BG Reads // May 28, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
May 28, 2025

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✅ Today's BG Reads include:

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

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[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Austin leaders aim to improve to improve efficiency with increased local government collaboration (Community Impact)

Austin leaders advanced a proposal to build up coordination between local governments in a bid to improve services and limit costs imposed on residents.

City Council passed an item from council member on Ryan Alter billed as an initiative focused on economic growth, public safety and community well-being. Alter's resolution seeks to build collaboration between local entities with "overlapping jurisdictions," like Travis County, Austin Community College and Austin ISD.

“We haven’t in a long time, to my knowledge, really come together and looked at what is everyone doing and how can we better coordinate?" Alter said in an interview. "Taking a step back I think it’s just crucial that we do, both from a fiscal responsibility perspective, but recognizing that the state government is not going to be coming in and making our lives any easier. If anything, a little more difficult."

Alter pointed out that Austin already works with the county on various initiatives including public health, emergency medical services, and local projects like developing the Waterloo Greenway downtown. The city also partners with AISD on different programs like the district's parent support specialists that receive hundreds of thousands of city dollars annually… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Proposed PUD on South Central Waterfront could include high-rise housing, offices and a hotel (Austin Business Journal)

A planned unit development that could bring high-rises to Austin's South Central Waterfront across from downtown hasn't been finalized, but details of it are becoming more clear as the project makes its way through the city's approval process.

Dense high-rise housing, office space, a hotel and more could soon be developed on lakeside property at 200 E. Riverside Dr., but the 4-acre tract will need to be rezoned to a PUD before that happens, said Richard Suttle, an Austin-based real estate attorney representing El Paso-based Hunt Companies, the developer.

"Plans for projects of this magnitude can change as the market varies," Suttle said.

Currently, the 200 E. Riverside Dr. site is occupied by a 93,000-square-foot vacant office building built in 1970.

As things stand, the plans for the tract include two distinct areas in the PUD, one with a maximum height allowance of 500 feet and the second with a maximum height allowance of 600 feet, according to a staff report attached to the City Council's May 22 meeting agenda. The multiuse project would include three high-rise buildings with about 1.3 million square feet of office space, 897 residential units, a 513-room hotel, and 31,631 square feet of ground floor commercial and retail space… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Cannabis shops in Austin brace for closure as THC ban bill awaits Abbott's signature (KUT)

Hundreds of Austinites stand to lose their jobs if a bill banning consumable THC products is signed into law.

Senate Bill 3 was sent to the governor's desk Sunday. Unless it's vetoed, the measure will close a loophole in the state's hemp law that has allowed dozens of cannabis shops to legally sell marijuana in Austin since 2019.

The bill is one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's top priorities. Gov. Greg Abbott has not indicated whether he'll sign it.

One estimate suggests SB 3 will cost 50,000 Texans their jobs. Greg Autry, CEO of Sweet Sensi — a cannabis shop on Congress Avenue — believes the number will be far higher. Not only would his shop’s 42 employees be let go, but his security personnel and workers at the packaging and design company he contracts with could also lose their jobs.

“I’ve never been more disappointed to be a Texan in my life,” Autry said.

Sweet Sensi employee Nicole Cosper said the prospect was “extremely disheartening.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ Texas House OKs less rigid neighborhood zoning rules, setting up debate with Senate (Community Impact)

Texas House lawmakers initially approved on May 27 a bill that seeks to make housing more affordable by loosening density restrictions for new neighborhoods. The proposal was substantially amended by the House, setting up a potential clash with state senators.

In large Texas cities, Senate Bill 15 would allow property owners in new neighborhoods to construct single-family homes on lots as small as 3,000 square feet without approval from local officials. The latest version of the bill would more than double the density rules approved by state senators in March, which would allow single-family homes to be built on lots as small as 1,400 square feet.

The amended proposal initially passed the House in an 87-48 vote on May 27, with one more procedural vote required before SB 15 can return to the Senate. If the upper chamber does not agree with the changes, senators could call for a conference committee to iron out the differences.

