City Council

Thursday, September 10, 2026, 10 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall

Video of the meeting

On the agenda

Roll-call votes

Documents

Summary

The Austin City Council adopted its consent agenda without objection, including the Austin Infrastructure Academy item, a SAFE Alliance contract extension, the Asian American community health navigator contract, galvanized water service line replacement funding, a new Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex advisory board and a Bat Fest fee waiver; item 6 was withdrawn. The Council adopted item 29, referred from the Audit and Finance Committee, postponed public hearing item 30 to November 19, 2026, and after a public hearing adopted item 31, an ordinance on density bonus affordability and fee-in-lieu options. During public communication, neighbors of 6200 Menchaca Road opposed the proposed MF-4 zoning density there, and Lake Austin business owners asked the Council to move the planned October-to-December Lake Austin drawdown to January or February. Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison presented a proclamation declaring September 10, 2026 John Dees Day. In the zoning session the Council approved a zoning consent agenda with several postponements, including items 39, 42 and 44 to September 24 and item 45 to October 8, and adopted item 47 as amended with Mayor Pro Tem Vela's direction to pursue a path and easement connecting to Highland Park.

Transcript

0:06 You are watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro, tim cheto,

0:16 Vela council members Natasha Harper Madison, Vanessa Fuentes, José velazquez, Ryan Alter, crystal lane, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis, zoe

0:39 cadre, mark uchin, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady, and city manager tc broadnax

0:58 2026.

1:04 Uh, and I will call to order the Austin City Council meeting for this date.

1:08 We have a quorum of the City Council members present.

1:11 We are meeting in City Hall, which is located, uh, at 3 0 1 west second street, and we're in

1:16 the council chambers. Uh, so I, what I'm gonna do is run through the order of the day

1:21 real quickly. Uh, we will, uh, mo momentarily take up the consent agenda members.

1:27 I don't have any item that's been pulled from the consent agenda, however, I wanna point out item

1:32 number six, and I'll read this into the record in a minute, which changes corrections.

1:35 Item number six has been withdrawn.

1:38 So if somebody's here to speak on item number six.

1:41 Uh, item number six has been withdrawn, and we will not call that item up.

1:46 We will then take up non-consent items.

1:47 Those are items from the committees.

1:50 We have two public hearings items, 30 and 31 at, uh, at or around noon.

1:55 We will take up a time certain of public communication.

1:58 We will also recess, uh, at that point in time for music.

2:04 Uh, I wanna point out, however, council members that if we have any, if we, uh, have any

2:10 item, if we don't have any items other than what is left for our two o'clock time certain,

2:14 what we will do is we will probably just, uh, recess until two o'clock.

2:18 However, if we still have items and, and, and we May not, then, uh, we will.

2:24 But if we still have items, we will come back at one 10.

2:27 Uh, then of course, at two o'clock, we will have our zoning items.

2:31 Uh, members, I wanna read in to the record changes and corrections.

2:35 As I've indicated, item number six has been withdrawn.

2:39 Item number six has been withdrawn.

2:41 And on item number 30, when the public hearings are taken up on item number 30, when we

2:46 get to item number 30, this item will be postponed to November 19th, 2026.

2:52 The final thing I wanna say with regard to, uh, changes in corrections is there's late backup.

2:58 And, you know, you, you, you have a listing of the late backup, but one of the key

3:01 items I want to point out is that on the boards and commissions, uh, nominations and waivers, item

3:08 number 25, there is an addition.

3:11 Council Member velazquez has, uh, put toma toma boatright for the native american and indigenous quality of life

3:18 commission. I just wanna read that in the record to make sure that it's, um, uh, uh, carried

3:22 out. And, and when we take the vote on the consent agenda, that will be the motion.

3:27 It will include that late backup members.

3:29 Unless there are questions or comments by members of the City Council.

3:33 We will now go to, um, public com.

3:37 Uh, the, the speakers that are signed up on the consent agenda, and I will turn to the

3:41 city clerk. So without objection, let's do that.

3:45 Thank you, Mayor. For item one, we have phillip fitzgerald, anovia joseph,

3:59 if your name's been called, please come forward.

4:02 Thank you. Thank you, sir.

