City Council Regular Meeting Transcript – 3/12/2026 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 3/12/2026 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 3/12/2026 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [10:00:15 AM] council members are here and we are meeting at the in the city council chambers, located in city hall at 301 west second street in Austin, Texas. Members. The way we'll proceed today and for members of the public as well is. In a moment, I will, for the record, read the changes and corrections into the record, although there aren't any. But I'll do that for the record in just a minute. We will then begin with our consent agenda. Currently, I don't have any items that have been pulled from the consent agenda. I have no items that have been pulled from the consent agenda. We will hear from speakers that have signed up to speak on those items that are on the consent agenda, and around 1030 or as close to 1030 as we're able to do it. I or immediately following the consent agenda and comments and discussion by members of the council, I will recess the meeting of the Austin city council and call to order the board of directors meeting of the Austin housing finance corporation. We have two items on the agenda. We will adjourn that meeting and then we will [10:01:15 AM] go to non consent items. We have two non consent items. Those are public hearings on items 30 and 31. At as close to noon as we can. We will have our public communications. At the conclusion of the public communications, we will recess for a period of time, and we will have live music during that period of time. And then at 2:00, which is we have a time certain for our zoning and neighborhood planning items. That's the order of the agenda we will follow today. Now for the record changes and corrections to be read into the record, there are no changes and corrections to be read into the record. And as I've indicated, there are no items that have been pulled off the consent agenda. So members, unless there's objection or questions. With that, I will turn to the city clerk and ask that the city clerk please begin calling the names of people that have signed up to speak on the items on our [10:02:16 AM] agenda. If you're in the room and you're called upon to speak, please make your way to the front of the chambers or and or take one of the seats that's here so that we'll know that you're here and we can move through in an efficient way for those that are wanting to speak. So I'll turn to the city clerk. >> Thank you. Mayor. We do have in person speakers on item two, bill bunch. Jennifer Robichaud and Jeffrey Bowen. >> If your name has been called, please come forward. >> Good morning, mayor and city council members. My name is Jen Robichaud. I'm a longtime Austin resident. I'm speaking on item two, the proposed amendments on lobbyist regulations. As a taxpayer [10:03:17 AM] deeply interested in government transparency, I see the city stripping away key accountability measures. This ordinance, originally adopted in 2016, set a high standard for Austin by requiring sign in sheets for lobbyist visits, something no other major Texas city mandates. A way for Austin to be a leader in government transparency, and something that its residents highly value. These sheets allow city officials to independently track paid influence, providing a verifiable cross-check against lobbyists own reports, ensuring accuracy and exposing omissions. This also gives city officials clarity and understanding how money is being used to influence their decision making. The proposed revisions would eliminate these requirements, shifting the onus of reporting to the lobbyists, creating serious risks without independent records, what incentives do lobbyists have to report? Honestly, city officials have a duty to know who's influencing their decisions. How do you know if [10:04:18 AM] you're not tracking it? Removing this checkpoint erodes public trust, and ignorance is no excuse for unethical behavior. So why make it harder to do the right thing? The good news is that we don't have to choose between efficiency and transparency. Instead of getting these protections, we can adopt smarter modern tools which are readily available. Digital forms are ubiquitous, and many businesses interested in robust data use these to track their visitors. Instant data collection removes the headaches of paperwork, enhances the auditor's reviews, makes public information, requests simpler, and builds confidence that ethics are enforced. I'm asking you today to prioritize ethics and transparency, keep the internal tracking requirements, and instead pursue efficient digital alternatives that make data readily available. Thank you. >> Mr. Bowen. >> Good morning everybody. Jeff Bowen, member of district eight. I did remember this time, Mr. Mayor. So like my friend here, [10:05:21 AM] miss Robichaud said, I have an issue regarding this over transparency. I understand that there's there's a need and there's some changes in here, but what really caught my eye is that removing requirements. This is regarding regulating lobbyists and changing some of the definitions around. But I need to ask this one question first. What is the line between a lobbyist and an activist? I mean, do we have people here that have come and spoke in front of this council, in front of this body, that have received some type of payment and just have spoke? More than likely, yes, but they're not registered. So what is the definition of trying to make sure people get registered? One of the other issues that I have is this is that even in these reports that are supposed to be done every for every, every quarter, what if an item gets left off? How do we know through any other ways, any other ways that they may have [10:06:21 AM] made a visit to to whatever person is the case? What if that gets left off? Are there any punishments? Are there any any rules that account for that? It talks about enforcement. Okay. What's the enforcement? You're not allowed to have supper tomorrow. I mean, we really need to be looking at this. This body has talked about the need to be more transparent. How about more accountability. So I see issues with this in a matter of what we're trying to streamline this. But I believe that there's issues that need to be discussed, need to be very public in order to do this, because even the auditor gets to look at this every three years. That's a long time between audits and trying to find out what is actually happened in that process and what has been affected that affect us as taxpayers and as citizens. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Bowen. >> We have one remote speaker on item two, Tracy Whitty. [10:07:25 AM] >> Good morning. Thank you for your public service and for considering how to improve requirements for documentation of meetings between decision makers and lobbyists. A primary goal of switching from an at large council to a ten one system was to promote representation that's more accessible and responsive to smaller geographic constituencies. When very visual way to document a council offices. Accessibility to its constituency is to keep digital signage sheets that record the names of visitors in real time, whether they're compensated for the activity and by whom, and, of course, the municipal question at hand, and then post interaction logs or calendars online in a searchable format as close to real time as possible, include virtual or remote meetings, as well as in-person meetings inside and outside the office. Include informal, unplanned interactions. Expenditure of office resources is worth it. Why would a district representative abrogate her right and cede her responsibility to convey to the public, with whom she or her staff spoke about what? Why let lobbyists tell her story unless a representatives own complete [10:08:27 AM] records would show her time disproportionately spent with lobbyists rather than with constituents. I've heard that sometimes council offices don't realize they're meeting with a lobbyist. The office can access a searchable lobbyist database and require people with whom they meet to certify whether or not they're attending a meeting for compensation before they set the meeting in their calendars. If an error somehow occurs, an online interaction log searchable by the public makes it more likely that oversight will be corrected quickly today. Please raise the bar for yourself to provide complete and accurate reporting of your meetings, rather than denying your critical role in ensuring transparent government that's accountable to the people, your authority to lead the city rests in how you are seen to move through the world as you carry out your duties. It begins with your commitment to transparent government. That leaves us little doubt as possible about why you take the actions that you do on behalf of the people. Thank you. >> We'll move back to in-person speakers on item three. Nyla sankofa. Moving to item four. [10:09:32 AM] Nyla sankofa. Zenobia Joseph on item four and Ben suddaby on item four. You'll have two minutes. Hello, mayor. Mayor pro tem council. >> My name is Ben suddaby. I'm a resident of district four and a resident of saint John's. I'm. I'm just a few blocks away from where this project is. The. The old Home Depot and trucks lot that the city owns. And I'm here to speak very much in favor of this project and the changes here that are expanding, deepening the affordability and making sure that this continues moving forward. As somebody who whose bus stop is right next to that lot, and I bike past this pretty much every day, this is something that the entire neighborhood benefit when it's implemented. And the folks [10:10:33 AM] who spend lots of their time in and around that area, whether housed or unhoused, will see great benefit. One of the biggest issues facing the working class in our country is the cost of living and a huge component, if not the biggest, is housing costs. And one thing that we can do to make concrete progress in our city is to continue making sure that we're building housing so people have options, and especially in mixed use projects like this that have a mix of affordability in it. As somebody who will be a neighbor to those prospective neighbors, I'm here to speak again strongly in favor of this. The process has been accessible to us in the neighborhood. I get the newsletters in my email I look forward to, including art that pays a holds on to the history of that area. I look forward to the water retention. I was talking to my council [10:11:34 AM] member about that. I look forward to having those new neighbors in our area. So just wanted to come down here and speak in favor of this. I know that lots of people will come down and speak against zoning changes and against new neighbors and against buildings. I say, build this to the sky house as many people as you can in my neighborhood. Welcome. >> On item five, bill bunch. >> I've not seen Mr. Bunch come in. Mr. Bunch, are you here? He doesn't appear to be here. >> Moving on to item six, Jeffrey Bowen. >> Oh. >> Good morning, Jeffrey Bowen, district eight. I'm actually wanting to just throw in a couple things about item six [10:12:35 AM] that I understand the need for wanting to have some services. I get it even looking at some of the the areas that they're looking at, administrative accounting associates, dispatchers, mail service clerks, and so on, and heating and air conditioning. One of the issues, and I know that it's come up several times, is the amount of pay. And I'm hoping and I more than likely believe Mr. Broadnax and his team are looking at what does it take to make sure that we're getting people so that we're not having to pay an outside source? Because when you pay in an outside source, basically you're paying a lot more money than what it's going to cost us. If we had those people in house being being on that end of the coin of, of, at times working in that area, I got X amount of money, the company got Y amount of money. And the, the person that actually did the survey or the person that needed the [10:13:35 AM] service actually paid more than what it was for that what that, that, that cost would have cost him for that employee directly. So I, I'm looking at this and I'm going, okay, I have an issue with some of the money being spent since we're really kind of having some issues with our finances, but I really wish that we would start concentrating on trying to get more employees and understanding why we cannot hire those employees. What is it that's that's impacting that? We talk about affordability. Yeah, we have a problem here, but this is not adding this to our budgets and trying to spend more money than what it would actually cost us for employees is actually a concern of mine. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> On item nine, Zenobia Joseph. >> I have not seen her come in. Miss Joseph, are you here? >> Item 11. Zenobia. Joseph. Item 14, bill bunch. Item 16. [10:14:39 AM] Bill bunch. Item 18. Zenobia. Joseph. Item 25. Bill bunch. Also on item 25, Bobby lavinsky. >> I haven't seen him either. Mr. Levinski. >> Item 26 Zenobia Joseph item 27. Bill bunch. Item 28 Zenobia Joseph. Item 28 Aaron Gonzalez. Item 28. Ophelia zapata. You have two minutes. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> I council and mayor, thank you for hearing me. I live in district nine and I'm speaking in favor of item 28. So this item would make it easier for students to apply to this essential program. Historically, this program has been looked at [10:15:42 AM] as a crime prevention, you know, mechanism. But moving forward, it's a great opportunity to look to it from workforce development perspective. Right now, students, every year, they're turned away because there's not enough jobs. Employers offering jobs in this program, investing in this program and having the city manager look at new pathways allows us to look at solving that problem into the future and changing that. Growing up on the west side of San Antonio, a lot of my opportunities in life were limited to the network that my family had. I grew up in a paycheck to paycheck, household and often high paying industry jobs. They felt outside of my access and out of reach. This program, from a workforce development perspective, has the opportunity to uplift a lot of this. People who grow up in those paycheck to paycheck households. Not only that, though, it has an opportunity [10:16:43 AM] to create a pipeline of future workers that we're going to need for our ambitious infrastructure goals and our ambitious goals that we have. As for our city, so thank you for your consideration and support. >> Thank you, miss zapata. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, mayor and council members. Zapata. I'm on the economic prosperity commission for district two and also a co-founder of the summer youth employment program. Over 35 years ago, its original intent was to ensure that our students don't get in trouble in the summer, really targeting 1415 year Olds and an opportunity to begin looking at the world of work, but also up to 1617 year Olds so that they we can begin helping them to [10:17:46 AM] take ownership of their education through this job experience. So which was amazing. And that's why it still exists, because that's what it's been doing. However, it's, it's really instead of growing, it's decreasing. And the city no longer has hired many of our students anymore. So hopefully this resolution is going to help us to revisit and see how we need to, what changes we need to do to make it a very more meaningful and successful program for more students, because we don't have less students that need the jobs, we have more students. And also it's an opportunity to align with school districts, internships, you know, what is our, our Akins high school justice? Internship? How is that aligning with the jobs [10:18:46 AM] that we're providing for these young students to begin seeing? Is this the dream job that I really want? You know, and. Also the health care at at eastside, they have the health care track, you know, is that are we are we partnering with employers that are helping us to build our local workforce? So it's an opportunity to revisit and reengage and make it a very successful program for our students, our families and our community. >> Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you being here. >> Mayor, that concludes our speakers on the consent agenda. >> Thank you very much, members. As you as you have heard, that concludes all the speakers on the consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion with regard to council member qadri moves approval of the consent agenda as read, and it is seconded by council member Fuentes. With that, I'll recognize council member qadri to speak on the consent agenda. >> Great. Thank you. Mayor. I didn't realize I was the first person to click on you. Raise my hand. No. [10:19:48 AM] >> You're a leader. Councilmember. >> Yeah. Thank you, thank you. I also want to point out I just got a notification on my calendar less than two months away between Jose and I's race, so. But no. Oh, you're running and councilmember Siegel as well. I just want to quickly touch on item 28 one. So thank council member Fuentes for bringing forward the item. Would love to be added as a co-sponsor. >> Without objection. Councilmember qadri will be shown as a co-sponsor of the item. >> Great. And then I would also love to further have a conversation around all this during the a future economic opportunity committee meeting where I chair and councilmember Fuentes is the vice chair. So just want to thank her for for her work on this. >> Thank you. Councilmember councilmember Fuentes, followed by councilmember duchin. Councilmember Velasquez. >> Yes, thank you, councilmember qadri, for your support and leadership. Colleagues. This item is brought forth really in recognizing the importance of investing in our youth. Here at the city, we have at least two youth focused employment and internship programs, one that city based, one that's in partnership with the county. [10:20:49 AM] And so really are taking advantage that there are conversations between the city and the county on renewing our agreement on the internship program that we have available. And so this item really sets forward kind of that renewed interest for us to increase employer participation, all in the spirit of empowering our workforce and investing our youth. I want to thank our economic prosperity commission, because this is based on a commission recommendation. And thank you for your testimony today. I also want to thank our co-sponsors, mayor Watson council members harper-madison Velasquez, duchen and zo qadri for co-sponsoring this resolution. And a special thank you to Sofia morales with my team for her work on this item. