Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 9 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
0:04 You are watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro, tim Vanessa
0:13 Fuentes, council members Natasha Harper Madison, José velazquez, cheeto Vela, Ryan Alter, crystal lane, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis, zoe
0:36 cadre, mark uchin, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady, and city manager tc broad.
0:55 Good morning everybody. It's nine o'clock on October 21st, 2025, and I will call to order the City Council of
1:03 Austin, texas work session.
1:05 We have a quorum of the City Council present, and we are meeting in the City Council chambers,
1:10 which, uh, they're located in City Hall, which is at 3 0 1 at west second street.
1:16 Uh, the order of business will go in is, I'm gonna verify here in a second that we
1:20 don't have any speakers signed up for public comment.
1:24 And we will then go to, uh, a couple, we're gonna do it this way.
1:27 We're gonna go into an executive session to take up item e two, and I'll announce that in
1:31 more detail here in just a second.
1:33 We'll also go into executive session, uh, to take up item e one, and after that we will
1:38 come back in and we will take up the briefing item b one.
1:42 Uh, I will note that, uh, the Mayor Pro Tem is absent today conducting important, uh, city business.
1:50 Uh, and so she's, she's not with us.
1:53 I'll turn to the city clerk's office to verify we don't have any speakers.
1:57 No Mayor. There are no speakers, very good members in that case.
2:01 Uh, without objection pursuant to section 5 5 1 0 8 7.
2:09 Hang on a second.
2:12 Uh, we're, we're gonna go into executive session and, and we'll take up two items.
2:16 The first one will be pursuant to 5 5 1 0 7 4 of the government code.
2:20 We will go in to discuss personnel matters related, as I indicated item e two.
2:25 Those are personnel issues related to the appointment of a new city auditor.
2:30 And pursuant to section 5 5 1 0 8 6 and 5 5 1 0 7, 1 of the government code, the City Council will discuss utility competitive
2:41 matters and legal issues related to item e one, discuss Austin energy generation operation and resource issues.
2:48 Uh, and again, that's under 5 5 1 0 8 6 and 5 5 1 0 7, 1 of the government code members.
2:55 Is there any objection to going into executive session on the, the items that were announced?
3:00 That being the case without objection?
3:02 Uh, the council will now go into executive session at 9:02 am as I indicated, as soon as the
3:08 executive session is complete on these two items, we will come back out, uh, and, and convene in
3:14 open session and we will take up item b one, which is the briefing.
3:19 Thanks everybody.
3:28 Hello everybody. It's 1129 and I'll call back to order the work session of the Austin City Council.
3:34 We are out of a closed session.
3:36 Uh, in the closed session we discuss utility competitive matters and personnel matters related to items e one
3:43 and e two, um, members.
3:46 Uh, I just wanna point out, uh, for the record that on Thursday we will take up an
3:52 item related to the city auditor.
3:55 And at that time there will be a motion, uh, that will be to direct robert berg, the senior
4:00 vice president of ralph anderson and associates our consulting firm to negotiate a contract with jason avi to be
4:07 the Austin city auditor, starting in January of 2026.
4:11 The next item on our agenda is item b one, which is a briefing regarding, uh, the development
4:16 assessment of proposed p located at 1400 and a half and 1404 east riverside drive within the lady
4:24 bird lake watershed urban watershed.
4:26 And I see that ms.
4:27 Harden has found a place to address this, and so I'll call on ms. Hardin.
4:31 Thank you. Uh, it's afternoon still.
4:35 Good morning, Mayor and counsel.
4:36 I'm joy hardin with Austin planning.
4:38 I'm here to present this project assessment, which we call a development assessment for case number cd 2 25 0 0 0 2.
4:48 This is a briefing on a proposed plan unit development or p located at 14 and a half
4:54 and 1404 east riverside drive.
