🟪 Austin launches new affordable housing incentives for mixed-use construction and downtown towers (Community Impact)

🟪 Austin responds to lawsuit alleging ETJ mismanagement (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Autonomous drone delivery company expanding into Austin: How drone operations are regulated (KXAN)

🟪 Hundreds of data centers are coming to Texas. (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Trump signals he may pull out of trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, which could impact Texas businesses (Houston Public Media)

🟪 Will Texas' new top voting official be a 'disruptor'? Locals are preparing for it (Houston Public Media)

🟪 A landmark housing bill passed Congress. Home builders fear it will fizzle. (Wall Street Journal)

READ ON!

Yesterday’s Chairman's Circle Luncheon hosted by the Austin Chamber of Commerce brought together Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax, Deputy City Manager Jon Fortune, and Assistant City Manager Dr. Eric Johnson for an insightful conversation on the city's most pressing priorities.

The panel covered Austin's $50 million budget shortfall heading into a difficult summer, Austin Energy's $735 million grid hardening investment, and the city’s push to use development speed as a tool for housing affordability, among other topics.

Fortune confirmed the city will present a data center policy framework to Council in late July, and Johnson announced the city's new Economic Development Director starts July 27 with a 90-day stakeholder engagement plan already in motion.

Small world footnote: All three of us attended Washburn University in Topeka, KS (I came along a little later for law school).

✅ Austin launches new affordable housing incentives for mixed-use construction and downtown towers (Community Impact)

Affordable housing programs tied to mixed-use construction citywide and taller towers downtown are now in effect.

City Council approved the new measures both in response to tensions over another mixed-use building program, and a 2025 state law that's impacted how Austin can incentivize affordable housing with new development.

Certain building entitlements that the city had previously traded for public benefits, like low-income housing, were automatically permitted under Senate Bill 840. That change prompted a local response to ensure continued affordable housing additions.

A citywide density bonus program called DBC is now in place, succeeding a similar previous program—density bonus 90, or DB90—that's been used in dozens of zoning cases since its creation more than two years ago. DB90 allowed buildings up to 90 feet tall, as long as a share of affordable housing was included. Hundreds of income-restricted housing units were created or planned under DB90, but it also drew frequent local opposition over the impacts of new construction and residential displacement… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin responds to lawsuit alleging ETJ mismanagement (Austin Business Journal)

Austin is defending its actions in court after it reversed the releases of 170 properties in western Travis County from the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The city has filed a formal response to a lawsuit from a local group of property owners claiming it bungled the designation of the sites in question. Austin said in its reply that the release of the properties from the ETJ was invalid due to a military base exception in Senate Bill 2038, the 2023 law that has facilitated a slew of deannexations in Central Texas.

“Plaintiffs’ properties were never eligible for release; thus, the automatic-release mechanism of (SB 2038) was inapplicable,” said Austin’s formal response. 

Since 2023, the owners of roughly 170 properties within five miles of the Bee Caves Armory — which is near the intersection of Loop 360 and Bee Caves Road — sought to be released from Austin's ETJ. They were informed by the city that their properties were considered released from Austin’s ETJ at various points since late 2023. But in March of this year, Austin sent letters to the property owners saying their release was voided... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Autonomous drone delivery company expanding into Austin: How drone operations are regulated (KXAN)

Austinites may soon be able to have groceries, takeout and other everyday goods delivered to their doorstep — by drone.

Autonomous drone delivery company Zipline is preparing to expand its operations into Austin later this year. On Thursday, the company hosted a demonstration showing how its technology works.

Zach Hill, who leads community engagement at Zipline, said customers can place an order through the company’s app, selecting items from participating retailers or restaurants. Once the order is confirmed, a drone is dispatched from a nearby site.

Instead of landing, the drone hovers about 300 feet in the air and lowers a delivery container, or “pod,” to the ground using a tether… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Ascension Seton Women’s Hospital opens for patients in Austin on Monday (KUT)

Ascension Seton will open a new hospital tailored toward women’s healthcare on Monday in Central Austin.

