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BG Reads 4.16.2024

BG Reads 4.16.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - April 16, 2024

April 16, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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April 16, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Judge tosses Austin's plan to redirect property taxes to development along Lady Bird Lake

🟣 City eyes code amendments to increase affordable housing for UT students

🟣 Austin-based Tesla reportedly set to lay off 10% of its workforce

🟣 Dozens of Texas water systems exceed new federal limits on “forever chemicals"

🟣 Big Tech is downsizing workspace in another blow to office real estate

Read On!

CLICK HERE TO REVIEW CITY OF AUSTIN PUBLIC MEETINGS / AGENDAS FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 15, 2024

[BINGHAM GROUP]

✅ (NEW) BG Podcast Ep. 247: Austin Politics Weekly Recap and What's Ahead

✅ (NEW) BG Podcast Ep. 246: 2024 Elections - Austin Mayoral Round Up

On this episode we welcome back Jack Craver, independent reporter and founder of The Austin Politics Newsletter. Jack and Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham discuss the candidate field for the 2024 Austin Mayoral elections, including incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson.

✅ BG Blog: Land Development Code Amendments (4) Overview

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

[AUSTIN CITY HALL]

✅ The Austin City Council meets today at 9AM for its Work Session.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Judge tosses Austin's plan to redirect property taxes to development along Lady Bird Lake (KUT)

A Travis County District judge has ordered the City of Austin to scrap a plan to divert a portion of property taxes from general city services and use it to fund infrastructure projects — such as roads, sidewalks and affordable housing — in parts of South Austin.

On Friday, Judge Jessica Mangrum sided with lawyers, suing on behalf of homeowners who argued council members violated Texas law when they established a tax increment refinancing zone (TIRZ) across several South Austin neighborhoods.

"We are disappointed in today’s ruling but very much appreciate the court’s careful consideration of this complex issue," Meghan Riley, a division chief with Austin's Law Department, said.

A TIRZ is a way for cities to spend property taxes on specific neighborhoods. Typically, the property taxes cities collect go into a communal jar called a "general fund." The money is used to finance a variety of services, such as police and fire. But Texas law lets municipalities redirect a portion of property taxes from a neighborhood, as long as that money is spent on projects that benefit people living there, such as parks and sidewalks... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

City eyes code amendments to increase affordable housing for UT students (Austin Monitor)

City Council members hope that a series of amendments to a planning tool can increase housing affordability and the quality of life for University of Texas students, with the possibility of bringing a much-needed grocery store to the West Campus area.

On Thursday, Council will consider a resolution that calls for a series of changes to the University Neighborhood Overlay, a density bonus program that has been amended seven times since it was first passed in 2004 in an effort to add more housing to serve UT students.

The resolution calls for ordinance changes that would require windows in all bedrooms, make all bedrooms “functionally equivalent” whether they are priced affordably or at market rates, expand the UNO to more areas of the campus to allow some increases in building heights, take steps to increase commercial activation of ground-floor square footage and make assorted improvements to aid pedestrian and bicyclists… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin-based Tesla reportedly set to lay off 10% of its workforce. Here's what we know. (Austin American-Statesman)

Austin-based Tesla is reportedly slashing 10% of its global workforce, though it's unclear how many jobs will be cut in Texas.

The layoffs were reported Monday by Reuters. The news outlet said it reviewed an internal company memo, but the memo did not say how many jobs would be affected.

Tesla's total employee headcount stood at 140,473 according to annual report released in January. If job cuts do affect 10% of jobs, more than 14,000 employees could lose work.

News website Electrek reported Monday that Tesla executives Drew Baglino and Rohan Patel are no longer with the company. Baglino was Tesla's senior vice president of powertrain and energy, while Patel was the company's policy chair, according to Electrek.

The company employs 22,777 in Austin, according to a recently released report filed with Travis County. Tesla is believed to be the largest private employer in the city, narrowly beating out H-E-B, according to data kept by Opportunity Austin. Only the state of Texas and the University of Texas employ more in Austin than Tesla… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin police begin new program of officers drawing blood in some DWI cases (Austin American-Statesman)

Jail nurses won’t do it, and Austin-Travis County EMS medics are looking to get out of it. So now, people arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated could have their blood drawn at the jail by a specially trained Austin Police Department officer as part of a new pilot program.