4:57 I know I presented a development assessment last month on September 9th, but just as a quick reminder, since
5:03 I don't present these often, the city's land development code requires that prior to an applicant submitting a
5:08 putt application, the applicant is required to do what we call a development assessment, which is sent essentially
5:16 a dry run of what they're proposing to submit.
5:20 Staff offers comments and the comments come back from numerous city departments and we give them back to
5:25 the applicant. And then we give a briefing to the council on some of the overall big picture
5:29 items and reference to what the applicant is going to submit in their future pud application.
5:36 This is the time where you provide feedback to this proposal, and of course, as you know, there
5:41 is a staff report provided in your backup for your for you to review.
5:45 As I stated, this site is located at 14 and a half and 1404 east riverside drive.
5:51 The site is 2.62 acres in size and is currently undeveloped.
5:57 Previously the site of acton business school, it is zone e-r-c-c-m-u, which is east riverside corridor corridor, mixed
6:07 use subdistrict. It is designated as specific regulating plan on the future land use map lum in the
6:15 east riverside old torf combined neighborhood plan that was adopted on November six 16, 2006.
6:22 The property is located within the lady bird lake watershed, which is classified as urban watershed.
6:26 And within the waterfront overlay, again, the applicant is proposing pud zoning.
6:32 The proposed project will consist of a residential development of approximately 381 residential units.
6:40 The applicant is seeking cs general commercial services district zoning as the baseline zoning district for the pud.
6:47 So any development over the height of 60 feet or a two to one florida, every ratio would
6:54 have to comply with this section of the putt ordinance, which outlines the affordability requirement.
7:00 The applicant is requesting 12 code modifications, which are outlined in exhibit d, and their big ask is
7:07 the request of a maximum building height of 180 feet.
7:11 Just know currently any development, um, on this site cannot exceed a height of 96 feet.
7:17 In exchange for receiving the increased entitlement of height and other modification, the applicant is seeking, excuse me,
7:24 in exchange for receiving the increased height, entitlement of height and other modification the applicant is seeking.
7:30 Some of the applicant's proposed superiority items are as follows, 15 onsite affordable units at 60% in my
7:38 phi tolling 8,568 square feet offsite.
7:42 Storm water will be captured and treated within innovative water quality controls.
7:48 1.17 Acres of the property will be dedicated as parkline parkland, which is 44% of the property providing
7:57 for open space that is 10% above minimum requirements and providing on site long-term bicycle parking and 150%
8:06 of code requirements. Other superiority items are listed on page two of the staff report and in exhibit
8:12 e in the backup.
8:13 Also to note the property is located near the hike and bike trail and a quarter of a
8:17 mile from the proposed rail stop.
8:20 So counsel, just know that once this briefing gets complete, the applicant May submit their actual put application,
8:27 it will go through the usual process review by multiple city departments, review by a minimum environmental commission
8:34 planning commission. And finally, back to council.
8:36 So this concludes my presentation, and please feel, feel free to relay any comments at this time.
8:41 Thank you. No, Mayor, uh, thank you, uh, very much for the presentation, but the, the Mayor pro
8:47 tem and the Mayor off and the Mayor asked me to, to step in and thank you.
8:51 Drive the bus for just a bit.
8:53 Uh, uh, thank you very much.
8:55 Any questions from the dices Council Member?
8:57 Alter Mayor, pro tem, pro tem <laugh>?
8:59 Um, I do have a question.
9:01 This is actually not about the, the merits of this case, but hearkening back to question I asked
9:08 the last time we were here talking about a future pud and, you know, don't need exact number,
9:14 but generally speaking, how much did this process cost the applicant to get here?
9:21 I, I don't know.
9:23 I would say I don't know what they paid in their notification cost and their submittal.
9:28 I'd have to look that up in amanda.
9:30 Um, but of course it would cost thousands of dollars and then I don't have a price for
9:37 the time. Yeah, I don't have a cost for that and I don't know how much the application
9:42 process costs for this.