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember duchen. Councilmember Velasquez. Councilmember Siegel. >> Thank you. Mayor. I just wanted to touch on a couple of items as well. The first one is to just speak very quickly about item four, and just commend the folks at gracestar for their adaptive thinking, their agile management. I think the additional protections for [10:21:51 AM] tenants that were placed here can undermine incentives to use those funds by some, and the administrative costs and lost latitude, while needed for tenant advocacy, can burden those working in the space. So I'm happy to see that together. As a city, we're working with folks who can adapt to the changing environment as well, and that the project provides housing at the much needed 50% mfi income range, lower income and deeply affordable housing is going to continue to be something that we're struggle to adequately subsidize for. Item 28 I just want to express my thanks to being a co- sponsor for this item, supportive of the efforts of the city's summer internship program, as well as the Travis county summer youth employment program. I think this review is going to help us better train the next generation of workers and encourage folks to enter a professional workforce early in the life and distribute opportunity. And then finally, on item 16, this one was a struggle. In some ways. I'm voting to increase funding for the treatment plant because one, [10:22:51 AM] we need to build this treatment plant. And two, I believe that the new value, $1.5 billion is much closer to the actual cost of this project. And I think three would be the longer we wait, the more expensive this project is going to become. And it's already started. And so I appreciate all the work that Austin water has provided us, our staff, my commissioner. I appreciate the good work that they're doing to access low interest loans from the EPA and debt financing. I appreciate they're working to get competitive bidding at every stage of the process so far. So here's my asterix. I'd be remiss to not mention the broader concerns that I think we brought up at the briefing, 67% increase year on such a large budget is significant. I fear that we missed the bullseye here too far, and I know that inflation is real. I think the question is how Austin water and really all of our major infrastructure projects going forward, the airport, the convention center, captain stitch, this treatment plan, how we can get more [10:23:53 AM] accurate estimates in the future. I think that conversation is going to be important. I'd like for us to learn from this and think how we can better do the cost estimates on these huge infrastructure projects, because they really carry consequences for both the city and for us and for the public. And I also just want to acknowledge, you know, the funding landscape is getting trickier. Literally every single day between fuel costs and wars and inflation and slowdowns and the impact of tariffs and all other things that are far outside our ability to control. So how do we as a city better estimate and navigate and blunt what I think is an ever trickier forecasting scenario? Over the next five years, I think is going to be increasingly important. So I'm looking forward to having that conversation, figuring out how we can improve on this. >> Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember Velasquez, councilmember Siegel and the mayor pro tem. >> Thank you, mayor. First, I wanted to say that now that councilmember Siegel has joined this this race, that we probably need to get a team out there to make sure that all of [10:24:54 AM] us collapse on live TV. But no, and I want to thank you. I want to thank councilmember qadri for continuing to call me out. We will definitely have we need to set up a countdown clock here in chambers so that folks know when that's happening. On item number 28, I want to thank councilmember Fuentes for bringing that forward. A very necessary, necessary tool in ensuring our youth have a jobs. Thank you. On item number 26, I am excited to welcome Jules Marin as district three's new animal advisory commissioner. Jules is the executive director of Austin wildlife rescue, an organization which cares for more than 10,000 native wild animals annually. Jules also helped our d3 neighbors with a dense raccoon habitat in in the east side by sharing some educational materials and possible next steps. And no worries, the. The raccoons are safe and. One of their brethren popped up on my porch the other [10:25:54 AM] day, and I'm sure that I was right in feeding him and befriending him. And we now have. We have now made him the district three mascot. >> He was there too. Thank you. >> Yes. And and while I look forward to this next chapter with Jules as our commissioner, I want to thank our former district three commissioner and Linda for her service to the city and was key in helping us get rid of glue traps in all city owned facilities. We now use a more humane and sustainable pest control. We now use more humane and sustainable pest control alternatives. And Linda did that. Thank you, Anne, and welcome, Jules. >> Thank you. Councilmember, councilmember Siegel, mayor pro tem and councilmember harper- madison. >> Thank you, mayor. And I just want to start off by thanking the manager for this streamlined agenda. I think it might be our shortest agenda in a long time, but I want to highlight a couple items. Item 22 is a funding increase for meals on wheels. They provide hot, healthy meals, vital safety checks, and companionship to thousands of aging folks in and around Austin. And I'm thankful our sub forum was able to [10:26:55 AM] incorporate this funding increase to last year's budget process. At a time when improving food security felt especially urgent when the federal government failed to step up to protect our most vulnerable, the city did step up. So happy to see this moving forward today and on item 28. A lot's been said, but I'm really excited about this improved collaboration between the city and county youth jobs programs. And I would also like to be added as a co-sponsor. >> Without objection, council member Siegel will be shown as a co-sponsor of item number 28. Thank you. Councilmember Siegel mayor pro tem, followed by councilmember harper-madison. Councilmember Laine. >> Thank you mayor. I just want to highlight agenda item for the term sheet for the saint John project. The housing about 526 units, I believe 70% are which of which are going to be affordable, ranging from 50% to 80%. Affordability. A brand new or I should say expanded three acre park. There's currently a small park there, but this will [10:27:57 AM] increase the size and amenities there at the park. The. My constituents have been waiting for this for way too long and. But I know so many people have put in so much hard work and I've just got to highlight the project. It's going to be a big win for the city. It's going to be a big win for the neighborhood, and it's going to be just advancing our our housing goals, our park's goals, so many issues that that this touches. I want to and I see them here in the audience. Callie Phillips and David Walsh with greystar greystar is our private partner on the project. They're going to be building this as soon as the contract is signed and the site plan is approved, which hopefully will be very soon. I also have to thank Mike Gerber with hakka. Hakka is a partner in in the project, and Catherine nicely also is out there and she's been working on it. Again. Just very excited to to get the term sheet passed. I know that's not the final step, but we're getting close to the end and I swear I can see the finish line. [10:28:57 AM] Let's get this done and build that housing and build that new park. Thank you mayor. >> Thank you. With the use of the word finish line, I wonder if some of our council members will see the finish line. >> Right. >> Sorry, I got distracted. Council member harper-madison followed by council member Laine, then council member Ellis. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I appreciate it. And I got to say, smack talking distractions are always permitted, so no problem. For the delay, I'd like to speak to a couple items on our consent agenda, but I'd like very much to start by saying I really appreciate having the opportunity to join some of my colleagues this morning in acknowledgment and recognition of members of our community. Y'all out there in Austin, Texas know Deborah Duncan. She received a distinguished service award today for 35 years of service. And it was just so cool to watch that and be a part of it. Also, something maybe not as. Joyful, but really necessary to recognize. And I'm going to shout out one person without telling their their name. But we have an Austin firefighter who's been out of work for nearly three years. He contracted covid and it never went away. And so this morning, [10:29:57 AM] we also had the opportunity to acknowledge long covid. There are folks in our community for whom the pandemic is not gone. Covid did not go away. So just taking the opportunity to thank councilmember duchen for bringing that recognition to the matter and moving beyond that, I'd like to say on the consent agenda, item number two, to my understanding, what this item does is shift responsibility from council offices to lobbyists. Somebody made mention earlier that other cities, peer cities don't keep these logs. But the the reference was, I think, intended to say we somehow are more transparent, transparent in that way. I don't think that's the case at all. I think we're more efficient in that way. And so I appreciate that we're making the necessary changes to offset that responsibility. You guys don't know this, but council offices with those peers, I often encourage peers because I want you guys to know everything that that it is that you'd like to know. But I also need you to understand, you know, when you say somebody didn't answer the [10:30:58 AM] phone at the office or this, that or the other thing, peers take forever anything that will help to streamline that process. So we're not losing office members throughout the course of the week, processing peers, redacting it, anything that makes council offices work more efficiently. I promise you guys, you'll get a better work product out of those council offices. So I'm happy to see any item that comes forward that helps us be more efficient with the use of the time, and spend more of it working on constituent issues. I'd also like to speak to item number three. The vortex is a legacy local business and creative space in central east Austin. These types of place based agreements that we're talking about that recognize arts and cultural venues and how they contribute both to Austin's creative identity, but also the local economy, businesses that are centered. I take that back. Communities that surround businesses make them strong and [10:31:58 AM] vice versa. And so I just really appreciate that we have the opportunity to talk about agreements that help small businesses stay in small communities. Moving beyond that, I'll close out by saying, I really appreciate the opportunity for us to talk about youth employment. I was a I was a kid who had a job. There was the opportunity through various hardship opportunities. And I'll be honest with you guys, I lied when I was 14 on that application. I said I was 15 and I wasn't, but I needed a job. My family needed me to work. Beyond the practical need for employment, though, what that provided to me as an individual through my formative experience and into adulthood, I can't rewind what my formative experience looked like, but having access to employment made the difference. It was the equalizer for me and my family, so I really appreciate that. The city has our has our head in the game when it comes to empowering our [10:33:00 AM] youth in the city of Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember Laine. Councilmember Ellis. >> I'd like to thank my colleagues for making so many of the points that I had planned to make, and I will therefore skip them and limit my comments to requesting to be added as a cosponsor to item 28 and thanking councilmember Fuentes for her leadership in ensuring that that we consider how we will reach students across all of Austin, including a variety of school districts. Thank you so much. >> Without objection, council member Laine will be shown as a cosponsor of item number 28. Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember Ellis. >> Thank you for the recognition. Mayor, I just wanted to highlight briefly items 18 and 19. There's been a long conversation about the needs of our public safety officials, and to make sure that leadership is officing out of buildings that are functioning properly available to the general public, who needs to come and speak with a public safety officer in, in a in a way that is helpful for the needs that they're going to have when they solve some of [10:34:00 AM] the issues that they've experienced. And so I'm excited to see some of these lease negotiations changing. There has to be some predictability for the folks that are already officing in that building and already utilizing that space for their businesses. But I'm really, really excited to welcome our public safety officials to southwest Austin. This is in district eight, and I think it's going to provide a better experience, both for the folks that do this work day in and day out, and for the folks that need to interact with someone to help them solve a case. So I'm excited to see the conversation moving forward and looking forward to being able to fully open this building in the near future. >> Thank you. Councilmember members, there being no further discussion, the motion was made and seconded on the consent agenda to adopt the consent agenda as read. Is there anyone wishing to be shown abstaining from voting on an item on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to be shown recusing themselves from a vote on item on the consent agenda. Anyone wishing to be shown voting no on any item on the consent agenda. Councilmember Fuentes yes. >> If I can be shown voting no [10:35:02 AM] on item number two. >> Councilmember alter. Anyone else wishing to be shown. No voting on shown. No voting on any of the items on the consent agenda. All right. Without objection, the consent agenda is adopted with council members Fuentes and alter being shown voting no on item number two members. That concludes the consent agenda. Without objection, we will adjourn. We will recess the Austin city council meeting at 10:35 A.M. I will now call back to order the Austin city council meeting for this date at 10:38 A.M. Members that will take us to the non consent items. Items 30 and 31. Those are public hearings. Item [10:39:06 AM] number 30. Without objection, we will open the public hearing on item number 30. The public hearing is now open and I'll turn to the city clerk. >> There are no speakers for item 30 members. >> There's no one signed up to speak at the public hearing on item number 30. So without objection, we will close the public hearing and the public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion to adopt the ordinance set forth in item number 30? Motion made by council member Siegel seconded by council member harper-madison. Is there any discussion with regard to item number 30? Hearing none without objection, item number 30 is adopted. Members, we will now go to item number 31, which is also a public hearing. Without objection, we'll open the public hearing on item number 31. The public hearing is now open. I'll turn to the city clerk. >> There are no speakers for item 31 members. >> There's no one signed up to speak at the public hearing on item number 31. So without objection, we will close the public hearing on item number 31. The public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion to approve the ordinance set forth in item number 31? Motion made by council member Laine, seconded by council member duchen. Discussion. Hearing none without objection, the [10:40:06 AM] ordinance is adopted for item number 31 members. The next item on our agenda is the 12:00 time. Certain related to public communication. So without objection, we will recess the Austin city council for March 12th, 2026 at 10:40 A.M. At 10:40 A.M. Returning precisely at noon precisely or in advance. For those of you all that are bragging how fast you are, let's see if you can get here. Without objection, we are in recess at 10:40 A.M. [12:00:17 PM] Great job. >> Good afternoon everybody. It's 12:00 pm on March 12th, 2026. The council has been in recess, but I will call back to order the meeting of the Austin city council and we have a quorum of the city council present. We are at our 12:00 time certain for public communication, and I will ask the city clerk's office to help navigate that for us. >> Our first speaker is Caroline rose Kennedy. Next, we will have Derek byzinski and Sophia deloretto-chudy. >> If you're here and your name has been called, just come forward and take one of the chairs, please. Mr. Byzinski, are you here? Okay. Miss Kennedy, if you'll just take a seat anywhere. No, up here by the microphone. You're going to speak to us. >> I don't get out much. Hello? [12:01:19 PM] Hi. >> You'll have three minutes. >> Miss Kennedy. >> Miss Kennedy, if you'll go, proceed. >> Okay. Thank you all for having me. And thank all of y'all for serving. Oh, lord, I'm exhausted. I used to work at irs, among the best who serve, and then my boss said, Kennedy, you're getting on my nerves. In 1991. I looked through trucks of mail that [12:02:20 PM] came in to the Texas shop, through wind and fire and hell, by Burt, by plane, by Superman, or so joyfully by goat, by road or on bicycle. And it crossed the shining sea. I earmarked red March tax returns with dog bites, P and wine. But the ones from the popes and the presidents smelled very bad of swine. But I wore my suit with hose and heels, my hair the latest style. And I walked real fine and I talked drill straight, but I plastered on my smile. And then I got to move downtown on the hill near the capitol. How proud I was, but humbled when I faced the albino bull through the oak. Kaiba pmid 911. I lived without a [12:03:23 PM] scratch, but soon I found that the one to fear was right behind my. She. Sorry. She criticized my messy desk. The file piles on my floor, my overloaded voicemail box, my unread email chore. And then it was my tone of voice, the color of my eyes, and then my respiration rate could be. I'm twice her size. The moral to her story is don't give your time and life to federal shenanigans unless you have a wife. I gave my time in life to y'all, my money and my fun. And now I have great news for y'all [12:04:24 PM] from your uncle Sam. I run. >> Thank you for being here. >> Oh. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you so much. >> You two. >> Oh. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Good afternoon, mayor and council. I am here today because as council member zo knows, my car was recently booted while I was delivering fliers in his district. >> And I'm sorry to interrupt you, but can you state your name for the record? >> Sofia deloretto-chudy. >> Great. >> Thank you. I was gone for about the same amount of time that I'm allowed to sit here and speak today. The notice shows that I left at 509. The receipt shows I returned at 512. My car was unlocked. The keys were inside. The laptop was on the front seat. My sunroof was open. It was pretty obvious I wasn't going to be gone for long, but one space over a young man sat in his car with a boot in the trunk, waiting for someone like me to make a mistake so he could make a commission. When I called 311 to file a complaint, the person who helped me told me they [12:05:25 PM] received many similar frustrated calls. She explained sympathetically that as long as the signage requirements were met, these practices were technically within the law. That's when I realized it wasn't about me or the time that I spent there. Every system of rules creates incentives, and if those incentives reward exploitation, then immediate immobilization is what we're going to get. That's why I'm here today to ask you to consider three simple policy improvements that would make enforcement fairer and less predatory. Less than a week after the shooting incident, I also received a parking ticket from the city itself. It was issued at 538 on a Monday when pay to park in the area ends at six. Of course, that was my mistake to think enforcement wouldn't be swept in the final 30 minutes on a Monday night, but two small parking errors in the same week cost me $150. More than half the monthly food assistance that my father and I receive. For many people, including me, that is not discretionary spending. It's money that could have gone to local shops and restaurants downtown. As someone working remotely while launching a nonprofit, this means losing the ability to leave home to work from neighborhood coffee shops and participate in the local economy. When accessing downtown or university, areas become financially risky for residents who don't have extra cash on hand. It changes who feels welcome to participate in [12:06:26 PM] those spaces. Last year, the city raised parking fees from 20 to $50. 20 felt like a reasonable reminder to follow the rules. 50 begins to feel a lot less like a reminder, and more like a signal that certain people simply should not be downtown. Small procedural safeguards protect fairness while simply allowing enforcement to do their job. So here's what I'm proposing a 10 to 15 minute observation period before a vehicle can be booted. A warning notice for first time offenders on a property, a reasonable boot fee, removal of $75 to match the city's own parking structure fees. You can see from the handouts I provided that other cities already do this, including San Antonio. Cities across the country regulate private booting not by banning enforcement, but by requiring reasonable waiting periods and procedural safeguards. They protect property owners rights while also protecting residents and visitors from predatory enforcement practices. Small adjustments like these improve fairness, reduce conflict, and build trust in our local systems. All I ask is that council will consider directing staff to review these examples and explore whether Austin can adopt similar safeguards. Thank [12:07:26 PM] you for your time. I'd also like to thank the 311 employee who took my call. She told me how difficult it is to take calls from residents who feel taken advantage of, knowing there's very little she can offer, because these practices are technically within the law. I promised her that I would come here today and try to fix that. >> We appreciate you being here. Thank you. Is Mr. Byzinski here? Okay. >> That concludes all speakers. >> Members, that concludes our 12:00 time. Certain what? And we don't have anything other than on the agenda other than our 2:00 time. Certain. But we are going to have live music, and I think some folks have shown up so they can be part of that. And I'm glad to see that. That's wonderful. So what we will do, members is we will, without objection, we will recess at 12:08 P.M. Until 2:00 promptly at 2:00 pm. And we will. But we'll have live music. The live music will set up almost immediately now. We will have live music, and then [12:08:26 PM] everybody will be back for the remainder of the business of the city council at 2:00 pm. It's 12:08 P.M. And the council is in recess. [2:00:09 PM] well, good afternoon everybody. It's 2:00 and I will call the Austin city council back to order. After a recess on March 12th, 2026. Members. The item on our agenda are is the our 2:00 time certain related to zoning and neighborhood planning and I will look to miss harden to begin that process for us. >> Thank you mayor and council. I'm joy harden with Austin planning your zoning and neighborhood plan amendment agenda begins with item number 32 c14 2025 0124. This item is offered for consent on all three readings. Item 33 is c14 2025 0106. This item is offered as a neighborhood postponement to your March 26th council meeting. Item 34 c14 2025 0108. This item is offered for consent on all three readings. Item 35 is N pa 2025 0012.01. [2:01:10 PM] This item is offered for consent first reading only. The related rezoning is item number 36 c14 2025 0092. Again, this item is offered for consent first reading only with the following motion which reads amend the draft ordinance as follows. Remove the following uses from part two a and add them to part two. B bed and breakfast. Group two college and university facilities. Communication service facilities. Pet services. Add a new part two C as follows. The maximum height of a building or structure on the property shall not exceed 35ft. With that, again, this item is offered for consent. First reading only. Council member harper-madison has made the request of first reading to allow for more time for continued conversation. These items will return for second and third reading consideration at your March 26th council meeting. There are speakers here in opposition to [2:02:10 PM] this request. The primary concerns that we have heard were related or transportation related, specifically parking and the encroachment of commercial zoning into the residential area. We took those concerns seriously. As we wait, our recommendation. Please note that there is existing commercial and multi-family zoning on the north side of east 22nd street, within three blocks to the east and west. We also considered the resolution approved by this council that supports more neighborhood scale commercial uses and residential areas. As we're offering this item for consent, I just wanted to give you a bit of staff's perspective, along with the testimony you'll hear from the neighbors shortly. Item number 37 is mpa 2025 0025.02. This item is offered for consent on all three readings. The related rezoning is item 38 c14 2025 0079. Again, this item is offered for [2:03:11 PM] consent on all three readings with the following motion which reads at adult ordinance businesses to the list of prohibited uses in part two. Again, there are some speakers here today in opposition to this item. Their main concerns are related to land uses, density of development, and environmental protection. There are 27 uses prohibited in the proposed conditional overlay, and staff feels the remaining uses are appropriate at the intersection of two major highways. The environmental regulations will be enforced at the time of site plan and would likely result in a superior development to what exists on the site today. With that, again, staff is offering these items well, this item and the related neighborhood plan amendment for consent on all three readings. Item 39 is c14 2025 0080. This item is offered as an applicant postponement to your March 26th council meeting. [2:04:11 PM] Item 40 is npa 2023 0005.01. This item is offered for consent, second and third readings. Lastly, the rezoning is item 41 c14 2024 0015. Again, this item is offered for consent, second and third reading and mayor and council. This is the 10th time you're seeing these items. Item 40 and 41 on your council agenda. Since they were submitted in 2024. These items were approved on a74 vote at your February 26th council meeting. And please note, we do have oppositional speakers signed in for these items. This concludes the reading of the zoning and neighborhood plan amendment agenda. And as always, this is at your discretion. >> Thank you. Any questions of council councilmember Ellis? >> I did, but it might be helpful to hear from the speakers first. Can I ask that quick question after we hear from everyone. >> That works for me? Very good members, then I will. What I'll do is I'll read into the record the motion or the consent [2:05:11 PM] agenda as it's been read. I'll ask first if there's anybody who wishes to pull something off the consent agenda, as miss harden has laid it out. All right. The motion that I'm looking for is to approve the consent agenda item number 32 on all three readings 33. A postponement to March 26th, 34. All three readings 35 and 30. The related item 36 on first reading only item number 36 having also including the motion that was the addition that was read into the record by miss harden. Item 37 all three readings. Item 38, all three readings. And again with the motion that was read into the record as part of the motion by miss harden, 39. A postponement to March 26th, item 40 and the related item 41 on second and third readings. Is there a motion? Motion is made by councilmember harper-madison, second by councilmember qadri to approve the consent agenda. With that, [2:06:12 PM] we will go to speakers on the consent items and I'll turn to the city clerk before he starts calling names. What I would ask is as as he calls your name, if you would please come forward and either take a seat. If there's already somebody seated at one of these chairs in front of the microphones, just take a seat up front. Otherwise, go ahead and take an open seat at one of the microphones, and that way we'll know you're here and we'll know you want to testify, and we'll operate your time more efficiently. In addition to that, when it comes your time to speak, if what you will do is also state your name for the record, we would appreciate that. And with that, I'll turn it over to the city clerk. >> Thank you. Mayor. We will begin with remote speakers on item 33. Speaking to the merits of the postponement. Kathy. >> Hello, this is Kathy rricardo, and I'm just requesting an adjournment so that we can. A postponement until the. [2:07:15 PM] >> That was an abrupt postponement. Are you there? >> We'll try to get her back on the. Okay. Moving to item 35, Marva Overton. Jeffrey Bowen and Catherine tusek. >> Good afternoon, council and mayor. My name is Marva Overton and I represent the blackland neighborhood association. And I'm here today to ask for opposition to the zoning request to amend the neighborhood plan. This item has three primary concerns for our neighbors. One is the encroachment of commercial businesses into the residential portion of the neighborhood. And I heard staff mention that the council is actually encouraging development, commercial development, but we have plenty of commercial development in our neighborhood. It's along the corridor, which [2:08:16 PM] we think is appropriate, but not within the interior of the neighborhood. We have grave concerns that this will start an erosion of the residential portion of the neighborhood and lead to more commercial development requests. This particular property would actually be next to and across the street from residential homes. There is no other commercial business on that street. What exist is multi-family residential. We also have traffic and safety concerns. We understand that the we already have significant traffic and parking issues on 22nd and chulita, and is virtually impossible during the current restaurant operations. Hours for parking a new restaurant, in addition to estate and Bartz will increase the problem 2108 and 2110 are located very close to Alamo park, and we have very limited sidewalks in the neighborhood, as is hours of operations, and is another concern, along with [2:09:17 PM] the unlimited number of private events that could occur, the proposed new restaurant will be open to the public from 7 A.M. To 4 P.M. Workers will arrive before and after and remain after those hours. The applicant wants the ability to have unlimited private events at the new restaurant that could last until 10 P.M. Est, opens at 5 P.M. To 10 P.M. During the week and noon to ten Friday through Sunday. This creates the likely scenario that both new restaurants will have customers at the same time. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Bowen. >> Jeffrey Bowen, district eight. And I'm here speaking on behalf of Austin neighborhoods council as their president. We took a vote last night at the executive committee to support the neighborhood in this. And primarily one of the reasons I actually sat through the planning commission that night that they had this. I was absolutely appalled at the way that the commission treated the people that spoke. The Overton's former four former council member, Houston. I was [2:10:19 PM] honestly, it was it was very disturbing. And so I vowed that I would come down and speak to this. But last night, we actually made a vote that we were going to support the neighborhood's decision to oppose this zoning. So during the entire process, during the planning commission, which is all on video, it was it was very obvious that their minds were already made up, that this was all going to be up zoned. The lack of respect, the lack of even wanting to listen to a long established neighborhood and long established neighbors in that neighborhood. I just found it egregious at their behavior when one of them actually said, well, this is we're going to ups on this because of the corridor. East 22nd is not a corridor. It may be close, but when these type of incidents happen, we start to lose trust within the entire process because our words are not being heard. And the fact [2:11:21 PM] that we want to talk about maintaining neighborhoods, it doesn't seem that that is any type of a factor in this case here. So I ask for you to please reconsider up zoning this and listen to these neighbors. They have they have looked at this very hard. They've tried to work with these people. And it has been it has not been a very good experience based upon what I witnessed at the planning commission at night. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Bowen. Yes, ma'am. >> Hi. I'm Catherine Tucek and I live about 100ft from the proposed restaurant in blackland neighborhood. And I wanted to say to you that blackland is the community that you want, the neighborhood you've been actually describing. When you talk about zoning, we have two corridors of thriving businesses that blackland neighbors have supported on the border, north and south, which would be mlk and Maynor. And we have residential with both renters and owners and duplexes [2:12:21 PM] and affordable housing with bcdc and density over by U T, where we particularly fought, talked with them about, hey, please don't give us tennis courts that you're planning. Give us, give us people, give us neighbors. We also have those grad students or people that I might meet in the park some places. These are people that walk through the neighborhood. These are neighbors because the original black residential community really seemed to understand neighborhood. They also realized that they needed some safety, and they needed that safety to be within the neighbors and within those streets that were there. And then they bordered it with the businesses because they also valued what you value. When I look at Miller, you valued the ability to walk to businesses, to shop places, to find a way to be able to bring your groceries home. We have 30 businesses within 0.8 miles on the mlk and Maynor corridors. Those are restaurants. That's just the restaurants, bars and the shops that I count. The coffee shops I counted and when [2:13:22 PM] I. What I do understand is that businesses come and go and I'm glad Sam is there. I like Sam, I've prayed for Sam's businesses. I wanted him to do well with Shea and marta.t, and in particular, as long as people's health allowed, they stayed on the inner streets. So you knew people and they had porches that they set on, and they talked to people across the street from those porches. And when I moved there in 1996, I had two elderly neighbors who told me, told me the life there. They explained what the history of blackland was about. And I'm asking you save something about the history of blackland. >> Thank you. >> Also speaking on item 35, Christopher Paige. >> I don't see him. >> I'm going to switch back to remote speakers. We are having technical issues, so we'll stick with remotes with in-person speakers. On item 36. [2:14:26 PM] Anna Maria Gutierrez. Katherine Tucek, and Daniel Tucek. >> Please come forward if you wish to testify and your name has been called. >> Please I council members. My name is Anna Maria Gutierrez, and for the past six years I have been the garden manager at estate garden from the beginning of Esther garden. Our mission has been to grow seasonal produce for our restaurants Burt and back then, what was soon to be Esther, while revitalizing the historic garden space that was previously tended to by eastside cafe as the garden would remain open to the public without any Gates or locks, with the intention of creating community and our neighbors, close and far, can gather to grow, learn and eat. I'd like [2:15:27 PM] to share about the ecosystem at estate garden. Many are shocked to see how much life there is in this fourth of