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BG Reads 2.28.2024

BG Reads 2.28.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - February 28, 2024

February 28, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

Presented by:

February 28, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Council set to revisit zoning ordinance after court ruling

🟣 Architecture firm plans East Austin test of city's new HOME Initiative

🟣 Austin’s budget shortfall could put rental assistance programs in jeopardy

Read on!

Click on the BG Logo for this week’s Austin public meeting times and agendas.

[BINGHAM GROUP]

✅ BG Blog - City of Austin org chart red line (as of 2/9/2024)

✅ BG Podcast EP. 239 - On this episode we wrap up the week of February 19, 2024 in Austin politics, and discuss the week ahead.

Topics include:

🟣 The City of Austin cancels $2million review of Austin's homeless strategy

🟣 Austin Council Meeting (2.29.2024) items of note

LISTEN ON: SoundCloud, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Council set to revisit zoning ordinance after court ruling (Austin Monitor)

In the wake of last year’s court ruling invalidating the city’s Vertical Mixed Use 2 ordinance, a proposed remedy is now primed for a public hearing and consideration at Thursday’s City Council meeting (Note: Item 70 on the Council Agenda).

Council heard a preview of the revised land use ordinance at Tuesday’s work session. The new version – drafted to resemble the intent and provisions under VMU2 – would create a Density Bonus Combining District, or DB90, for an affordable housing bonus program to allow a development to exceed the base district height limit by 30 feet to a maximum of 90 feet.

The legal challenge to the original 2022 ordinance centered on the absence of notice requirements to nearby homeowners and their right to protest. The court sided with the homeowner plaintiffs who had also successfully challenged two other zoning ordinances designed to enhance the city’s affordable housing goals. As such, Council has had to postpone approving certain projects until a revised ordinance is in place.

As outlined in the proposed item, a DB90 would allow residential uses on sites with commercial base zoning districts, would adjust compatibility requirements and would allow additional building height in exchange for income-restricted housing. Unlike the 2022 ordinance, the revised measure could apply to properties beyond core transit corridors and future core transit corridors, although it’s unclear how many sites may be eligible... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin’s budget shortfall could put rental assistance programs in jeopardy (KUT)

Austin city leaders might have to make some tough decisions about spending as projections show an upcoming budget deficit just five months into the fiscal year.

In August, the city adopted a $5.5 billion budget expecting to generate enough money from sales and property taxes to cover the year’s expenses.

Ed Van Eenoo, chief financial officer for the city, said officials had projected a 3.5% growth for sales tax revenue, but sales have fallen flat, putting the city behind its financial projections.

“We have continued to see really flat sales tax revenues over the last few months,” Van Eenoo said. “The good news is that flat is better than down, but the bad news is that flat is not good enough."

There are about seven months before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, and by then, Van Eenoo said the city will have a budget deficit.

On top of that, Van Eenoo said the city’s COVID relief funding is nearly gone, putting programs like tenant stabilization in jeopardy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin City Council looks to reset downtown HealthSouth redevelopment (Community Impact)

A prolonged push to redevelop a vacant downtown health care facility is entering a new phase, as Austin officials consider new options for bringing long-awaited housing and other amenities to the city-owned property.

HealthSouth's former medical facility at 1215 Red River St. and an adjacent parking structure at 606 E. 12th St. were acquired by Austin in the mid-2010s. Since then, city leaders have intended to transform the site into a prominent development featuring affordable housing that they've said is much needed downtown.

Longtime local architecture firm plans East Austin test of city's new HOME Initiative (Austin Business Journal)

A local architect plans to build three homes on about two-tenths of an acre in East Austin in order to test out the new HOME Initiative approved by City Council last year.

Austin-based Dick Clark + Associates, a full service architecture firm, will develop the site under the new guidelines that allow up to three homes on an existing single-family lot, according to a Feb. 21 announcement.

The HOME Initiative also allows developers and builders to seek approval for such projects through the city’s general residential review process instead of the more expensive and time-consuming site plan review process. The aim is to incentivize creation of more housing in Austin and in turn decrease the average cost of a home…(LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas lawmaker undergoing IVF calls on Gov. Greg Abbott to protect fertility treatment access (Texas Public Radio)

A Texas lawmaker who is undergoing fertility treatments is calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to protect access to invitro fertilization after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children.

Representative Mihaela Plesa (D-Plano) said she became concerned about the status of IVF in Texas after the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling. She's urging Texans to sign her petition to encourage lawmakers to protect and improve access to fertility treatments.

Plesa said access to IVF is a reproductive right — and one that is very important to her personally as she tries to start family.

“My mother is my hero,” Plesa said. “She's the strongest woman I know, and I just hope to be able to be… a strong mother like her one day.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Republicans confront political damage from Alabama IVF Ruling (Wall Street Journal)

Republicans are working to minimize the political fallout from an Alabama court ruling upholding the legal rights of embryos by reassuring voters they will protect access to in vitro fertilization treatments.

There are signs the damage will be difficult to undo. Democrats are stepping up their offensive on the issue, asserting that GOP lawmakers defending in vitro fertilization can’t be trusted because many have also backed early abortion bans or legislation stating that life begins at fertilization.

In Florida, legislation stalled that would let parents recover financial damages for the wrongful death of an unborn child after a Republican state lawmaker on Monday asked that the bill be postponed. Abortion rights groups had said it could lead to restrictions on fertility services… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Israel and Hamas indicate no deal is imminent (Politico)

Israel and Hamas on Tuesday played down chances of an imminent breakthrough in talks for a cease-fire in Gaza, after President Joe Biden said Israel has agreed to pause its offensive during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan if a deal is reached to release some hostages.

The president’s remarks came on the eve of the Michigan primary, where he faces pressure from the state’s large Arab American population over his staunch support for Israel’s offensive. Biden said he had been briefed on the status of talks by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, but said his comments reflected his optimism for a deal, not that all the remaining hurdles had been overcome.

In the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, Israel’s air, sea and ground campaign in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people, obliterated large swaths of the urban landscape and displaced 80% of the battered enclave’s population.

Israel’s seal on the territory, which allows in only a trickle of food and other aid, has sparked alarm that a famine could be imminent, according to the United Nations.

With U.N. truck deliveries of aid hampered by the lack of safe corridors, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and France conducted an airdrop of food, medical supplies and other aid into Gaza on Tuesday.

At a beach in southern Gaza, boxes of supplies dropped from military aircraft drifted down on parachutes as thousands of Palestinians ran along the sand to retrieve them.

But alarm is growing over worsening hunger among Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

GOP strained by Trump-influenced shift from Reagan on Russia (The Hill)

It’s not Ronald Reagan’s GOP anymore.

The Republican Party’s shift from Russia hawk to something softer is straining the GOP at a crucial juncture, highlighting the ascendency of former President Trump’s “America First” approach and exasperating old-guard conservatives who long for a return to the assertive foreign policy championed by the party through generations prior.

It’s created nothing short of an identity crisis for those Republicans who still identify with the party of former President Reagan, a Cold War president long lionized within the GOP ranks for his aggressive confrontations with the Soviet Union.

“Ronald Reagan would not recognize today’s GOP,” said John Conway, head of strategy for Republicans for Ukraine, a group pressing GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill to provide more military aid to Kyiv.

“The fact that the Republican Party now has elements that are openly pro-Putin, that they have abandoned faith in American leadership in the world, it’s disgusting,” he continued. “It’s something Ronald Reagan couldn’t possibly ever believe would happen to his party… (LINK TO FULL STORY)