9:43 Okay. I could look it up and get it back to you.
9:45 Just, I think that, you know, once again, we're here and I think we're going to walk away
9:52 in no different spot than we were 30 minutes ago.
9:57 Um, and we have put a lot of effort and time on your staff.
10:02 We have required the applicant to spend a lot of time and money, uh, just to get to
10:06 this point. And I think we need to really start talking about a process that maybe it's a
10:13 partial way check-in or something that can shorten this timeline and reduce the cost so that we can,
10:21 you know, maybe that adds 10 more affordable units or maybe that, um, you know, has other benefits
10:28 in terms of they can have more open space.
10:31 Mm-hmm. Uh, because we're not carrying an extra six month of cost.
10:34 So, um, I just, I wanna take this moment once again to reiterate that.
10:40 I think while I understand the why we got here, it, it could potentially use a, a fixing.
10:49 Uh, thank you for the comments.
10:51 Uh, councilman b any other thoughts, comments from the diocese?
10:54 Council Member Siegel. Thank you.
10:56 Council Member. Uh, thank you ms.
10:58 Harden for the presentation.
10:59 Um, just had a brief question.
11:00 I was looking at the superiority items and I did mention that, um, the project would pay, uh,
11:07 a fee in lieu for affordable housing mm-hmm <affirmative>.
11:09 And do we know how much that would be or how that would be calculated?
11:13 No, um, it's $9 a, well, there's two things.
11:18 So for this development, they are doing 15 onsite affordable units.
11:26 Um, but the code does allow for them to just pay a fee in lieu.
11:30 So any square footage, and we just don't have that at this time, but any square footage above
11:36 60 feet in height and above their far, and that's calculated once they are ready to, um, present
11:42 a site plan, and we can do that ratio, it would be approximately $9 a square foot, um,
11:49 but minus the 15 affordable units.
11:52 But I don't, we don't have, have the cost at this time of what they're going to be
11:55 paying. Thank you, ma'am.
11:57 Thank you very much.
11:58 Uh, I just wanted to echo Council Member alter's comments.
12:01 Uh, we, joy, we love to, to hear your presentations, uh, but, uh, this kind of a, a,
12:06 a pre-show before the show.
12:08 Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Uh, might not be, uh, you know, the best use of, uh, of everybody's time.
12:12 I do want to reiterate it.
12:13 Council Member Velásquez, uh, thank you, ma'am.
12:16 Um, so 15, 15 affordable units is, it would be only 4% affordability.
12:22 Um, 60%, 60%, 60%, oh, sorry, 60% affordability.
12:29 Um, so they're, they are located currently within the east riverside plan, and with the height that they
12:38 can do under the plan, that plan requires approximately 15 units for their square footage.
12:45 Now, they are going to keep that, even though they're trying to come out of the plan, the
12:50 plan does require, um, 15 affordable units for their proposed development, and they're keeping that, and that's at
12:57 60% mfi. And I apologize, ms.
13:00 Harden, I meant 4% of the actual units, uh, not mfi.
13:03 Oh, I think that's correct.
13:06 Okay. I'm sorry. Just to make a, a general comment.
13:08 Well, would like, and I apologize for my voice.
13:10 My, uh, my cowboys won this past weekend, so I was screaming my head off at the actual
13:14 game. Um, I, I would like to see that increase and if there's, uh, I know that there,
13:19 that we're getting a lot of fee in lieu, but, but that's just, just my comment to this,
13:23 uh, development. Thank you.
13:25 Appreciate that. Council Member.
13:27 Um, with no further questions or comments.
13:30 Thank you very much, uh, ms.
13:32 Harden. Thank you. Thanks.
13:34 And I believe that is the last item on our work session agenda.
13:39 Just, uh, let me just double check with, uh, and with nothing further before the council, then we
13:46 are adjourned today at 1139 in the morning.
13:51 Thank y'all very much.