within the Intergovernmental Relations Office to focus on creating a centralized grant funding strategy and governance for the City that advances City Council’s strategic priorities, leverages local resources, and targets investments for Austin. 

The memo notes “the City lacks a centralized grants function causing us to potentially leave federal and state funding on the table. Staff from across the organization are currently being identified for potential reassignment to the Grants Division.”

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

➡️ Austin officials escape looming deadline to fund cap and stitch, for now (Community Impact)

Austin City Council members caught a break this month before being forced to make the weighty decision surrounding the funding of the longstanding proposal of I-35 land bridges—known as caps and stitches—as the Texas Department of Transportation extended the city’s deadline to commit the millions of dollars needed for roadway infrastructure until March 2025.

A memo from the city manager to council members dated Dec. 5 outlined the new timeline for a funding commitment, further indicating that staff would be withdrawing agenda Item 49, related to cap and stitch design funding, and Item 50, related to commitment to fund roadway elements for caps, from the Dec. 12 council meeting with the intent to bring these items back to a March council meeting.After an update from staff Nov. 19 revealed that costs for the full build of the project had ballooned to an estimated $1.4 billion, council members heard staff recommendations to scale the project back… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Cousins Properties to acquire sail-shaped building in downtown Austin for $521.8 million (Austin American-Statesman)

Cousins Properties Inc. announced today that is has a contract to buy 601 West 2nd Street, a high-profile, 35-story sail-shaped office tower in downtown Austin, for a net purchase price of $521.8 million.

The sale is expected to close this month, subject to customary closing conditions. Local office brokers say the sale, upon closing, is expected to be the largest purchase of an office property in Austin this year.

Trammell Crow Co. and MSD Capital began construction of the tower in January 2019. (MSD invests on behalf of Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, his family and other investors).

Completed in 2022, the building is fully leased to Google through 2038. However, as of mid-2023, Google had delayed moving employees into the building in the post-pandemic era of remote and hybrid work, which has led to rising vacancy rates in the office market locally and nationally. A Google spokesperson did not return a call and email about whether any employees are working in the building currently... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ Austin Energy 10-year plan calls to reduce power demand, add generation on path to carbon-free (Community Impact)

Austin Energy's blueprint for its next decade of power resource planning and generation investments—including proposed natural gas units amid the utility's pledged decarbonization—will be finalized Dec. 12.

AE's Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2035 is a follow-up to the last version of the power strategy that's leading up to 2030. City Council requested a refresh of that plan two years ago, and the process has since included months of review and debate.For the new 2035 outline, the city-owned power utility gathered input from thousands of its customers, hosted several community workshops, and presented at various city forums this year to develop the proposal that's now up for council approval. The draft plan, which can be viewed here, was recommended by the Electric Utility Commission resident oversight body this month in a 9-1-1 vote… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

➡️ More Texas homebuilders are including blackout protection to brace for potential outages (KUT)

For Texans hoping to keep the power on in the event of a winter storm, it’s not looking so hot. The Texas grid operator ERCOT is predicting an 80% chance of blackouts if there’s a severe winter storm.

And it turns out, just this week ERCOT’s meteorologist came out to say that winter weather this year is turning out pretty similar to 2021, when a major winter storm took out electricity across the state. But in the event storms do come and outages happen this winter, many Texans are better prepared, and that’s because of what’s on, inside or around their homes… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

➡️ High-speed rail efforts in Texas have gained some momentum. The Texas Legislature and Donald Trump may change that. (Texas Tribune)

The illusive dream of high-speed rail in Texas has become foggier as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office and state GOP lawmakers intent on throwing up roadblocks to rail return to Austin next month.

Over the last two years, high-speed rail ambitions in Texas showed signs of life. Amtrak revived and took the lead on a long-mulled high-speed rail route between Dallas and Houston. North Texas transportation planners advanced the idea of extending that line to Fort Worth and Arlington.

A glut of federal transportation dollars under President Joe Biden’s administration and increased congestion on Texas interstates pushed some local leaders to make the case for boosting even conventional passenger rail between the state’s major urban areas.

Where those efforts will go during a second Trump administration remains to be seen. Trump, rail advocates and experts say, has offered few clues about how he will approach high-speed rail during his second term — after the Biden administration backed federal financial support for expanding rail.

But in the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature, anti-rail efforts will likely persist when lawmakers convene in January… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

➡️ Trump says he’ll name Andrew Ferguson head of FTC and Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece (Associated Press)

President-elect Donald Trump made another flurry of job announcements on Tuesday, selecting Andrew Ferguson as the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Ron Johnson was nominated to be ambassador to Mexico, and Kimberly Guilfoyle to be ambassador to Greece.

Ferguson, who is already one of the FTC’s five commissioners, will replace Lina Khan, who became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley by blocking billions of dollars worth of corporate acquisitions and suing Amazon and Meta while alleging anticompetitive behavior.

“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “Andrew will be the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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