an acre. As an urban gardener, I too have loved learning how abundant a small garden can be beyond its harvest. The garden's diverse ecosystem is composed of plants, pollinators, food, living, soil, birds, flowers and also a large community of austinites and neighbors who have a relationship with this garden. I see neighbors who take a daily stroll home. Gardeners come to ask for advice, diners who are curious about the food on their plates, parents who bring their kids to explore, and volunteers who have been coming for years to the garden because of their love for this learning communal green space. We've hosted school groups of all ages cohorts from urban roots farm, share peas, good work, Austin fruitful commons [2:16:28 PM] and many more, as well as workshops, volunteer programing, free educational tours, farmer socials and beyond. Within the blackland neighborhood, we've had neighbors come to anniversary celebrations, exchange seeds with Alamo rec center and much more. It's been a pleasure to witness the impact this garden has had on so many. >> I'm sorry, but your time is expired. Thank you, thank you. >> Hi, Catherine Tucek again. And I wanted to say that we do love the garden. It's beautiful. What we are here about is talking about what happens. One reason we don't have residential parking is we've always supported the neighborhood and we've the the businesses on the corridor. And we didn't want to affect east side and we didn't want to affect MI madre. We didn't want to affect whoever moved in after, which is Sam. But in particular, the parking has become insane because of how crowded it is. Now, what might we have to do? Right? We might [2:17:29 PM] have to do what some other neighborhoods have done. But let me ask this. If there's another restaurant and they run concurrently with times, what then? There's only so much space that people can come into the neighborhood and find a place. And we never did it before because it would push people further in. In addition to that, I know that one of the things that's still listed on there if if you all decide to pass this, we need some protections. And one of them that's on there is an off site parking. Off site accessory parking means that then other businesses can also park in spaces. And the question is, where are those spaces on the lot? And I'm telling you, I hope Sam does really well. But if that got sold somehow and it became a parking lot, then what about E T O D? What is the point of saying that we want to make more space for cars? I would urge you to put that take that off and protect us in regards to that. In addition, I wanted to ask also that maybe you would start to look in a different way at exactly how the neighborhood has tried to work. We have tried to work. [2:18:30 PM] We've tried to. I can't make my neighbors change their minds, but the opportunity to be able to try and work something out, they've been helpful in removing certain things with CEOs, and they've also been helpful in some other things. But one of the things that you all don't govern is that a restrictive covenant, and we we need some assurances that we were trying to work with in that. Now, what the neighborhood did is said, we can't go with this particular restrictive covenant. And so if there's time allowed, if you all can help us allow to work with them, that would be incredibly helpful because I have a feeling this might pass. >> Yes, sir. >> Time for you. Can I give my can I give my time for her? >> Not now. The way we we have rules about how you can donate time. So if you'd like to speak, though, you have two minutes. >> Yes. We just. We just would like to keep the neighborhood a neighborhood without commercial [2:19:30 PM] encroaching and, and then setting a precedent for other properties to be rezoned. If that happens, our neighborhood is gone. And there's just no way that we're going to be able to function there anymore with the amount of traffic that's going to be there and the, the lack of safety that's going to be there. >> So hang on one second. Stop it. Stop the clock. So we'll have more time. We'll have the amount of time. What's going on with the sound? Switching? Can you switch that now read it now. Okay. You make you sir you can continue. I just didn't that that that was distracting for people that wanted to listen to you. >> Okay. Yeah. We just know that the developers are going to come in and want to. Rezone [2:20:30 PM] other properties and, and push the neighbors out. We're a neighborhood of only four by six blocks and we're already small. And if it the encroachment comes in even one street in on each side, then there's, there's hardly anything left. And so we're asking that you don't approve the rezoning and save our neighborhood, save the the people who've invested their and who, who are wanting to remain to, to living there. And. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you. >> Continuing on item 36, Kevin O'Reilly, Marva Overton. Jeffrey Bowen. [2:21:32 PM] >> Please, whoever wants to go first. Okay, state your name. >> Hello, my name is Kevin O'Reilly. My wife Alex, and I would like to voice our support for the zoning change at state garden. We've been cherrywood residents right around the block going on 15 years now, and this will be our fifth year volunteering in the garden, helping to care for the purple Martins that nest there each. Each season. It's a small but meaningful space, not just for us, but to a community of volunteers. People come together there to garden, learn and contribute to something green in the middle of our bustling neighborhood, we've met countless Austin neighbors being there through the and through the garden tours and talking to Sam, the owner. I know he cares about the community and he is committed to keeping a significant portion of the garden with a new restaurant he wants to build. I also know that we're not alone in loving the area [2:22:33 PM] for its vibrancy. In a recent neighborhood newsletter survey that was published just last month, the top two common threads were people's love of the variety of businesses on mohnour, as well as its walkability and friendliness. We think this will only add to this. And yeah, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Yes, ma'am. >> Yes, ma'am. Overton. I'm going to pick up where I left off. On a personal note, I want to add that I have lived on east 22nd street in Brooklyn since 1994. I live in the home that my grandmother and step grandfather built in the 1950s, and my parents live on the same street six blocks to the west. They are both from Austin, but they moved to Tennessee for 42 years, moved back here in 2003, and they live at the house on the corner of Leona and 21st street. And it's a blessing to have them that close, especially given that they're now both in their 90s. I hope [2:23:33 PM] they don't mind me sharing that, but the house that they reside in stands today only only because the blackland neighborhood association was formed in 1981 to fight the further annexation of land by the university of Texas at Austin, being a. And UT reached an agreement whereby the university would not acquire property east of Leona street in blackland. In 2016, UT proposed constructing tennis courts on the west side of Leona B, and they felt this would be disruptive to neighbors that live near Leona street. And for several years prior to that proposal, had discussions with UT regarding establishing graduate student housing. Bna had the desire to maintain the residential fabric of the neighborhood, and UT had a need for graduate student housing. After many meetings and some compromising, the east Austin graduate apartments opened in the fall of 2024. I share these stories because this is the history that we, [2:24:34 PM] especially long time residents, bring to this rezoning case. We know from experience what can happen if you don't take a stand to protect your residential neighborhood. I doubt very seriously that Mr. Sam Hellman, mosque is aware of this history. If he were, I think, or at least hope, he would have realized the importance of working with the neighborhood upfront rather than reaching out for the request for the first time on August the 22nd and submitting the application on September the 3rd. >> Ma'am. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm sorry your time has expired, Mr. Bowen. >> Thank you. Jeffrey Bowen, president of ANC representing executive council on this. What she just got through talking about the history of black lands goes back as a as a co-op basically, that started purchasing land to keep from being taken over by UT. This neighborhood is very small and they've been fighting for a very long time. I hope you can [2:25:35 PM] see the amount of of not only desperation, but the pride that they have in trying to maintain their neighborhood. They're asking for an opportunity. And I would hope that in the fairness of affordability and trying to save neighborhoods and those things that maybe this council will actually step back and say, maybe we need to look at this and actually do the right thing. We're not against business. We think that works. But these people have tried their damnedest to work and try to get some resolve over this entire issue. Again, I encourage you to go back and watch the the planning commission tape on that. It was it was something that was very eye opening. And I and I hope that it never happens again. But again, we have those that believe more in densification than there is in preservation. And preservation seems to have [2:26:35 PM] been lost in this entire conversation. It's all about what we want to do, maybe to increase the tax base. Well, guess what? Those homeowners are paying to the tax base also. But they need to be heard. They need to be heard very clearly on what they're trying to what they're trying to preserve and what they want to keep in their lives. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Anna Houston. And is aura Houston here. >> She is. >> You will have four minutes. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Good afternoon, council mayor, mayor, pro tem, city manager. My name is Gina Houston, a native austinite living in district two but raised on east 22nd street. And ultimately this case is about dreams, the dreams of a business owner versus the dreams of a neighborhood whose dreams hold more weight. Let's see what the history of Austin [2:27:35 PM] shows. In 1928. 98 years ago, the city fathers decided that the free negroes were too many and too free, so they mandated that they be moved east of what is now I 35. We moved and built a community that nurtured a hospital, an award winning high school, and two colleges, one of which is older than the university of Texas. The hospital closed, the high school was closed. The middle school was burned down. Old east Austin began to decline, but people stayed, living out their dreams of self-determination, building neighborhoods and community. Imagine a quiet neighborhood made up of lifelong Austin residents, as well as new neighbors from after the turn of the century. They were living their lives one block from a main commercial corridor, crowded streets but still friendly to children and pets. Then the petitioner decided he wanted to build an office space, a breakfast restaurant that could be open until 10 P.M. On [2:28:37 PM] any night of the week, whenever he liked hosting private parties as large as he wants. Maybe a bakery, maybe a leather goods store, basically a small business and entertainment center facing into a residential street facing single family homes, completely changing the character of the neighborhood. When Clarksville faced commercial encroachment, this council voted on July 24th, 2025, on consent to apply stringent restrictions to the development of 608 blanco. Blackland faces this, but we are told that we. It's better for us to allow soft commercial encroachment. Our dreams of a quiet neighborhood are deferred, but not those of 608 blanco's Y. The commercial encroachment on Rainey street started and that nationally recognized historic residential neighborhood no longer exists. It's all [2:29:37 PM] commercial. We know what happens when commercial encroachment is allowed. It expands and grows. And, as shown on Rainey street, dreams of a quiet, family oriented neighborhood are destroyed, dreams deferred, dreams destroyed. We are only asking that the council abide by the upper neighbor upper boggy creek neighborhood plan that was adopted in 2002. If the petitioner wants to amend the neighborhood plan, a rigorous process must be followed. Instead, planning staff recommended the rezoning on its face without any indication of what it was good for the residents of blackland. How is this good for us? There is no net positive. Commercial zoning means more traffic, less street parking, early morning truck deliveries on a sleeping street. The petitioner cites the vortex and staff just cited the vortex as a precedent, but the vortex does not have a commercial entrance onto 22nd street, and they have put up mitigation efforts to mask the commercial [2:30:37 PM] character of that property. Why did 608 blanco in Clarksville receive restrictions on consent? But blackland has to ask to work with the petitioner and give up our dreams. While the petitioner refuses to agree to simple compromises such as residential architecture for the offices, we, being poor, have only our dreams. We have laid our dreams at your feet. Tread softly because you tread on our dreams. Please vote no on the rezoning of these two lots require the petitioner to follow a full non neighborhood plan amendment process. Black lens dreams should matter as much as Clarksville's. >> Thank you. >> We'll move back to remote. >> One second. Members, I want to recognize for the members of the public. I also want to recognize that former council member aura Houston is in the audience and just donated time to the previous speaker, and we thank you for your service. Thank you for being here. [2:31:42 PM] >> Going back to remote speakers, speaking on the merits of postponement for item 33, Kathy Brocato. Kathy. Please unmute. Kathy. Brocato. On item 35. Tracy Whitty. Seems like we're still having technical difficulty. We will go to item 36. Bill bunch, Leah Ziegler, and Bobby lavinsky. [2:32:50 PM] >> After you. >> Is Jeffrey Bowen here? He is. Leah will have four minutes. >> Lee Ziegler, chair. >> Of the oak hill neighborhood planning contact team, speaking on items 3738 south town square. Good afternoon. Now my slides are. Can I speak later? >> Well, sure. If he thinks he can get them back. >> Oh, I have my flash drive. >> And we don't we can't do that. But but I'll tell you what. Let's go on to another. Mr. Levinsky, why don't you go ahead and speak and we'll. >> I had some images, too, that I would like to show. So we both prepared up for that. >> All right. Let's go to [2:33:54 PM] another item. Or if there's speakers on item 30, you called 36, but we're really on 37. And you know, on item number 37, if there are speakers that don't have audio, don't have visuals. >> I think the last one for 37 was bill bunch that. He's not here. He's not here. So we'll move to item 38. Bill bunch. Leah Ziegler, Jeffrey Bowen, and Bobby Levinsky. >> He's called. He's called 38. And if you don't have slides on 38, please feel free to come forward. Mr. Bowen, I don't want to say you're old school, but, you know. >> Hey, you know, I don't have any slides, but I donated time to miss Ziegler and and ended up getting the other two back. Actually, I live not too far from here. And as ANC president [2:34:57 PM] Jeffrey Bowen, district eight, I'm representing ANC executive committee today regarding this issue for where this piece of property is, it's actually where the Best Buy is at the corner of mopac and 290. That entire area right there is going to be is wanting to be zoned and put in. They want a thousand units, all this other stuff. One of the issues that we have with this is that the fact that there's some of the overlay that they're wanting to that staff has said, we want to get rid of, well, this is an environmentally sensitive area. It actually backs right up, or Gaines creek backs right up to this piece of property. It is right now 95% impervious cover. So we're going to want we don't have a problem with the vmu. We don't have a problem with this. But we do have a problem with the fact of wanting to take away some of the overlays, especially when it comes to automotive sales and automotive services. Now, remember I just got through saying this backs up to Gaines creek watershed. [2:35:58 PM] Also, the massive Gaines creek greenbelt area. It's an environmentally sensitive area. Where does the water go from this area? It goes into Barton creek, which then ends up down in town lake. Going through the whole process. This needs to be considered. We're we're we're okay with the fact that they're wanting to go higher. Put all these apartments in there, no matter how much traffic it's going to put in this area, that's already a traffic mess. But that is the main concern is the environmental concerns over this entire project. Please listen to what's going on here with what Mr. Levinsky has to say and with what Lee has to say. They've got some very good slides on this whole process. This also adds to another massive area that we've got, which is going to be built right in behind the target, right behind our over 1000 units. Thank you. [2:37:11 PM] >> Do we have the visuals working now? >> All right. So we'll go back to item 37. >> Thank you. >> Leah Ziegler and Bobby Levinsky. Leah will still have the time donation. So four minutes. >> Again. Lee Ziegler, chair of the oak hill neighborhood planning contact team. Good afternoon. This property sits above the Barton creek watershed, where Gaines creek tributaries converge and quickly merge directly into Barton creek. Note the location of south town. The property corner is bounded by state highways as well as Gaines creek. The creek goes under mopac here. Traffic from five lanes largely converges into a single Laine near the north mopac feeder lanes bordering [2:38:11 PM] the property. No improvements are planned here on the north side of 290 in the mopac expansion. Since housing is the real goal and given the traffic and environmental concerns, our request is straightforward. Retain the 1993 prohibited commercial uses. Add eight additional prohibited uses to better protect the adjacent watershed and ensure traffic impacts are evaluated using the appropriate currently restricted baseline established by the conditional overlay. The eight additional recommended prohibited uses include convenience, storage, electronic prototype assembly, offsite accessory parking, pedicab services, which might be a conditional use plant, nursery, printing and publishing services, industrial custom manufacturing and urban farm. To be clear, the current [2:39:15 PM] staff recommendation would remove the prohibition on auto sales from the 1993 conditional overlay. We believe that prohibition should remain in place as the use would exacerbate hazardous roadway conditions and cross traffic along north mopac feeder roads generated from this site. There are two driveways coming off the side of the property that must merge with the five often congested lanes given by rapidly increased local development. And in addition, auto sales would clearly increase pollution directly to Gaines creek. This is because autosales includes 10% accessory services by up to more than a half acre. It would have greater impact under the redevelopment exception, since pollution treated requirements will be grossly limited. This protection now is especially important for downstream water quality. Finally, a traffic [2:40:19 PM] impact analysis is only triggered at site plan if projected trips exceed the baseline by thousands. A second condition of the conditional overlay currently limits allowable site plan counts into trip counts in development. 