“We're (not) drawing blood on the side of the highway willy-nilly,” said Ryan Huling, sergeant over the Police Department's impaired driving investigations unit. “(Officers) are equally as trained … as the medics were before them. It's done in a sanitary, clean place under consent or warrant.”

The Police Department says it is necessary for someone to remain available at the jail to take timely blood draws of people arrested on suspicion of DWI and that officers have been trained to do so. While police say the program is off to a good start, there are concerns from County Attorney Delia Garza the new process could lead to a “potential eroding of public trust.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Federal judge fines Texas child welfare agency $100K per day for foster care failures (Texas Tribune)

A federal judge has ordered Texas health and human services officials to pay $100,000 per day in fines for routinely neglecting investigations into allegations of abuse and neglect by children in the state’s beleaguered foster care system, according to a Monday order.

U.S. District Judge Janis Jack found Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Cecile E. Young in contempt of her court orders to fix the way the state investigates complaints by children in its care.

It is the third time the state has been held in contempt of court orders since a 2011 lawsuit was filed about foster care conditions in the care of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the child welfare arm of HHS.

The judge’s decision was prompted by the “continued recalcitrance” to conduct thorough, accurate and timely abuse, neglect, and exploitation investigations by the agency’s Provider Investigations unit, which investigates those allegations, the 427-page decision reads… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Dozens of Texas water systems exceed new federal limits on “forever chemicals" (Texas Tribune)

In Texas, 49 public water utility systems have reported surpassing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever limits for five “forever chemicals” in drinking water, according to data submitted to the federal agency.

Experts say there are likely more since not all water systems have submitted their data.

PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are widespread and long lasting in the environment. They are called “forever chemicals” because they don't break down and can persist in water and soil, and even human blood indefinitely. The chemicals have been used since the 1940s to repel oil and water and resist heat. They have been included in thousands of household products from nonstick cookware to industrial products like firefighting foam.

There are more than 12,000 types of individual forever chemicals, but new EPA standards announced last week set new limits for five of them: PFOA and PFOS have a limit of 4 parts per trillion while PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA have a limit of 10 parts per trillion… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[NATION/WORLD NEWS]

Supreme Court hears challenge to law used to prosecute hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants (NPR)

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in a case testing a statute used to prosecute hundreds of defendants charged with invading the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral ballots for president in 2020. That statute is also the basis for one of the four obstruction counts brought against former President Donald Trump in the criminal case currently pending against him in federal court in Washington… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Big Tech is downsizing workspace in another blow to office real estate (Wall Street Journal)

Big technology companies are cutting back on office space across major coastal cities, leaving some exposed landlords with empty buildings and steep losses.

The pullback marks a sharp reversal after years when companies such as

Amazon.com, Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Google parent Alphabet

had been bolstering their office footprints by adding millions of square feet of space.

Their expansion continued even after the pandemic erupted and many employees started working remotely. Tech companies have been the dominant tenant in West Coast cities like Seattle and San Francisco, and by 2021 these companies came to rival those in the finance industry as Manhattan’s biggest user of office space.

Now, big tech companies are letting leases expire or looking to unload some offices. Amazon is ditching or not renewing some office leases and last year paused construction on its second headquarters in northern Virginia. Google has listed office space in Silicon Valley for sublease, according to data company

CoStar.

Meta has also dumped some office space and is leasing less than it did early on in the pandemic… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

One of St. Louis’ tallest office towers, empty for years, sells for less than 2% of its peak price (CoStar)

In the latest sign of how lower demand is hitting parts of the U.S. office market, one of the tallest towers in St. Louis that sold for $205 million in 2006 has changed hands again this week — for about $3.6 million.

The former One AT&T Center, a 44-story high-rise totaling 1.46 million square feet at 909 Chestnut St., is now owned by Boston-based Goldman Group.

The firm bought the property via CoStar Group's Ten-X auction exchange from SomeraRoad Holdings, a commercial real estate investor and developer that paid just $4.5 million for it two years ago. On a per-square-foot basis, the tower’s value over 18 years dropped from about $140 to $2.50, according to CoStar data… (LINK TO FULL STORY)