Bill author Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, did not immediately respond to a request for comment before press time… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas bill penalizing cities and counties for progressive policies misses House deadline (Texas Tribune)

A proposal to expand a sweeping state law aimed at stopping Texas cities and counties from adopting progressive policies died Tuesday.

Senate Bill 2858 would have given the Texas attorney general the power to sue cities and counties and blow huge holes in their budgets if they adopt local rules the state believes go further than what’s allowed under broad swaths of state law.

The bill missed a key legislative deadline Tuesday night and died before it could come up for a vote in the Texas House.

SB 2858 sought to build on an expansive state law, dubbed the “Death Star” bill by opponents, that aimed to erode the authority of local officials in the state’s urban areas with the aim of stopping them from enacting left-leaning policies — the culmination of a decade-long push by GOP state lawmakers to curtail cities’ ability to make policies that advance the progressive agenda or place undue burdens on businesses. The law, passed two years ago, made it illegal for localities to create laws that exceed certain broad areas of state law… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Lawmakers near deal to spend $20 billion over two decades on water crisis (Texas Tribune)

Texas lawmakers appear to have reached a deal this week and are on the brink of passing a sweeping plan to invest billions into the state’s fragile water infrastructure and future water supply over the next 20 years, ending months of tense, back door negotiations.

On Tuesday, the Senate approved House Joint Resolution 7, which will send to voters in November a proposal to allot $1 billion a year — $20 billion in total — until 2047 to secure the state’s water supply. That money will be used to fund new water supply projects, such as desalination, repairing old water infrastructure, conservation and flood mitigation projects.

Meanwhile, the House gave initial approval to Senate Bill 7, by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, which lays out the administrative framework for funding water projects through the Texas Water Development Board. Lawmakers also agreed to a one-time investment of $2.5 billion into the water fund from House Bill 500, the supplemental budget, which is taken from the current budget surplus. About $880 million of that is already in the fund, so more than $1.6 billion will be deposited. A final, procedural, vote by the House on SB 7 is expected to happen Wednesday... 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Bill that would increase oversight of Texas’ largest energy users gets OK’d in Texas House (Texas Tribune)

The Texas House approved a bill Tuesday that would give Texas more oversight over energy transactions between power generators and the state’s largest consumers of electricity.

Senate Bill 6 also proposes new ways to assess the amount of electricity that is available to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the main manager of the state’s grid.

The bill now returns to the Senate. Legislators in the upper chamber must agree to the changes made to the bill before it goes to Abbott.

The bill would give ERCOT the power to oversee energy transactions between power generators and large consumers that don’t involve the state’s grid. ERCOT would also have the authority to cut their power and use it during an emergency.

State Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, the bill’s author, has said his bill will allow the state to better manage electric supply at times of high demand.

Power generators and companies said the new oversight measures proposed by the bill would be excessive for a market accustomed to the free trade of energy without requirements imposed by the state. They have said the bill could discourage companies from doing business in Texas. King said the new rules are not meant to do so.

“I think what this bill is seeking to do is set out clear rules where large load customers that want to come to Texas know what they're getting when they get here,” said state Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, who sponsored the bill in the lower chamber… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[US and World News]

✅ 'We're in a holding pattern': Home sales and building slump in the face of uncertainty (NPR)

Economic uncertainty has produced a double whammy for the housing market: sluggish home sales and plodding construction. Last month was the slowest April for existing home sales in 16 years — a sharp rebuke to hopes that this spring the housing market would recover after two very sleepy years.

In a May survey of builder confidence conducted by Wells Fargo and the National Association of Home Builders, home builder sentiment dropped to a level last seen in November 2023.

The problem, as ever, is the cost of housing: Home prices are out of reach for many who would like to buy. And the tariff drama under President Trump has both made it more expensive to build new homes, and made the future more unpredictable for would-be homebuyers.

The result is a country where builders want to build, and buyers want to buy — but the future is too much in doubt… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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