4500 oops, 4500 trips are overstated in the application, as this ignores the existing conditional overlay limitation on trips. If the owner is in violation of the existing restriction determined in 1992, we believe before releasing the conditional overlay, the ite trip generation standards should now come from the reference book of that period, or better yet, the specified tia referenced in the conditional overlay and produced by the engineering consultants. Overall, we do not oppose the proposed upzoning to vmu. It aligns with council council's housing goals to add [2:41:20 PM] housing at auto centric intersection and brings greater height and hopefully improved impervious cover utilization up to 95% of the lot. For the better outcome, we asked council to carefully introduce safeguards. >> Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Levinsky. >> I have slides as well. Thank you. Mayor and council. Bobby Levinsky, attorney with save our springs alliance. At its surface, this is a case that is a rezoning case that two major highways. But what we're worried about here is the subsurface. And I want to remind you that zoning is the city's first line of defense for environmental protection. So these are actually really important for environmental protections as well to prohibit uses in environmentally sensitive areas. This next map I want to show you here is the flow paths that are underneath the site. All this, this recharge zone is in this green here. What you'll see is that this 2 to 8 day range here at [2:42:21 PM] the top of the chart, that's where the site is located. And that means that anything that gets into the aquifer, which is a limestone aquifer, anything goes straight through, there's no natural filtration. It gets into these endangered species within two days. What you see here in this first slide is this is from the geological assessment from the mopac south expansion. You'll see that there are significant recharge features directly on the border of this property within the mopac right of way. That doesn't mean these are the only recharge features that are present in the area. There actually are several in the area. A lot of them have been filled in over time. It's it's a concern because I think we have to deal with the reality that mopac likely should never have been built there. And this, this, this, this shopping center as well, probably should never have been located here as well. Well, all I'm asking you to do here is agree with the neighborhood and adding some additional prohibited uses, particularly the auto sales. Car dealerships are really notorious for the chemicals [2:43:22 PM] that they have on site, not only oils, but also the, the stuff that they use to paint cars to repair equipment. And they do a lot of washing off on those facilities, just prohibit auto uses. That would be really great. And I'll speak a little bit more at the next item. Thank you. >> All right. We'll move back to remote speakers. Speaking to the postponement on item 33 Kathy Brocato. >> Hello, my name is Cathy Brocato and I've been a resident of Austin since 2009. I apologize for getting cutting off and joining remotely. We would like to request the postponement to allow more time to negotiate to continue negotiations with the applicant, and to understand the applicant's full plans for the site. Our. Our concerns include increased traffic, lack of parking, encroachment of commercial businesses into our [2:44:23 PM] neighborhood, construction of additional structures on the site, impervious cover and height of new construction. Gibson is a very short and narrow street, only about 600ft, and it is often partially blocked by delivery trucks, trucks and shared ride vehicles and other vehicles like parking. To visit the businesses on south congress. Traffic often backs up onto south congress due to this congestion. In addition to traffic concerns, pedestrian visitors often step into Gibson and walk on Gibson to avoid congestion on the street, creating safety concerns. Due to these issues, we would like to request a postponement until the March 26th meeting to continue our negotiation with the applicant to address our concerns about their rezoning request. Thank you. And again, I apologize for joining remotely. [2:45:24 PM] >> Thank you for your testimony. >> Speaking on item 35, Tracy witty. And if you can stay on the line, you'll be called for item 36. >> Hello, council, this is Tracy white. I live in district one, like a case last year on a lot in Clarksville at 608 blanco street. These east 22nd street labs are proximal to smu. Property on a bustling activity corridor. Unanimously voted for lr with the CEO that prohibits all restaurant uses with and without alcohol service. Offset accessory parking, custom manufacturing people who are invested in the LLC that owns these east 22nd street lots benefit every day from your support of that. Clarksville, co, which contributes to the quality of life for several blocks around that site. My understanding is the applicant is investors intend to develop 3 to 4000 additional square footage of restaurant space for breakfast, lunch and private evening events, office space, additional square footage of retail and offsite accessory parking is one of the last [2:46:25 PM] residential streets in blackland going to become a safe route for valet parking. That seems to dishonor people over decades who have been very committed to promoting a complete community and housing of all types, especially affordable housing. They supported business development along mlk and Maynor. They have kept their street parking open to share with businesses. They deserve a far more robust conditional overlay and restrictive covenant. If the commercial zoning on a half acre is to be approved. And as staff pointed to another commercial site to justify this, they are right to fear that this will occasion more encroachment. This neighborhood is marked as an itod station area in your planning efforts, which means encouraging alternative modes of transportation to driving is an imperative given that. Please add offsite accessory parking to the list of prohibited uses on any motion you might make today, and I hope you'll encourage the applicant to lean in to further tailor the zoning he says he needs. The neighborhood residents are just as excited, if not more, than the people who will profit from this site and probably drive home to places where this kind of intense intensity of use is [2:47:27 PM] not what greets them. Thank you. >> Tracy, would you like to speak on item 36? >> No, I have the same comments for that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Also speaking remotely on item 36, Stephen brown. >> Hello. My name is Stephen brown. I'm a long term, long time resident of district one, born and raised there. And you know, as Gina Houston mentioned, I echo what she said. I mean, the history of Austin and the situation of this community has faced. I mean, it's well documented. And, you know, without having given a history lesson, you know, we should be committed to not repeating that history. And I think that anytime we do anything with land development and zoning, we should be doing it through a social justice lens. When a community, someone decides to [2:48:29 PM] buy a house in a neighborhood, you know, they want it to have character, walkable spaces. They want to be able to see their kids walk down the street and, you know, having encroachment from commercial zoning into residential is very concerning. I mean, no one wants their child walking down the street and having cars whipping in to, to a parking area or just trying to find parking on the on the street. And I ask any council member, you know, what they consider, you know, would they want that? Would they want their child or grandchild, you know, walking up the streets and, you know, having to be on guard for for cars and stuff. But, you know, one of the things I really want to speak to as well is the, the micro assaults to a lot of community members when, when coming down to city hall or just having to fight these battles, it really does, you know, it hurts, it hurts that that we're not being listened to. We're feeling ignored. And [2:49:29 PM] all these things compound when neighbors, old and new make decisions on whether or not they want to continue to stay here and engage with a local government that just doesn't feel like they're being heard. You know, I'm opposed to to this for many reasons, but I do think that it will set a standard if y'all aren't even willing to honor the neighborhood. >> Thank you. Mister. >> The neighborhood's. >> Moving back to in-person speakers on item 38. Bill bunch, Leah Ziegler, and Bobby Levinsky. >> Lee Ziegler, item 38. Continuing overall, we don't oppose the upzoning to vmu. It aligns with council's housing goals to add housing and auto [2:50:31 PM] centric intersections and brings greater height and hopefully improved impervious cover utilization. I'm glad we pulled up. Slide four. That is the list of of the conditions that were asking for. And I don't feel like given the intensity that is coming to that seven acres, this list does not seem excessive at all. And using the baseline trips. At 4544 is definitely excessive. I no one could find the original tia from the. That's that. Apparently the department should have. And for that reason, we suggested that the. It's a book. The it book that relates to that time. Apparently it's updated every 3 or 4 years, and I feel that we [2:51:34 PM] should be using that it. Trip generation standard to come up with a baseline, since otherwise the owner would have been in violation of the conditional overlay. So that seems to be the most appropriate standard at this time. Again, for a better outcome, we asked council to carefully introduce safeguards for watershed protection and help to regulate site generated traffic for commercial uses by slightly expanding the existing conditional overlay to add eight prohibited uses, and by correcting the baseline trip count. And that would include the auto sales, which again has 10% service. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Mayor and council. Again, I'm going to echo doctor Ziegler's comments that auto sales need to be prohibited [2:52:34 PM] over the recharge zone. I think that's not a radical premise. And so we're really asking you to just add a fairly reasonable additional prohibited use on the site. And the other list of the prohibited uses that were on your screen just a few minutes ago. All of those have pollutants and chemicals that are just if they make it into the groundwater, it would cause some detriment to not only Gaines creek and Barton creek, but also some endangered species down the way. There was an older, restrictive covenant put on the site that prohibited underground storage tanks and hazardous materials. I understand that can't be incorporated into conditional overlay. Wish it could be. But another way to really make sure that we have the belt and suspenders to protect the recharge zone would be just add those prohibited uses that were on Lee Ziegler's site on her slide. That would be really environmentally protective. And we're not saying don't approve the zoning case. We're saying just add these additional prohibited uses. I think it's a reasonable position to take, and I appreciate the neighborhood for working on this so hard. Thank you. [2:53:35 PM] >> We'll now move to item 40, beginning with remote speakers. Elliot Trahan. >> Hello. Can you not hear me? >> Yes. >> My apologies. That was there for a second. My name is Elliot Trahan and I'll keep it brief. I grew up in district one and I live in district eight currently. Neither of those are montopolis and I don't have a strong connection to montopolis. Partly the point is that I don't know what's best for montopolis because it's not my community, and there are so many wonderful people who are in city hall right now, today, who are from montopolis and who have so many wonderful ideas for how to invest in their own community. And so city council, I really urge you to listen to all these voices because they are all in opposition, at least the ones that I've been in communication with. Who? Agenda item 40 and 41, and I stand with them and with their self-determination to determine what's best for their community, and not from another developer [2:54:36 PM] who is like me, not from the community. That is all I have to say. Thank you so much for your time. Please oppose 40 and 41. >> Continuing with remote speakers. Speaking on item 40, Quinlan Taylor. >> Hi, my name is Quinlan Taylor. I'm a resident of council district nine. I'm calling to ask council members to oppose items 40 and 41 on today's agenda, changing the zoning from single family to mixed use and overturning the montopolis neighborhood plan adopted in 2001 to accommodate the proposed development, will harm the neighborhood in several ways, one of which being it will stick out as the tallest complex in the neighborhood by far, towering over historic homes and creating more impervious cover, harming the environment and an already threatened neighborhood. Also, the neighborhood infrastructure cannot accommodate the amount of cars a development like this would bring in, which will cause traffic and endanger those [2:55:36 PM] already in the neighborhood who use these streets to walk, bike or bus to school and work. And also, the developer developer claims the rezoning will be used to create affordable housing. But with units at 80% median family income, this housing will only be affordable to families who make up to $90,000 a year. This crushes the average median family income for residents already in the area, which at 40% means families make less than 50 K a year. This will contribute to the ongoing displacement of communities who have lived in the metropolis neighborhood for decades. This housing is not affordable for them, and it will raise the cost of living around them until they can no longer survive in their own neighborhoods and their homes don't side with developers. Do what's right for the neighborhood, and please oppose items 40 and 41. >> Moving to in-person speakers. Joshua brunsman, Susana Almanza, Mary Anne Sanchez. [2:56:49 PM] >> Miss Almanza. >> Please just state your name and begin speaking. >> If he's called your name and you're in the audience, would you please come forward? >> My name is Joshua brunsman. I'm the applicant and the owner. >> Please go ahead and speak. >> Council members. Mayor, city manager, thank you for having me. My name is Joshua brunsman. I'm a 15 year long resident here in Austin. I'm a former huston-tillotson student, lived off of Riverside for several years while I attended ACC. This case has been going on for quite some time. I just want to briefly walk through the history because it's gone through several changes in trying to get it right. We really started with smu. Zoning moved to gru based on staff feedback. When db 90 was adopted by council, we encouraged to consider the path because it aligned with the city's goals for dense housing and transit supported development, which we feel is like is the proper direction [2:57:50 PM] for this vacant parcels. I understand db 90 raised concerns in the neighborhood. I adjusted. When people hear db 90, it spooks you. I get it, it does accomplish the goal of dense housing around transit, justify our investment as a community into our future train system, especially the yellow line that's B going down Riverside. This makes it a meaningful project. The site is located within a four minute walk from the transit, where the city has consistently said density needs to go within a half mile from rail or less to be able to justify these costs. Again, you know, we have stepped back from db 90 down to grv, which would be a 60 foot five story cap. As we continue working through this process, we try to respond to those concerns and pull back from the db 90, the grv. We still have the options to participate in vmu, which also brings affordable units, but at a lower intensity compared to what db 90 offered, which we felt was a better fit of 45 affordable units starting off at 60% mfi compared to the 12% that's under vmu for 80%. Throughout this process, we went with the neighborhood staff, provided multiple options, and agreed to several components to allow for us to [2:58:51 PM] be here. This is for the city policies. What I don't want to do is I don't want to build the 18 to 20 homes on here that are gonna be catering to people starting off at 180,000 for our community, which is only going to exacerbate the gentrification and the price values and speculations by infill builders in this area. Rents have continued to decline in town, but we're hopeful market conditions are improving this year, and the zoning in place can move forward and finally get the housing on the site. I started this in 2022 and I expect to be completed in 2031. Thank you. >> Very much. >> I'm here for any questions as well. >> Is Bianca Guerrero here? Okay. Susana Almanza, we'll have four minutes. >> Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor and city council members. I'm Suzanne Almanza, president of the montopolis neighborhood neighborhood plan. Contact team director