4:12 Please begin. Hi, phil fitzgerald, district one.

4:19 An entire generation was raised on the simple and implicit promise.

4:24 Do well in school, get your degree and you'll build a good life.

4:29 These days, austinites are waking up to find that promise has been broken.

4:35 They're trapped in a job market where employers are looking at their hard earned degrees.

4:39 They're looking at their crippling student loan debt, and they're saying, we don't need you.

4:47 We have ai. These were people who in the past, proudly posted photos on social media of their

4:54 graduation day, often as the first in their family to graduate college.

4:59 But now they're learning that a bachelor's degree doesn't seem to matter anymore, which means going back to

5:04 school for an advanced degree and more debt as a cost to attend college, continue to soar.

5:11 It can't be overstated.

5:12 How important it is that our city offers a clear and debt-free pathway forward.

5:17 People are being squeezed right now as they navigate a job market defined by ai disruption, a job

5:24 market plagued with suppressed wages, and a job market that offers little help in paying off their own

5:31 overwhelming loan debt. I'm strongly in favor of this item as it helps provide real support rather than

5:37 empty promises. Action like this gives austinites a genuine chance to upskill and move forward into a new

5:44 job. A thriving Austin is one, built on two principles, more chances to succeed, and less debt holding

5:53 people down. So don't let a job market a changing job market.

5:58 Put a ceiling on our people.

5:59 And lastly, I'll add this past year, we did not put enough money towards jobs programs like this.

6:07 I love policies like this, but we need to get more money overall into this, uh, into these

6:11 programs. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

6:14 Keep, keep your seat.

6:15 I think you're getting ready to be called again.

6:19 Please, please go ahead and call for item five.

6:24 Phillip fitzgerald. Yeah, phillip fitzgerald, district one.

6:31 Um, I'm against this.

6:32 As I expressed in the past, we're not allocating our general fund correctly.

6:37 We constantly have to maintain or cut our social services because our police fire and emms budgets continue

6:42 to skyrocket. One of the reasons for that is because we rent out our service to areas that

6:48 are not Austin. Living in Austin means paying Austin taxes.

6:54 The people of Austin are not paying taxes to provide services to travis county, westlake, rolling stone, or

7:00 any other area that is not our city.

7:03 Each time we extend coverage to other areas, it means hiring more first responders, training them, and paying

7:09 them m these areas pay per use, but do not help cover the ongoing overhead expenses that are

7:16 required to constantly hire new people.

7:19 If we ever hope to offer the social services that people of Austin expect, we have to start

7:24 by ending these kinds of agreements.

7:26 Thank you for item 11.

7:30 Don't go anywhere for item 11.

7:33 Phillip fitzgerald.

7:38 Did you call him for item six?

7:42 I thought you said you removed that one.

7:43 Oh, you, you're right.

7:44 Okay. Thanks for the correction.

7:46 Glad you were listening to that.

7:47 That's alright. Just got here.

7:48 I glad I heard you.

7:49 That worked out great.

7:50 Um, I didn't even hear myself, but thank you.

7:52 <Laugh>. Yeah. Phil fitzgerald, district one.

7:56 Um, I think it's okay that we can admit nobody actually does online training and online learning in

8:02 general kind of sucks as someone that did a portion of a degree online.

8:07 Um, even the white collar people hate it.

8:09 Many of them race to see who can click through to the end the fastest.

8:15 So many companies and governments move to online modules to save money on training people in person.

8:21 But what that has given us is people who know the history of a job but don't know

8:25 the culture of it.

8:28 Yes, the number of austinites is increasing each year, but do these new people, these new people really

8:33 feel like austinites when someone doesn't have a feeling for the culture of Austin, then when they move

8:39 here, they immediately think they can do the things in Austin that we're acceptable in their last city.

8:45 Linkedin doesn't know what kind of training will best fit austinites.

8:49 When we os isolate our city workers and make them train with online modules, rather than giving them

8:54 an an in-person experience, not only does it limit them professionally, but personally as well.

9:01 This contract is almost $500,000 for a maximum of three years, and I'd like us to use that

9:07 money on austinites. Thank you.

9:10 Thank you. Hang on for item 14, anovia joseph for item 16, phillip fitzgerald.