Ascension Seton Women’s Hospital is located on the south side of the main Ascension Seton Medical Center campus on West 38th Street. Ascension broke ground on the 325,000-square-foot facility in March 2023. The project experienced several delays in the years leading up to its opening.

“We always joke in women's services that it takes 9 1/2 months to make a baby, and if only it took that same amount of time for a very big capital project such as this, it would have been great,” said Laura Swaney, chief strategy officer of women’s services for Ascension Texas.

Swaney said that the new hospital came in response to the needs of a growing Austin.

“There was a recognition that the women's health infrastructure was not keeping pace, and quite frankly, that Austin families deserved a facility where every detail was purposely built for them,” Swaney said… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Georgetown’s proposes $1.6B budget to fund infrastructure, public safety (Community Impact)

Georgetown City Manager David Morgan brought forward a preliminary fiscal year 2026-27 budget of $1.6 billion at a June 23 City Council meeting.

The city is prioritizing investments in roads, public safety and water infrastructure while managing population growth, Morgan said. The majority of the proposed budget is focused on infrastructure investment—totaling over $876 million—which is anticipated to be larger than the city's operational expenses.

While population growth is slowing down, property taxes and sales taxes are plateauing. At the same time, the city has increasing operational costs, Morgan said. To combat expenses outpacing revenue, the city suggested a $2 million cut from its base operating budget... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Hundreds of data centers are coming to Texas. (Texas Tribune)

In the span of a couple years, hundreds of massive electricity- and water-hungry data centers have proposed construction in Texas — a veritable gold rush for those capitalizing on the sudden demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure.

There are at least 248 data center projects planned across the state, according to a Texas Tribune recent analysis.

Experts and industry representatives say the Lone Star state is just the place for the data center revolution because of its friendliness to business and lax regulation. And while industry leaders promise economic gains, some Texans fear the pressure data centers could add to the state’s already strained resources like water and energy.

Gov. Greg Abbott recently moved from calling Texas an “epicenter” of AI development to announcing he would make regulating the industry a priority for state lawmakers during the 2027 legislative session.

Here’s what you need to know about data centers, their water and energy use and how Texas officials and residents are responding… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ What Texas can learn from Japanese cities that give technology to its senior citizens (Texas Tribune)

In Shibuya, home to one of Tokyo’s busiest train stations and shopping destinations, seniors can choose a monitoring service and the city will install it and pay for the service subscription for up to a year.

They can pick Hello Light, an LED lightbulb that autonomously sends text messages to caretakers when the light hasn’t been turned on for a while.

Or, MaBeee, a battery that powers TV remotes, lights and other small devices and alerts family members when they are not being used.

There’s also Bocco, which can store medication reminders, transmit weather alerts and tell when the home is too hot or too cold. A nod to Japan’s affinity for anthropomorphic packaging, the messaging device is shaped like a small snowman.

“One of the biggest problems we have in Japan, in this [elder care] industry, is the gap between the demand and the supply because there are a growing number of elderly people but we are understaffed,” said Masaru Yamaoka, general manager of Panasonic’s Smart Aging Project, one of many divisions housed within Japan’s corporate brands focused on technology for the aging population.

Finding sustainable, low-cost ways to care for the elderly population is a problem Texas is all too familiar with and Japan, home to the world’s largest over-65 population at 36 million, is beating Texas in solving… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ The Supreme Court says the U.S. can turn away asylum seekers at the border (NPR)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed the Trump administration a tool that could make it far more difficult for asylum seekers to enter the United States.

Asylum is a form of legal protection available to people fleeing persecution in their home countries if they meet certain criteria. Under U.S. law, an asylum seeker who "arrives in" the U.S. is entitled to apply for asylum and generally cannot be removed from the country until their asylum application is processed. 

By a 6-3 vote, the high court ruled that federal law allows the government to stop asylum seekers from physically setting foot in the country, effectively keeping them from applying for asylum… 🟪 (READ MORE)