Beaudet. Please deny the racist land use zoning and Flum change for the montopolis mixed use case. This case is a clear example of environmental racism. Montopolis already has [2:59:51 PM] the highest concentration of multifamily, commercial, and industrial zoning of any planning area in the city. Our green spaces, like our single family zoning, are precious and limited, hel us to protect our families and our community by opposing clearly incompatible and unwelcome development. It may also be worthwhile to consider this. Why do the city planning commission and the city council persist on pushing forward unwanted land use policies over neighborhood and neighborhood plan opposition in the most politically and economically vulnerable parts of our city? While sending, quote, nothing fundamentally changed signals to rich and politically connected. How is this a consistent or fair. The montopolis fairway mixed use case currently zoned single family 3grmp. The montopolis fairway mixed use case is a developer speculation case, and here is the evidence. On [3:00:52 PM] February 21st 24, it was presented as commercial service mixed use vertical neighborhood plan. On may 1724, it was presented as commercial service db 90 neighborhood plan. On September the 19th 25. It was presented as Gaar vertical mixed use neighborhood plan. On January the 22nd 26. It was presented as gr vertical mixed use db 90 neighborhood plan. That is evidence of speculation. Speculation going on. Here is a plan in the planning commission notice regarding proposal on February 23rd 24th. The case was postponed by the applicant on February 2724. The case was proposed postponed again by the applicant in March 26th. The case was postponed by the staff on may 2824. The case was postponed by staff. I want to clarify, it wasn't just us, but here's the reason. Important note each time the zoning for [3:01:53 PM] the property was changed, the montopolis neighborhood plan contact team requested a presentation by the developer to explain what was his plans for redevelopment were a right given by the adopted city council neighborhood plan contacts team process. We know where fundamental change is most urgently needed. Montopolis already is the highest concentration multifamily, commercial and industrial zoning of any planning in the city. Our green spaces, like our single family zoning, are precious and unlimited, help us to protect our families and our community by posing clearly an incompatible and unwelcome development and a pure speculation. I want to remind me what Kenneth Thompson reminded me yesterday, that the 1928 master plan is not in the past. It's still ongoing. It's in the future. We see the colonization of east Austin, where people of color were forced to locate and will. Now [3:02:54 PM] we're under constant threat by the zoning and by developers speculating, trying to make money over our people, trying to stay. We saw it in the Cesar Chavez plan. We saw it then go to the plan. We saw it go to the go vela Johnson plan. And now we're in the montopolis where the last frontier, as they say, to be dominated. And it's your power that we need to vote against this racist land use case. Thank you. >> Continuing on item 40. Adrien Macias, Valerie Menard, Carlos pinon. >> Your name has been called. Please come forward. >> Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Good afternoon mayor city council members, I am Adrien Macias. I'm with today's young [3:03:54 PM] scholars for justice coordinator and a resident of metropolis. As a has been documented by historians, the metropolis community was an Austin pioneer in the provision of affordable housing during the war on poverty. At the time of adoption of our neighborhood plan in 2001, it was understood that protecting our single family homes was an essential component of preserving our neighborhood character family homes, a quality of life, natural and cultural resources, and community cohesion. It is for these and other reasons that we continue to be perplexed by efforts to continue the cram unwanted multifamily development down our collective throats. It bears repeating montopolis is not a high opportunity area under the fair housing act. Ask yourself this simple question how do city council pro displacement policies affirmatively furthering fair housing in our city at a more local level? Was it the attention of the original [3:04:56 PM] farmers of the Austin's fair housing ordinance in 1967 to produce open housing by leaving the riches in the widest parts of our city alone, while ethnic cleansing the original segregated parts of our city in Mesa. It may also be worthwhile to consider this. Why do city planning commissions and city council process on pushing unwanted land use policies over neighborhood and neighborhood plan oppositions, and the most politically and economically vulnerable parts of our city? While sending nothing will fundamentally change signals to the rich and politically connected, how is it consistent or fair? Why, even as a neighborhood plan of city officials act as if zoning and the only land use question that matters. Thank you. >> Please. >> Good afternoon, council members and mayor Watson. My name is Valerie Menard. I'm a project director for the Colorado river conservancy, and I'm here today to ask you to vote against the zoning changes included for the properties [3:05:56 PM] along Katy street, montopolis drive and fairway street, listed in items 40 and 41. The building that developers hope to construct is an unprecedented size for the montopolis neighborhood. And like godzilla, this behemoth of a building and development will accelerate the destruction of what remains of low income, single family housing. This metaphor may seem like hyperbole, but you don't live in montopolis. You don't see what we see happening every day because this body continues to ignore us and approve project after project that does nothing to address the main issues impacting this neighborhood, gentrification and displacement, and setting aside a few units to be priced at 60 to 80% of median family income, does nothing to address the lack of affordable housing. In a neighborhood where residents earn 30 to 50% of mfi. Council member Velazquez understands the needs of this community. That's why he voted against the zoning on first reading. Council member, I hope you will speak to your reasons why today, if you vote to approve this zoning, you will be ignoring the council member who's trying to do his best to represent [3:06:57 PM] this community. We know this doesn't happen to other neighborhoods because your own housing department just received a report from consultants that shows that the majority of new development applications are directed at montopolis. Add to that, this development sits in the project connect anti- development displacement zone. How can you justify voting for a development that will accelerate displacement in a zone set aside to protect against it? We don't need this development in montopolis and we don't want it. Please vote no on zoning changes. And if you really want to address affordability, purchase or dedicate city owned land for low income, single family housing, that's what we want. That's what we need. Thank you. >> Good afternoon, council members. My name is Carlos pinon. I'm the resilience program coordinator at Beaudet. I ask you all to vote against the proposed zoning changes for the project on qadri, montopolis and fairway. The summary letter in the backup states this project adheres to goals from the montopolis neighborhood plan to respect the diverse character of the montopolis neighborhood and ensure compatibility between adjacent land uses. How will a tower built next to single [3:07:57 PM] family homes without a true affordability component? For the people who have lived in montopolis for generations, achieve either. If one goes through the public comment forms in the staff report, you can see quickly that current residents say that they won't be able to keep up with property taxes that increase with projects like this, and traffic's that that's worsened as more multifamily complexes have come in traffic, signaling those who have just arrived to the neighborhood over the last years aren't actually taking public transit like developers expect they would, just because they're blocks away from a transit corridor. More traffic will also contribute to this complex's environmental impact. At minimum, 1337 additional trips through the area a day is projected as result of construction. Recover from this building and a proposed sidewalk will worsen the heat island we're already in. Per the city's heat resilience playbook, the average high during the summer is between 105 and 108 degrees in montopolis, and we know well that more concrete weakens the landscape's ability to reflect heat, filter pollutants and absorb stormwater, meaning montopolis in nearby neighborhoods will be hotter and more vulnerable to flooding [3:08:58 PM] than they already are, while the quality and surrounding bodies of water will decrease. And a comment on Instagram posts about this case, the developer for this project stated that factors like inflation, development costs and housing affordability are real, but out of his control. His goal is, quote, simply to add more homes so more people can live in Austin, unquote. But who are the people he's talking about? The median family income in montopolis is 40%, not 80%, which for a family of four is up to $90,000 a year and is for whom ostensibly affordable units are promised to. There are already about 4000 apartments in and right by montopolis, yet longtime residents still struggle to remain here. We need deeply affordable housing for families. At 30 to 40% mfi, we need housing to be built for community members who depend on public transit to live. We need housing for all who fight to stay in neighborhoods they grew up in. >> Thank you. >> Continuing on item 40, Pedro Hernandez, junior. Tess Myers, Victoria cabano. Liesel. Poppenhausen. Brad Massingill. [3:10:01 PM] >> Here he is. >> Okay, liza will have four minutes. >> Good afternoon, council members and mayor Watson. My name is Pedro Hernandez junior and I'm a resident of the Vasquez hills neighborhood association and transportation coordinator. And I'm here today to ask you to vote against those zoning changes for the properties along Katy street, montopolis drive and fairway street. I agree with the arguments expressed so far about the threat this development of this size makes to any neighborhood, but especially montopolis, which is struggling to remain affordable for families. I grew up in montopolis and I'm afraid I won't be able to make montopolis my home for much longer. These developments continue to push out families I've known my whole life. Please vote with my council member, Jose Velasquez, who is also an east Austin native. We fought so hard for single member districts because we believed we could get better representation. But if you keep [3:11:03 PM] voting against the council member who represents us, then what was it? What was the point? Please vote against the zoning change. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. Please state your name for the record. >> Indeed. My name is Liesl poppenhausen. I am a researcher from UT Austin and I study how the Colorado river in Austin is changing due to human influences, particularly construction and the placement of impervious cover. Impervious cover is any surface that prevents rainwater from flowing through it. So the roofs of buildings, sidewalks, pavement, all cities have it, but it changes the way that water flows through our river. Immediately after a storm event enduring, we see a rush of runoff move toward the river. But because the impervious cover prevents it from infiltrating into the soil, we see a really low and slow baseflow in between storms. This cycle of wetting and drying and the flood of the water both destabilized the bank, making it erode much [3:12:03 PM] faster than what we would expect from a natural system. Sorry. Okay, here's a picture of impervious cover distribution in Austin in 2000. And this is impervious cover in 2025. Impervious cover is continually expanding in Austin, especially surrounding the river. Within the Colorado river floodplain, we've seen the proportion of impervious cover increase by about50% since 1985. Here we present cumulative erosion across three time intervals, from the longhorn dam to highway 183. Each red area represents a loss of sediment volumes calculated from a digital elevation model or a digital rendition of Earth's surface created from lidar data. We've seen two large urban gully features erode out of the land next to Roig grito park. The darker red gully is both older and smaller than the lighter red feature, and this is because the increase in impervious cover that we have seen over the past [3:13:04 PM] 30 years has led to much more erosion in general in this area, the montopolis area is additionally susceptible to erosion along the Colorado river due to the longhorn dam removing sediment from the water such that the water passes through it is very clear, makes, and that makes the water very likely to pick up sediment. And here we present the results of a visual bank line analysis showing how secret beach has changed over a larger time scale. As we do not have lidar data from before 2000. These states are at east Riverside. A nearby neighborhood were built in 1997. By 2002, five years later, we see a rapid pulse of erosion along the riverbank as well as the urban gullies. This research has found a continual pattern of rapid erosion following construction and impervious cover placement. About 3 to 5 years later, the research has shown once again this pattern. But allowing a plan with up to 90% of [3:14:05 PM] impervious cover in some areas is ill advised, as it will accelerate and exacerbate land loss along the Colorado river. The erosion patterns that we see at montopolis are already about 500 times larger than the erosion patterns we see at Mckinney roughs and nature preserve east of Austin, with no construction or impervious cover placed next to the river, this rapid land loss will soon breach a road in Roig grito park, and this pattern will continue into the future, allowing such massive construction and impervious cover expansion so close to the river will exacerbate all of these issues. Construction and development expansion do not come without consequences for the surrounding areas. The more that is built on this land, the more its health will degrade and continue to disappear. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Speaking on item 40, no alias Selene Rendon, Yvette Castro. Sydney living. Uzi [3:15:09 PM] Mccoy. Donovan. Span. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Good afternoon. >> Mayor Austin, city council members. My name is Noah Elias. I am from montopolis and district three. I'm also a high school teacher at eastside. I'm. I'm not happy that I had to take a day off today to be here, but I am here to stand up and fight for my community. So I'm asking you to vote no on items 40 and 41. These items would allow the developer to upzone single family lots in montopolis to build a development that would tower over the existing homes and more importantly, this project includes no affordable housing or at least nothing that would be affordable to the people that are currently living in our community. In montopolis, many families earn less than $50,000 a year, a development like this one being proposed today would not be affordable to them. Instead, it would accelerate, accelerate the same [3:16:11 PM] pattern that we've seen across east Austin, which is gentrification, rising property values and displacement of longtime residents. We have seen this happen again and again with developments that have been approved by this city council, and our community cannot continue to absorb that kind of pressure. Also, this proposal is a clear example of speculation. The developer involved in this has a pattern of targeting vulnerable neighborhoods in east Austin, like montopolis, because they see an opportunity to make more money. If you look at the backup materials for this case, you'll see that the zoning petition has been changed multiple times, and the developer has cited market conditions and market factors. What does that mean? It means that if this council grants this upzoning, the developer will ultimately do whatever the market tells him to do, which means that he may build luxury condos, high end apartments that families and montopolis cannot afford. Or it could also mean that he just sits on the property for ten, even 20 years into the development becomes [3:17:11 PM] more profitable. Or it could mean that he sells it to the highest bidder. Once the zoning change increases the value. And in any of those scenarios, the community of montopolis gains nothing. So please vote no on items 40 and 41. Thank you, thank you. >> Please. >> Good afternoon. I'm Celine Rendon, I live in district five and I'm a housing organizer with community powered atx. Please vote against the proposed zoning changes for them. Properties along qadri metabolism. Fairway. The surrounding lots on this property are beacons of diverse community gathering spaces along with single family homes. There's pop up markets that occur throughout the week that community members would otherwise not have access to. The median family income, as mentioned, is 40% for families making up to 50 K a year, and many of the current residents rely on public transit that's currently available to them, with a developer proposing the development high income 80% mfi. [3:18:12 PM] This would be for families making up to 90 K a year instead. If if we're not building affordable housing for the longtime residents who live here, then it will only cause gentrification, displacement for our most vulnerable residents. Just adding houses does not solve the housing affordability crisis. This is a supply demand developer talking point that we've heard again and again throughout the eastern crescent. We need deeply affordable housing to be built for the long time. Community members who depend on this transit to work and live. Please oppose items 40 and 41 and consider the options led by and crafted by the metropolis community. There are options such as the property being acquired and built upon responsibly by an affordable housing community developer, or it can be even bought by the city and worked on alongside the neighborhood. Who understands these lots values and should stand there as a result as a community vision