Summary

Austin City Council is voting on the HOME initiative on December 7th.

Action Box

Have thoughts on the HOME Initiative? Click on the badge above to sign up to speak at the December 7th Council meeting.

On December 7th, Austin City Council will vote on the HOME Initiative, a proposal to allow up to three housing units to be built on single-family lots. The idea is to increase the city’s supply of “missing middle” housing, but like so many debates related to housing and land use, the issue is confusing and complicated.

 

That’s why we’ve broken down all the basics for ya in our latest guide! 

 

PS – Looking for a deeper dive? Check out the latest episode of The Austin Common Radio Hour (on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts). We explore this topic in much greater depth in that episode. 

You can check out the city’s complete explanation of the proposed changes here. 

You can look through that City of Austin/UT report here. 

You can look through Jake Wegmann’s report, “Here Come The Tall Skinny Houses,” here. 

You can look through Council Member Chito Vela’s HOME explainer here. 

This quote is from the city’s Q&A report on the proposed land development code changes. You can look through that here. 

You can sign up to speak at the December 7th Council meeting here. 

Additional information for this guide comes from original interviews with Carmen Llanes, Council Member Leslie Pool, and Jake Wegmann. 

The post Explaining The HOME Initiative appeared first on The Austin Common.

Summary

In the wake of a land development code rewrite that is caught up in the legal system, Council is working on short term code improvements that could increase housing supply & affordability in Austin.

Action Box

Housing affordability is going to be one of Council's top priorities in 2022. Be sure to follow along with their meetings to see how progress is developing & to share your ideas.

Housing affordability and supply. We don’t need to be told this is a major issue in Austin. 

 

At the end of November, City Council hosted a special work session to begin brainstorming ideas of how to fix things. Keep scrolling to learn about some of the ideas they came up with. 

 

Want to watch the entire meeting for yourself? Click here. 

The post Here’s What City Council Is Doing About Austin’s Bonkers Housing Market appeared first on The Austin Common.

PRESENTATION
6:30-7:15 or 7:30 – Local Land Use Affects Central Texas Climate

Dr. Nico Hauwert and Jim O’Donnell will be presenting on impacts to Central Texas landscape, primarily from ranching, farming, urbanization practices involving soil erosion, soil compaction, and deforestation that have led to local climate impacts, including heating, reduced rainfall, increased flooding, and greater wildfire risk. Dr. Hauwert will introduce biotic pump hypothesis, how the effects of deforestation and soil loss have led to increased temperatures, lower rainfall and desertification. How has this been modeled and/or observed in Central Texas? Jim O’Donnell will describe these impacts on a preserve site, the Vireo Preserve and active steps including building swales and planting trees to build soil and hydrate the landscape.

Biographies

Nico Hauwert, PhD. — Nico’s passion for studying the water cycles over the Edwards Aquifer arose from his exploration of the forests and underground frontier of Austin since 1979. His groundbreaking Austin-area studies included conducting the first direct groundwater tracing to discover aquifer flow occurs within days versus years, the first detection of widespread groundwater contamination in the Edwards Aquifer in 1994, and most precise measurement of recharge over the Edwards Aquifer in the Austin area using a climate tower coupled with other methods of verification. He currently serves as Program Manager Austin’s Balcones Canyonlands Preserve Program since October 2016. He taught geology for four years as adjunct professor with Concordia University. From 2000 to October 2016 he served as environmental scientist senior for City of Austin Watershed Protection Department. From 1993-2000 he conducted research on the Barton Springs Segment as Assessment Program manager and senior hydrogeologist for the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. He fought wildfires as a summer ranger at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon in 1987. He completed his Ph.D. dissertation in May 2009 from the University of Texas.

Jim O’Donnell — For over 30 years, Jim O’Donnell has combined his love of teaching, biology, and environmental stewardship to help protect the Black-capped Vireo and endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler in Central Texas. He taught science and environmental education in Dripping Springs for 28 years. During that time, he was instrumental in setting aside the 214-acre tract of land that is now known as the Vireo Preserve, which once supported the largest concentration of Black-capped Vireos in Travis County. As a result of his efforts and knowledge of the endangered songbirds and their ecosystems, Jim was appointed to the Biological Advisory Team that provided the basis and support for the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, a system of preserves established under a federal Endangered Species Act permit to protect multiple endangered and rare species in Travis County. After retiring from teaching in 2009, Jim has spent the last 11 years designing and implementing habitat restoration on the Vireo Preserve, which is now owned and managed by the City of Austin as part of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve. Jim uses his knowledge of the species, plants, permaculture, and teaching to implement regenerative habitat restoration projects with a community of volunteers to benefit a variety of native Texas Hill Country ecosystems.

7:15-8:00 Climate Change Committee Meeting – Sign up for Action Teams: Austin Energy, the Permian Pipeline, Rio Grande Valley Support, Carbon Fee & Dividend, People Power, Data Entry, and Presentations and more –
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGnTcLl5B7qss9oD3AXF5yagn4gek0Zwjsg1lYG7vdFZ5ebA/viewform

Whether you have only minutes a month or hours a day, join us to build a mass movement to stop climate change. We will show you, it’s easy!

The post Sierra Club Climate Change Committee Meeting appeared first on The Austin Common.

Come out to POC’s first happy hour and learn how you can get involved!

Planning Our Communities (POC) is a group of people of color who are affordable housing, economic opportunity and transit advocates, community organizers, and social justice activists in Austin. We want to build and maintain affordable housing, fight gentrification and displacement, and build healthy and diverse communities.

We are organizing people of color in Austin who:
– envision a land development code that advances communities of color and working class people;
– support creating more housing options all over Austin;
– want to fight gentrification and displacement; and
– promote civic engagement, equitable transit, and community health.

The post POC Happy Hour appeared first on The Austin Common.

Join Community Not Commodity for a conversation about Austin’s gentrification crisis and what we can do to fight it! Co-hosts include theAustin Justice Coalition, Austin NAACP, La Raza Roundtable, and PODER.

The discussion will be moderated by Alberta Phillips, editorialist and columnist at the Austin American-Statesman. Other speakers include:

SUSANA ALMANZA
Director of PODER and longtime environmental activist

NELSON LINDER
President of Austin NAACP

DR. FRED MCGHEE
Archaeologist and local historian

CARMEN LLANES PULIDO
Executive Director of GO! Austin / VAMOS! Austin (GAVA)

DR. JANE RIVERA
Committee Co-Chair, The Mayor’s Task Force on Institutional Racism

DR. ERIC TANG
African & African Diaspora Studies, The University of Texas at Austin

ED WENDLER
Austin-area real estate developer

We hope to see you there!

The post Real Solutions For Austin’s Gentrification Crisis appeared first on The Austin Common.