Latest news with #RyanAlter
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Inside Austin's Agenda: Behind the scenes of last week's ‘cap and stitch' vote
AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Wednesday's episode of Inside Austin's Agenda, host Grace Reader will sit down with Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter to talk about last week's vote to commit $104 million to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for the roadway elements of 'caps and stitches' over TxDOT's I-35 project. Those 'caps and stitches' are decks over the highway that may eventually support parks, trails, and community spaces. The funding committed Thursday will support caps between Cesar Chavez Street and Fourth Street, between Fourth Street and Seventh Street and between 11th Street and 12th Street. It also covers two stitches, which are thinner than caps, in north Austin. Parks over I-35: Austin city council agrees on $104M for roadway elements Alter was part of a sub-quorum of council members pushing for as many of those 'caps and stitches' as possible. He presented several ideas in the days leading up to the vote to encourage his remaining colleagues to consider voting for additional highway covers. We will discuss the behind-the-scenes of how that compromise was reached and the public meeting laws the city council has to follow when it's divided into sub quorums, like it was last week. Inside Austin's Agenda is live every other Wednesday at 3 p.m. Watch every episode at the top of this article, on Facebook, and YouTube. You can find previous episodes here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Austin City Council votes to fund columns for 3 park decks, 2 ped bridges over I-35
Following weeks of rare infighting fueled by a major budget crunch, the Austin City Council on Thursday approved $104 million to pay for columns to support three large decks and two pedestrian bridges over parts of Interstate 35 near downtown. While the 8-2 decision, with one abstention, was limited to funding for the support structures, it also served as a de-facto vote on the scope of the city's long-planned effort to physically reunite historically segregated East Austin with the heart of the city by covering a soon-to-be lowered I-35 with parks, walkways and other amenities. That's because the Texas Department of Transportation needs to know by months' end how many decks and bridges to account for as it prepares to lower and expand I-35 through Central Austin. As previously envisioned, the project included six park decks and two pedestrian bridges. The plan approved Thursday accounts for three caps, from Cesar Chavez to Fourth streets; Fourth to Seventh streets; and 11th to 12th streets, as well as two 300-foot pedestrian bridges, or "stitches," near 41st Street along the Red Line train path. The downsizing was the result of a major compromise. Ahead of the vote, the 11-member council was nearly evenly split on how many caps and stitches it should build. One camp had pushed for funding only two decks, citing the city's worsening financial outlook, while another camp had pushed for at least four. Council Member Ryan Alter was in the latter group but voted in favor of the slightly downsized plan. "What we ultimately approved is a significant investment and opportunity in not only bridging east and west, but creating meaningful spaces for people to come and enjoy," Alter said in an interview after the vote. Council Member Paige Ellis voted in favor, too, but only after her motion to pay for support structures for two caps and two stitches failed 5-6. 'This may feel like an episode of Family Feud, but we're all really fighting for the same green future,' she said. The two 'no' votes came from Council Members Marc Duchen and Krista Laine. Council Member Mike Siegel abstained. All cited concerns with the cost of the project. "The city of Austin is holding all of the financial risk of cost overruns when we all know they are coming," Laine said. "It's wild." The city is facing a $33 million budget deficit and also expecting to lose a $105 million federal grant that would have paid for one of the caps. The total project cost, accounting for the reduced number of caps, was not immediately available Thursday. With all six caps and both stitches, the estimated price tag had been $1.4 billion. The sentiments expressed during the public comment period mirrored the split on council. Many residents and groups said they wanted columns for some or all of the caps funded, saying it was an investment for future generations of Austinites. "This is one of those 'yes and' moments," said Jim Walker of the Cherrywood Neighborhood Association. "You're going to have to address the urgent needs and meet these big, multigenerational moments when they arise. They don't come very often." But others weren't so sure. Several local advocacy groups and residents opposed the plan, saying that money was needed for other more immediate needs like affordable housing, similar to the concerns of the dissenting council members. "This is not the time to put a down payment on a project that the people of Austin cannot afford," Barbara McArthur, a district 7 resident, said during public comment at Thursday's meeting. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin council votes to fund columns for 3 decks, 2 bridges over I-35
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
City of Austin set to update long-term housing goals with federal grant