9:34 Hi, phil fitzgerald, district one.

9:36 I'm against this. I guess the idea for building a new convention center is to drive future revenue

9:42 growth for the city, but I'm not really sure.

9:44 Why is the idea that the city with more money would be able to get our homeless off

9:50 the streets or to have a prosperous arts and music scene again, which is more likely in the

9:55 future, a hundred percent of the general fund going to a pd or a hundred percent of it

10:00 going to supporting our parks?

10:03 I don't think there's much argument for which is more likely the city hasn't allocated the general fund

10:09 or the hotel tax in a way to really impact the lives of austinites in a long time.

10:15 I understand there's limits on how the money can be spent, but there were lots of creative ways

10:20 we could have made it work.

10:23 Why can't the city of Austin throw its own festivals and make it cheap for locals to attend

10:26 while still inviting tourists?

10:29 Why can't we have a bus line from the airport to downtown, just have it pick up and

10:34 drop off near hotels?

10:35 So that's in line with the law, but instead we're spending the bulk of this money on a

10:40 convention center. This economy has been extremely tough for a lot of people, and we should be using

10:49 this tax revenue to help lift financial off the shoulders of austinites.

10:54 Thank you for item 19.

10:59 We have one remote speaker.

11:00 Monica guzman.

11:07 Good morning. I'm monica guzman, gaba policy director speaking on item 19.

11:13 While fees in lieu to get around onsite affordable unit isn't necessarily a good option considering the lack

11:20 of deeply affordable units.

11:21 And according to the Austin strategic housing blueprint scorecard from 2018 to 2023, the city is behind scheduling

11:30 the production of units for the 60% media family income and, uh, 30, excuse me, 31 to 60%

11:38 media family income, and considerably more.

11:41 So for those at the 30% and below mfi, it is good to see a draft resolution proposing

11:47 that city funds be directed at income level as low as 30% and below mfi it strives for

11:55 something the people's plan presented to council in 2018 sought to create with a separate city, low income

12:03 housing trust fund in order to set lower income limits than those in federal and commingle funds.

12:09 In addition, the fees and lie need to be increased and how they are used needs to be

12:16 publicly facing because the public isn't aware and it's not easy to find.

12:22 And sometimes it requires reaching out to city staff, make it public facing so the people are more

12:29 aware of how the money is being used and where it's being used.

12:34 Thank you. Thank you.

12:38 Back to in-person speaker for item 19, we have philip fitz, fitzgerald, enovia joseph, and lyric wardlow,

12:53 bill fitzgerald, district one.

12:56 I'm speaking in favor of this because since 2020, Austin has seen a massive influx of people making

13:01 over a hundred thousand dollars a year.

13:03 This has driven up the medium wage of Austin, which means the measurements of affordability have become distorted

13:08 as well. People who made 65% of the local medium income six years ago might be sitting closer

13:14 to the 50% mark.

13:15 Now the effect of these changes can be seen when we look at the number of affordable housing

13:20 units that sit empty, which according to a recently published kx and column numbers about 4,500.

13:26 And if you haven't had a chance to read this column that came out earlier this week, I

13:29 really encourage you to do so.

13:31 The peace quotes, people who aren't homeless but are having a tough time finding housing, whether it's due

13:36 to garbage wages or long application wait times to fill affordable housing.

13:41 People don't want to be in these units, but either don't make enough for even affordable housing, or

13:47 the city is taking forever to process their application.

13:51 Around 2020 before housing prices spiked, the city of Austin bought up about 60 acres of land with

13:56 the intention of having the land developed for mixed income housing.

14:00 The idea was the city would own the land and thus property taxes would not have to be

14:04 paid. And a developer who could build the units and rent them out at a lower price, fast

14:09 forward to 2026 and very little if any housing has been built.

14:15 If Austin wants to truly help people, then making it fast to apply, easy to get approved, and

14:21 quick to get them moved into this affordable housing is extremely important.

14:26 Our city has to get out of its way and start delivering results.

14:29 And we can start here by targeting people, targeting support to groups, making less money.

14:33 Thank you, please. Um, good morning, uh, mr.

14:41 Mayor and council. My name is lyric wardlow.