for montopolis. Thank you. >> Thank you. Please. >> Good afternoon, council members. My name is uzi Mccoy. [3:19:13 PM] I'm a community organizer with community party and I studied government and economics at wesleyan university. I want to begin clearly by stating I am not opposed to new housing. Austin absolutely needs it. But even though we're a national leader in building affordable housing over 4000 units in 2024, we are not meeting. We're only meeting 44% of our ten year goal for those earning up 30% below mfi demographic. And today, my concern is particularly about my old neighborhood, an area montopolis and the people have lived there for generations. Montopolis is one of the most economically vulnerable communities in our city. The mfi is about $31,000 a year. The per capita income is just around 16,000, and roughly 33% of residents live in poverty, and the neighborhood mfi is around 40%, which means the families there need deeply affordable housing, not simply more units at market rate. And today, the average rent and the 7.8741 zip code is about $1,500 a month for families living on the incomes that I just stated, that is incredibly difficult to sustain, and that's why this [3:20:13 PM] case concerns me. The zoning change being requested, the grv np increases development intensity but does not require affordability, and most private developments that use incentives only produce about 10 to 12% of affordable units at best. And that's when affordability programs are used. Without them, there's no guarantee at all. We've already seen how so many of these cases and problems can be difficult and occur. Just like last summer, when all of you voted to destroy acacia cliffs. And that's why I believe that these items don't adhere to the city of Austin's anti-displacement task force recommendations, which explicitly warn against increasing density and gentrifying neighborhoods. And to my recollection, councilmember Velazquez, you serve on the anti-displacement task force. You know, these recommendations are vitally important to preserving and protecting affordable housing. Montopolis is also located near major transit corridor, and this development should prioritize families who use public transit, which is mostly going to be low income or earners, which is why I'm proud to oppose and I ask that you vote no. Thank you. >> Thank you. [3:21:14 PM] >> Continuing on item 40 rey is Marta Michael Cary, Eric Paulus Marc Vallejo, Jeffrey Bowen, Christopher Paige, Zenobia Joseph. >> If your name's been called, please come forward. >> And out of all of that, you get me? So, Jeffrey Bowen, district eight, I'm here representing ANC executive committee again. We voted last night to come and support the neighborhood regarding this. You've heard a lot of stories here on this. One of the things that that jumped out at me is that and having lived here for as long as I have, we have seen several places that have been up zoned only to be sold to somebody else. So the they go through the developer goes [3:22:15 PM] through the portion of it up, Zones it, and then all of a sudden a piece of property becomes more valuable. Then the next person goes and does whatever basically they want to do based upon the zoning. So it is a common occurrence in this town, whether you want to believe it or not, it does happen and it happens all the time. The fact that this, this is right in in the middle of a neighborhood and you're now at least it's down to 60ft. There's been some interesting information when it talks about impervious cover, those type of issues. But once again, it's about neighborhoods. Or is it because we talk about the, the need for the community and the people in the community that make up the neighborhood, which make up this city. And yet sometimes their voices get lost in in the giant shuffle. So I really hope that you really consider what these people are [3:23:16 PM] talking about. We're supporting them because we believe in neighborhoods, and neighborhoods are a vital portion of this city. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you sir. >> Moving to item 41, Joshua brunsman, Susana Almanza, Marianne Sanchez, Adrian Macias. >> If you wish to be heard, come forward, please. >> Valerie Menard. >> Good afternoon, mayor, city council members, I'm Susana Almanza, president of Minneapolis neighborhood planning content team and director of Beaudet. And I'd like to request that you all vote against this zoning change for the qadri street, Minneapolis drive and fairway street, as you have. We as we know what we have around that [3:24:16 PM] is swallowing up our neighborhood. If you look at our neighborhood plan, one thing we fought was to keep the heart of Minneapolis single family. And if you look at that map, you'll see that this is single family land and it's surrounded by housing, which everywhere you go. And we've seen the loss of population in the schools because we're displacing families, and we don't want to see Alice in clothes. We want to make sure that we keep our families intact. This is very important. We sometimes lose sight of what happens, how it impacts the Austin independent school district. When we're displaced families, we can see it now that we have about ten schools that will be closing because of lack of population. And a lot of that is in east Austin. And the reason is because we have zoned those properties and we're displaced. The families that were once there, those families who have been there for generations. And we are now inundated by apartments that [3:25:18 PM] either have studios or 1 or 2 bedrooms, very few. And with that, we've had to fight for to get at least 2 or 3 units for three bedrooms and one for four bedrooms. So this is very important. Please, let's follow the adoption of the neighborhood plan and let's keep our single family zoning. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Bring up my slide. >> Can we go to page two please? Can you click on item one, please? In the bottom left corner. I'm not displacing anyone. This is vacant land. I've been dealing with this for quite a long time, and I just want to bring a couple things to light. This is not, in my opinion, been about money. Can you go ahead and play that? There have been about housing. It's been about money. >> Okay. Those impacts have a monetary value, or at least we can approximate it. Whether you're going to be able to come [3:26:19 PM] for free. I hope you didn't expect that you would be able to come here for free. And if you know, you can say whatever you like, that's great. I think it's wonderful. But it's, you know, we need to negotiate that and put it in a legally binding agreement. Otherwise, like I said. >> Can you click on item two, please? Thank you. We have worked extensively with neighborhood group. I've made every effort to find common ground. At this point, we've been asked for what amounts to well over $1 million under this community benefit agreement. If you read the community benefit agreement, will you please scroll down to the highlighted portion? This is for sf6 zoning, which would accommodate 12 houses. I apologize, I sent the wrong one in. Can you go to the 150,000 right there and the donation that is per door. So this is $150,000 donation per door. That's a non affordable unit. That's amounts to about 1,050,000 that is being asked me to donate. It has been suggested that without financial contributions, support for this case may not be there. I do not believe this [3:27:20 PM] is appropriate for a project approval. Depend on directing money to a private organization without clear transparency or define public benefit, especially when the project already complies with the city's process. We remain open to contributing to true community serving organizations such as the recreation center, boys and girls club, and latinitas, the groups that support youth and long term opportunity in the neighborhood. This community benefit agreement was from 20 2024, where Noah and Susanna slid this across the table to me and asked me to sign this. Without reading this, I don't think this is about funds or housing. This is about donating money to private groups and that is wrong. >> Thank you sir. >> I believe my name was called Valerie. >> Yeah. Please just say your name and go ahead. >> Yes. Thank you. And I hope we have some laws for slander here. I want to. >> State your name. >> For the record. My name is Valerie Menard, and I just wanted to respond. It's a red flag to me. I wasn't going to say any more because I've already spoken on these two items. But when someone shows you a map of an empty lot and [3:28:21 PM] says, look, I'm not displacing anybody, this is displacement, then clearly he doesn't understand the meaning of the word. We're not we're not arguing that. I think you all understand that. What we're saying is these kinds of developments raise property taxes that make it difficult for homeowners to stay in their homes, and then they get displaced and they move to other parts of town that are a more affordable or outside of Austin, which we've seen a mass exodus for the first time. Austin's census census data showed a loss of Latino population in the city, which is unprecedented. We know that normally each census shows an increase that didn't happen in 2020. So I just wanted to check what was said about displacement. And to just remind you all, and I know you all understand, we're talking about displacing families already living in the community because of affordability or lack of affordability, and because they will face increasing costs from property taxes and other costs to living in montopolis. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Continue on. Item 41, Carlos pinon. Pedro Hernandez, junior. [3:29:22 PM] Tess Myers, Victoria cabano, Bianca Guerrero. Liesl. Poppenhausen. Noah Elias. Please state your name and begin speaking. >> Please begin. >> Good afternoon. My name is Pedro Hernandez and I am with the Minneapolis neighborhood association. I'm on the contact team also, and I'm what I'd like to say is, again, none of this happened. There was never a contract community benefits agreement made. What was done at the. The meeting was. Examples were given to Mr. Brunsman. So there was no community benefits agreement made. Okay. >> You finished? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Please go ahead. [3:30:24 PM] >> Good afternoon. My name is Bianca Guerrero. My family has been rooted in metropolis for four generations. My grandparents, the Guerrero's bought their home in the early 70s and still live there today. With even deeper roots are the Ruedas and the Fabian families, among many others. We are the living history of this neighborhood. I'm here to speak in firm opposition to this ordinance. While the developers, owners and applicants talk about vibrant mixed use spaces, their proposal ignores the actual humans who built the fabric of this community. The math simply doesn't work for us. The median family income in metropolis is around 40%. Any project without deeply affordable housing mandates is not development. It's a blueprint for displacement. This property sits on a vital transit corridor that project connect has already flagged as being at risk for displacement. The owners and applicants claim [3:31:26 PM] this is progress, but progress that erases a century of history is just extraction. This land should be acquired by the city or community developer, and if housing is the root, then it should be for people who actually live here. The transit dependent families at the 40 mfi level. The fabric of the community isn't a marketing buzzword. It is my grandparents home and my family's legacy. And I urge you to vote no and choose the people of montopolis over the prop profits of the applicants. Thank you. >> Please begin. >> Yes. So I want to speak on the community benefits agreement that was presented by the developer. We met with the developer a couple of almost a year ago when he wanted a DV 90, I believe in the Sony petition. [3:32:27 PM] We presented this cba as an example of something that another developer had agreed with before. And if you look at the top paragraphs, it calls for deeply affordable housing, increasing the amount of units that are affordable and also decreasing the mfi for affordability. The part that the developer has shown is that their. If. After the fact, if those. That agreement is not met, essentially building the amount of units that we. That the community needs at the affordability level, then they would pay into a fund for the Minneapolis CDC to build those units somewhere else. So that's what the developer was showing you as far as that community benefits agreement. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Continuing on item 41, Celine Rendon, Yvette Castro, [3:33:30 PM] Sydney living, uzi Mccoy, Donovan span. Reyes. Mata, Michael curry, Eric Paulos, Marc Vallejo, Jeffrey. Bowen, Christopher Paige, and Zenobia Joseph. >> Your name has been called. Please come forward. Looks like you're there. >> Hello again. Uzi Mccoy, organizer, college student, yada yada yada. Just want to continue on some other points that I wasn't able to get into with my speech. Again, instead of approving approving like a regular basic zoning change without affordability guarantees, the property could be acquired and developed by a community developer or even by the city itself. We saw really good work with the village and doing that, and that was amazing. People got the housing they needed, right? We all love housing and I just want to [3:34:30 PM] touch on the environmental concerns. So montopolis is already part of Austin's urban heat island, and that's when oftentimes the summer temperatures are significantly higher. And according to the city's heat resilience playbook, as stated earlier, the average summer highs in the area can reach to like triple digits. And while while montopolis does have a bit of an urban TRE canopy, it is relatively sparse compared to like the wealthier, whiter neighborhoods in Austin that, like council member qadri or council member Siegel represent. And that means that there is less natural cooling, less shade and less protection from heat compared to other cities or other parts of the city. And these large new developments with additional impervious cover that means more concrete, more pavement. They can intensify that heat island effect and weaken the land's ability to absorb storm water and worsen flooding risks. And these environmental burdens often like fail disproportionately on communities that already face economic vulnerability. And I also want to acknowledge something important. The developer has indicated on social media that he does that he does not wish to harm the community and wants wants open [3:35:31 PM] communication. I appreciate that sentiment and I believe it's sincere. But intentions alone can't substitute for structural affordability protections. And if we are going to build here, build here, and I agree we should be building housing, we should build deeply affordable housing that allows montopolis families to remain in the community that they built. Because the question we should always ask with new development is simple who gets to stay? And right now, montopolis residents are telling us that they are struggling to remain in the place they call home. And for those reasons, I respectfully ask council to vote against these items and work with the community to pursue a development that really protects these residents. Again, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Please begin. >> Hi, my name is Yvette Castro and I'm here today regarding items 40 and 41 to vote against the zoning changes properties here on Katy and montopolis. I come from a family who's lived in montopolis. My grandparents lived there as well. So there's a lot of generational generations that have lived there. Like Bianca had stated, her family's from there as well. And just this new development, it's going to be at 60, 80% mfi [3:36:32 PM] that's not affordable to these families that live here. As mentioned, it's currently 30 to 50% mfi for the families who live here. The families that live here, it just wouldn't be accessible, affordable to them. And that's not fair to us, our families who have been here for so long, who built the culture around montopolis. We deserve a right to stay in our communities. I mean, I want to return to the community I was born in. I'm very proactive in my community. I stand for it, but it's not even accessible to me at 80% mfi. I don't make enough money to come back to where my family came from, and that's pretty devastating. I want to have my family grow up here as well, and just these developments that aren't accessible to families that are here now are just going to displace them, and we're just going to see more gentrification. If it's not at 3,050% mfi, which these developers wanted at 80, which is not fair. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mayor. That concludes all speakers. >> Members, as you've heard, that concludes all the speakers [3:37:32 PM] that have been signed up to speak on the zoning consent agenda. Items 32 through 41. A motion is made and seconded. Councilmember Ellis, I'll recognize you. I thought you had a question. >> I did can miss harden come up? >> I got you. >> Thank you. I think this has already been largely addressed. But since we had spoken about it, I just wanted to make sure the record was clear. I had received an email from Mr. Levinsky earlier today, and we had had a conversation about underground storage tank and hazardous materials storage, but those are not taken up during the zoning itself. Correct. Can you walk me through that again? >> Yeah, absolutely. Councilmember. So, yes, I spoke with Mr. Well, and so those two, they're not uses and the code outlines what you can prohibit in a zoning ordinance. And since those are not uses, we cannot prohibit those in a zoning ordinance. >> Okay. Thank you for that. [3:38:32 PM] And then, mayor, I will have comments once we take the vote, but I wanted to make sure no one else had questions before. >> I think councilmember duchen has a question. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. Mayor. I was wondering if the developer applicant for 35 and 36th may be here to answer a question about parking. >> Good afternoon, mayor and council. My name is drew Raphael on behalf of the owner. >> Thank you. My question is, I understand during planning commission there was a question regarding the valet service that stays uses. Can you. And it sounds like at that time the information wasn't available. Can you update on us on how the valet service works? Is it use street parking there? >> Yeah, thank you for that question. I did clarify with the owner. And so the valet company that operates, they [3:39:32 PM] cannot park vehicles on the street. It is it's a liability and their insurance will not cover any damages. So they have to park on the property. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. Yes, that's all I got. Thank you. Mayor. >> Council members, do you have any. Is anybody else has questions? Otherwise I'll open it up for discussion. All right. Council member Ellis, I'll recognize you, followed by councilmember Velasquez. >> All right. Thank you. Mayor. Let me make sure I have all my information available. Wanted to speak briefly on items 37 and 38, which are in my district. This is in a part of the district that does have a lot of old impervious cover that predates the sos ordinance and is right now operating in a way that is not environmentally friendly, which is exactly why the sos ordinance was developed. We've had a lot of conversations about this particular property, and so I think adding a residential use into the allowed uses in this space is is important. It is at an intersection of two highways. [3:40:34 PM] I don't always try to put housing next to highways just for the sake of it, but I do think it's important to make sure that where we have access to our trail network and where we have access to multiple bus routes that run through that region, as well as great schools and great retail opportunities for jobs and shopping. I think it's important to create that blended fabric in a community, and to be able to make sure that we get the right balance of live, work and play in this area. Almost every corner of this intersection is completely commercial, so there is a lot of job opportunity out here. And I appreciate the the work of the advocates as well as the applicant to, to work through some of the prohibited uses, allowances. I think the list we came to with 27 seems to be sufficient to cover most bases. So I just wanted to highlight that today I am supportive of the item, but just wanted to let everyone know where my brain was at thinking of of this old property that does need to be redeveloped. We need better water quality standards that are not being accomplished right now, and sometimes [3:41:34 PM] changing over what these properties are allowed to do is the only way to to get the better environmental protections that I think are really necessary through this area. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember Velasquez. Councilmember. >> Thank you. Mayor. My remarks are regarding items 40 and 41. This body knows that I have been pro housing, but I'll be voting no on these items. As a dais, we have worked ridiculously hard on policy changes to help increase housing supply, and those changes have had an impact on rents in Austin. Montopolis, though, continues to feel the impacts of gentrification, including displacement of longstanding residents. And we need to see a supply of quality, affordable, transit oriented housing that allows essential workers doing vital jobs to stay in their homes. And with that said, mayor, I'll be voting no. >> Thank you, thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember duchen. >> Thank you, mayor. I am speaking just briefly on both [3:42:35 PM] the montopolis as well as the east 22nd case. And after digging into those cases, our investigation was that there was a common thread that I think makes it very difficult for me to assess the right way to deliver community benefits in those cases, and in the process of learning about the negotiations the communities had with developers, with the city being in the middle, I sense that there's both a gap, but at the same time also an opportunity. And as we negotiate, I think we can probably do a better job of addressing how we deliver our address those community needs in a transparent and productive way. That may not be happening right now. And I want to say out of the gate, I appreciate that the city needs more housing and greater economic opportunity. And I also appreciate the zoning is one way we can open up the city to facilitate those efforts. But in weighing those interests, [3:43:35 PM] which are often competing, you know, it's often necessary that we dedicate funds for specific neighborhood concerns, things like parkland dedication or traffic mitigation or other particular needs that a community might recognize. And so I, again, my sense on these cases and others that we've dealt with is that where the rubber meets the road is when these negotiations, you know, it's currently a challenging and opaque process, at least from my perspective. So what I'm going to suggest is we figure out how to make a more transparent process. Otherwise, I think it's hard for us to ensure that communities are getting a fair shake and improve their circumstances and make sure they're thriving, rather than simply changing or growing. So I'd like to see the council use some of the tools at our disposal to help facilitate how we work with developers and engage the community and address those [3:44:36 PM] community needs, whether it's direct investment to where the neighborhood's identified the most urgency or something else. We've discussed pretty recently, the district service funds. I know I'm going to probably get a stink eye from the manager over here, but my sense is that that's a that's a potential tool that we might be able to use in this circumstance to deliver localized benefits and investments by acting as a trusted intermediary between parties in these contentious cases. And so my hope is that there could be a clearer formula or maybe guidelines we can work on and how to make these sort of investments. That might depend on the scale and the circumstances of the development in question. I just sense that there's an opportunity here to create a clearer process, one that's professionalized, one that ensures that we are talking openly about the community investments that offset the consequences for the developments. And so we've heard a lot of calls for [3:45:37 PM] transparency. We've heard a lot of calls for accountability. And I think that this process could benefit from that. So I hope to work on that with anybody up here that's interested in pursuing that process. But that's why I'll be abstaining. Thank you. >> For clarity. Purpose. You're abstaining on 35, 36, 40 and 41. Councilmember harper-madison. >> Yes, Mr. Mayor, I was actually I think you read my mind. I was going to say councilmember duchen, I really wanted. So to your point about that necessary transparency, that in and of itself is complex as well. Right? And so I just wanted to say, you know, I am an austinite also, and all the changes in our city, I'd like to say it ain't all good. It ain't all bad, but it is all complex and complicated. And so one of the things I was thinking as you were speaking is I can't help but think about, you know, our streets in our town that start and stop. I [3:46:38 PM] mean, the poor way in which in some areas of our town, we're gridded poorly. A lot of that is somebody made a decision 30 years ago that wasn't the right decision. And so when I think about the the city of the future that I'd like to see, I know we at this stage are going to have to make the kind of decisions that think through congruent development for our city. You can see the start stop, stutter, stop all over our city and way of how we executed planning and zoning. And I want to see more transparency too. I really appreciate we had the opportunity to have that discussion earlier about our interactions with lobbyists. I am happy to disclose how frequently we speak to lobbyists. The truth of the matter is, I'd rather it not be my office's responsibility. We got enough to do. Y'all calling us and we're keeping track of lobbyists. I'd rather they bear that responsibility. And I think in a lot of ways, from an accountability perspective, I think the council being the intermediary between developers, [3:47:39 PM] owners, development organizations, lobbyists, I think it's a setup. Frankly, the setup always puts us in the position to decide who's negotiating the most fairly. I think neighborhoods and developers should negotiate amongst themselves, and we come in at another stage. But the truth of the matter is, when we think about the process, even that makes me think, how many of my neighbors know the intricate, very much like our skewer, details of city planning? Very few people. So when I think about who on my neighborhood association, for example, well, I'll go bigger transparency should extend to everybody engaged and involved in the process. I also think it's relevant to take into consideration the level of expertise and information that people have, and that's not exclusive to community members. I have said, and I got in trouble for saying it. I think council members get to vote on some things we shouldn't vote on. I don't have I'm not a civil engineer. I don't think I [3:48:40 PM] should be weighing in on traffic infrastructure decisions that last 100 years. That's not my area of expertise. So I think from a transparency and who should be participating in what discussions perspective, I think that is to pull at that thread. I think that is what it is. Who's contributing to the discussion? Under what circumstances and does it put us in a position for community members and council members to have good relationships that aren't contentious for no reason? Like more often than not, your council member has no motivation or reason to vote against your best interest. And the truth of the matter is, if they weren't the negotiator, the mediator between communities and developers, we wouldn't find ourselves on opposite sides of the thing so frequently, which makes every other discussion virtually impossible. People are stuck. Once they decide they don't like you, they'll not work with you for the remainder of time, cardi B said. Forever. And they bring in that beef forever, [3:49:41 PM] even to the detriment of themselves and their communities. So I'd like to see us as a body be able to work through how do we eliminate that? The things that make it so that we're automatically, for no reason, fighting against one another when so frequently the outcome we desire is the exact same. The setup is within the system, in my opinion, including. I know that there are neighbors who don't feel represented by the neighbors who showed up to speak on their behalf. So where is their advocacy and representation? I'd like to make sure that we take note. There's no way for us to make certain that neighborhood associations are operating with any degree of compliance. Hosting elections, being inclusive, following their bylaws, taking notes because we don't check. So if there's a level of accountability, capability and aptitude that should rightfully be expected by the council, I [3:50:42 PM] think we should all come to some fair agreement on what we should be able to expect from the representatives of neighborhoods. Let's make certain that the people in the room are, in fact, speaking for most of their neighbors. Because when I get the call that says so and so said blah, blah, blah, and that is not representing me, what are you going to do to make certain that somebody else can't speak for me just because they got the chance to go to city hall today? And that's a real thing too. I think the whole system deserves an investigation and an audit on our part as policy makers and as community members. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Thank you. Council member members, any further discussion? Is there anyone wishing to be shown abstaining on any item on the consent agenda? I have council member duchen abstaining on items 35, 36, 40 and 41. Anyone wishing yes, mayor pro tem. [3:51:44 PM] >> I'm going to vote no on that. But I think that was your next comment, right? >> No, I won't go to recuse first. But anybody wishing to be shown recusing themselves on any item on the consent agenda. All right. Those wishing to be shown voting no. I have councilmember Velasquez being shown voting no on 35, 36, 40 and 41. Mayor pro tem, I recognize you. >> Thank you mayor. I'm a yes on item 40, but a no on item 41. >> All right. Anyone else? Councilmember qadri. >> Mayor no on items 35, 36, 40 and 41. >> Councilmember Siegel. >> Thank you mayor. I am no on. 35 3640 and 41. >> Okay. What I'm going to do. [3:52:45 PM] Members. We have a motion and a second, but because of the I can count and actually I can subtract. And so what I'm going to do unless there's objection is I move to amend the consent agenda to remove items 35, 36, 40, and 41 from the consent agenda. Is there a second second by council member alter. >> Right. That's all I got. >> To say. Well, then say it outside please. Motion has been. I made the motion seconded by councilmember alter that we amend the consent agenda so that items 35, 36, 40 and 41 are removed from the consent agenda. That means that the consent agenda is 32, 33, 34, 37, 38, and 39. The vote that we're getting ready to take is [3:53:47 PM] on the motion to amend the consent agenda as it was read. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, without objection, the consent agenda is adopted. The motion to amend the consent agenda is adopted. Now we will go back to the main motion, which is to adopt the consent agenda as amended, the consent agenda as amended. And for clarity, that's 32 33, 34, 37, 38 and 39. Any discussion on the consent agenda as amended? Hearing none without objection, the consent agenda is adopted. Members. What I'm now going to do, and the reason I'm doing this, of course, is for purposes of clarity and transparency in how this vote goes. What I'm going to do is I'm going to unless there's objection, I will bring up item items 35 and 36 together. Items [3:54:47 PM] 35 and 36 are being brought up together. I'll entertain a motion to well, I'll entertain a motion with regard to 35 and 36. Yes. Councilmember harper-madison. >> I'd like to move, Mr. Mayor, that we. >> I'd like to move, Mr. Mayor, that we proceed as proposed for items 36, 35 and 36. >> Items 30 council member harper-madison moves approval of items 35 and 36 on first reading only, and that includes on item number 36. The. The motion that was the access aspects of that motion that were read into the record by miss harden. Mayor pro tem, you seconded the mayor pro tem seconds the motion. The vote is on items 35 and 36. Let me ask if there's any discussion. Those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. All [3:55:56 PM] those opposed? Raise your hand. Council member duchen, I have you abstaining. There being five votes in favor, five votes in opposition and one abstention. The motion fails, so items 35 and 36 do not pass on first reading. I will now, and for the record, those voting in favor were Ellis council members. Ellis harper-madison, the mayor pro tem council members Laine council member alter. Those voting in opposition were council member Siegel qadri, Fuentes, Velasquez and the mayor and abstaining was council member duchen. Now, what I would do is I'm going to [3:56:56 PM] take up items 40 and 41 in combination as well, and I'll entertain a motion on items 40 and 41. Is there a motion on items 40 and 41? There can be a motion to do it, or there can be a motion to deny it. >> The motion is to take the items up in combination. >> Well, no, the motion is whether or not I was taking them up. Is there a motion to pass or to deny items? 40 and 41 councilmember Velasquez. >> Mayor, I make a motion to deny both items. >> Councilmember Velasquez moves to deny items 40 and 41. Is there a second to the motion? Councilmember Fuentes seconds the motion. Is there a discussion? Yes. Mayor pro tem. >> Just quick question. Since they're both being taken up, mayor and I do support the Flum change, but not the individual zoning. So I'm going to be a yes on 40 and a no on 40. [3:57:58 PM] >> I'll count your vote that way. >> Okay. I just wanted to clarify that. >> Going for purposes that I hear you and I'll count your vote that way. And so when we when I call, when I call the vote, be sure I call it the way you want it. You're in favor of 40 and opposed to 41. >> The motion to deny. >> I understand. Okay. >> So he's in favor of the. >> I understand I got him, I got him, I got it. And but but having just said, listen to me because if I'm, I don't have it, but I think I got it. The motion is to deny 40 and 41. Is there any further discussion? All right. Those in favor of the motion to deny, please raise your hand. [3:59:08 PM] Those in favor of the those opposed to denying the motion, please raise your hand. >> With my caveat. >> I got you, I got you. >> And for what it's worth, mayor, I'm following suit with councilmember or with mayor pro tem vela. In terms of rationale. >> Okay. So let me look at this side of the dais. Those that oppose denial. In other words, those that favor either 40 or 41, please raise your hand. All right. And councilmember duchen, I have you abstaining. On both 40 and 41. All right. There [4:00:17 PM] being eight. Actually there being ten votes in favor of denying item number 41. Item number 41 fails there being eight votes in favor of denying item number 40. Item 40 also fails. So the motion to deny the motion to deny is granted. For the record, those voting in favor of denial on item number 41 are. Siegel qadri Ellis. Fuentes. Laine. Alter, Velasquez, vela, harper-madison and the mayor. Council member duchen of voting abstaining. Those voting to deny item number 40 or Siegel qadri Ellis Fuentes, Laine alter Velasquez and the mayor. Those voting in favor are harper-madison and [4:01:18 PM] vela. The mayor pro tem and council member duchen is shown abstaining on both 40 and 41. Did I record everybody's vote correctly? All right then. Then items 40 and 41 also are denied members. That concludes all. Yes. Mayor pro tem. >> Just briefly, I want to take a moment of personal privilege to welcome two council members from gaithersburg, Maryland, that are here for south by southwest visiting yamil el Hernandez and Rob Wu right there. Welcome to both of y'all. Enjoy our beautiful city. And I'm glad you got to see a little action today at the Austin city hall. >> Members. That concludes all of the business that's scheduled it on this agenda to come before the Austin city council at its regular scheduled meeting of the city council. So without objection, the Austin city council is adjourned at 4:02 P.M. On March 12th, 2026. Thanks, everybody.