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The City of Austin could take another swing at its long-term comprehensive housing goals. The Housing Department applied for and received a nearly $7 million federal grant to help do it. Austin City Council is expected to vote on the acceptance of that grant Thursday. The money will go toward several housing initiatives, including preservation of affordable housing near the planned light rail line, prioritizing building near high-opportunity areas and updating the Strategic Housing Blueprint. The city of Austin and Austin Housing Finance Corporation also pitched in roughly $21 million to do that work, according to council documents. In 2017, Austin City Council set forward lofty housing goals and created a guiding document, called the Strategic Housing Blueprint. 'It measures every single district in terms of how much housing has each district produced in relation to how much the scorecard says it should. It also breaks down by income level,' Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter has previously said. 'And unfortunately we're not doing very well on pretty much any of these metrics.' Every year HousingWorks Austin collects data to show how close the city is to meeting those goals, called the Strategic Housing Blueprint Scorecard. The 2022 Strategic Housing Blueprint Scorecard — which is the most recent — marks the halfway point in the city's comprehensive plan. Awais Azhar, the executive director at HousingWorks Austin, says he thinks the blueprint needs a revamp with a focus on housing in high-opportunity areas — for example near schools and work — housing near transit, reaching people at the lowest median family income levels and working to integrate the needs of the Homeless Strategy Office (HSO). 'All of our affordable housing programs have been focused on 50% median family income or lower for rental or 80% median family income or lower for ownership. So that's roughly for a two person household that's [at] $80,000,' Azhar said. 'Even if you're at $100,000 or $90,000 or if you're at $110,000, it's increasingly hard for people to purchase homes in our central city so that's another conversation we need to have.' The city's Housing Department has previously said the revamp is necessary because of how much the city has changed since the blueprint was adopted in 2017. 'Some ways the city has changed include, the rising cost of living, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, adding a coordinated homeless strategy, and land development code legal challenges,' a spokesperson wrote. KXAN asked the city's Housing Department whether this grant would be impacted by a recent announcement that federal grants may be halted and reevaluated. We didn't hear back by the deadline. We also asked the city of Austin about whether there are federal grant approvals on this week's council agenda that will need to be postponed. City Manager T.C. Broadnax said generally of the potential for a pause in federal grants that the city is 'aware of the memo from the federal Office of Management and Budget and are currently assessing its impact. We are compiling a total amount of grant funding for all City of Austin programs that could be affected.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
At least $350M over 10 years: Austin City Council to vote on homelessness spending
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Thursday, Austin City Council is expected to vote on a resolution that could make homelessness a top financial priority for the city. The resolution could direct the city manager to increase spending starting with the Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget. 'I am really proud that one of the first items that we'll take up on Thursday at our first council meeting is prioritizing investments in homelessness. That includes having additional funding for shelter, for housing and prevention,' Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes said. Fuentes is the chair of the Public Health Committee which unanimously voted to send this item to the full dais. The resolution largely does the following, according to Fuentes' team: Explore new and lasting funding sources to replace expiring federal funds, including American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars Invest significant funding into emergency shelters, permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing Expand prevention and diversion programs You can read the full resolution here. If passed, the city manager will be asked to bring an update back to the Public Health Committee by March. In that update, the city will also be asked to identify one-time funding needs versus ongoing expenses. In November, the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO) presented modeling for Austin's homelessness response system to that same council committee — including how many shelter beds and permanent housing units the city may need over the next decade. ECHO said the number of additional shelter or housing units required to 'meet functional zero' over the next ten years includes: 550 new emergency shelter beds 2,355 rapid re-housing units 4,175 permanent supportive housing units Altogether, building out those beds or units alone could cost the city an estimated nearly $350 million. The breakdown is as follows: $24,399,259 for emergency shelter beds over the next ten years $104,473,188 for rapid re-housing $217,411,093 for permanent supportive housing You can find ECHO's full State of the Homelessness Response System report here. Council members are also expected to discuss proposed amendments to the resolution, including several from Public Health Committee Member Ryan Alter. That includes working on an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) update for future budget conversations. 'Adding a couple things to identify, first and foremost, the ARPA cliff that is coming and really understanding what programs that we have been operating via ARPA dollars, do we think we should continue to operate and if so, how we're going to fund those in the upcoming budget,' District 5's Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter said during last month's Public Health Committee meeting. Alter also asked the city manager to put forward a plan around how the city may accomplish its goal of building enough permanent supportive housing units to meet demand. Those units often take years to build and are expensive both in the short and long term, Alter said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
