Tuesday, May 5, 2026, 9 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
The Austin City Council work session of May 5, 2026 opened with a closed executive session on legal issues related to two items: a proposed resolution directing the city manager to postpone One ATS departmental reorganizations/employee transfers, and the yogurt shop criminal cases. In open session the Council received a briefing on a proposed citywide density bonus program (item B1) that would create five height tiers, retire DB90 and vertical mixed use going forward, require 10% affordable units, and return to Council on May 21. It then received a Homeless Strategies and Operations briefing (item B2) on an expanded encampment management program launching mid-May with six teams working five days a week, supported by APD officers, along with updates on Violet KeepSafe storage, 311 changes, a public dashboard, and shelter capacity. Item C1 was a discussion of the One ATS IT consolidation, with extensive public testimony from city workers opposed to the plan and questions from a council sub quorum to the CFO and ATS director about phase one, benchmarking data, attrition, and oversight; officials said phase one launches August 10 with an estimated 189 employees. No votes were taken at the work session.
0:01 You are watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro timm cheeto,
0:11 Vela. Council members Natasha Harper Madison, Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez, Ryan Alter, crystal lane, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis, zoe
0:34 cadre, mark uchin, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady and city manager tc broad,
0:52 everybody. It is nine o'clock in the morning and it is May 5th, 2026.
0:59 And I will call to order the work session of the Austin City Council.
1:02 We have a quorum of the City Council present.
1:04 We are meeting in the City Council chambers located in Austin City Hall at 3 0 1 west second street
1:10 in Austin, texas. The order of the day members is that we will go into an executive session
1:16 to discuss two items and then when we come out of the executive session, we will go in
1:20 the order of the agenda, which will be the briefings and then the council item of interest.
1:26 So unless there's objection, the City Council will now go into a closed session to take up two
1:31 items pursuant to section 5 5 1 0 7 1 of the texas government code.
1:36 The City Council will discuss legal issues related to item c one discussion regarding a resolution directing the
1:43 city manager to postpone any departmental reorganizations or employee transfers associated with the one a ts initiative until
1:51 such time that counsel is presented with sufficient information to justify those aspects of the initiative.
1:57 And until counsel affirmatively approves their implementation, and we will discuss legal issues related to item e one,
2:04 discuss legal issues related to yogurt shop criminal cases.
2:08 Again, both of these are private consultation with legal counsel under section 5 5 1 0 7 1 of the texas government code.
2:16 Is there any objection going into executive session on the items announced?
2:20 Hearing none, uh, the counsel will now go into executive session at 9:01 am and as I've indicated, when
2:26 we come back out after the executive sessions, we will go in the order on the agenda, which
2:32 is items the briefings, items b one b two, and then we'll go to council items of interest.
2:36 Item c one. With that at 9 0 1, we'll go into executive session.
2:40 Thanks everybody.
2:46 We were already in order.
2:47 We were just in an executive session.
2:49 We are now out of that closed session and in the closed session we discuss legal issues related
2:54 to item c one and e one, pursuant to 5 5 1 0 7, 1 of the texas government code.
2:59 It is 10 20 on Tuesday May 5th members, as I indicated, what we will do is we will
3:06 go in the order of the agenda.
3:08 Uh, so we will start with item b one.
3:11 And the way I, what I'm, I'm gonna suggest what we do is, since these are briefings and
3:16 items of interest, I'm gonna ask that we go with the speakers, uh, on that item so we
3:21 get it all done, uh, together and we have all the consideration together.
3:26 So I'm gonna turn to the city clerk 'cause we have speakers signed up on item b one
3:30 and ask that they, uh, the speakers be recognized.
3:34 Thank you Mayor betsy greenberg and travis schneider.
3:40 You will have two minutes.
3:47 My name is betsy greenberg.
3:49 I live in district nine, and I'm opposed to the citywide density bonus program as drafted.
3:54 I'm sure you all remember the acacia cliffs rezoning to db 90 and the heartfelt testimony from residents
4:01 who were about to be displaced by your decision before taking testimony about the case on May 22nd.
4:08 Mayor Watson mentioned that db 90 has been an extremely unhappy experience, has created significant unintended consequences division
4:19 in our community, and contributed to making some people feel helpless.
4:24 He committed to a resolution directing staff to fix the problem.
4:27 Council Member Fuentes agreed and expressed support for looking at one for one replacement on affordable units.
4:36 The resolution on this issue was passed on June 6th at the same time that the acacia cliffs rezoning
4:41 was approved. Instead of working to avoid displacement and the loss of existing affordable housing, the new proposal
4:48 is focused on giving developers more options, height, allowing a height bonus of 1545 and 60 feet.
4:57 In addition to the 30 foot option allowed by db 90, the planning commission even recommended adding more
5:03 levels up to 190 foot bonus.
5:07 And as before, at most 20% of newly constructed units need to be income restricted.
5:13 In the acacia cliffs example, less than half of the naturally occurring affordable housing would be replaced with
5:21 income restricted units. If you really care about avoiding displacement and the loss of affordable housing, the new
5:29 code would require it, and you would also eliminate the possible waiver of replacement units in section four
5:36 dash 18 dash 33.
5:39 Please direct staff to work on eliminating the pain that db 90 has caused instead of exacerbating the
5:47 problem. Thank you. Thank you.
5:56 Good morning council members.
5:57 I'm travis schneider, co-chair of a-i-a-a-i-a austin's mobility advocacy committee.
6:02 Uh, currently the design commission is proposing an updated set of urban design standards to integrate into the
6:08 updated citywide density bonus program.
6:11 Some members of that commission and my advocacy committee have identified a key missing element from the current
6:17 draft policy program, and that is a gatekeeper requirement for street scape design.
6:22 In other words, an equivalent to what the downtown density bonus program has with great streets.
6:28 Uh, such street scape standards are critical for facilitating safe, comfortable first and last mile travel between transit
6:35 stops and people's origins and destinations.
6:38 With the city's massive investment in light rail, we can't let four foot wide barebone sidewalks with no
6:43 shade or bicycle infrastructure persist as the only way to get to most of the future rail stations.
6:49 And this will not encourage ridership.
6:52 So I would strongly recommend that development within the e equitable transit oriented development perimeter be required to
6:59 build its streetscape to an elevated standard, such as to project connect's proposed design standards or the 2025
7:06 green infrastructure working groups recommendations.
7:09 At the least, this should become a gatekeeper requirement for the density bonus and even be considered as
7:15 a base requirement for all permits within etod above a certain size threshold to help minimize gaps in
7:21 that improved streetscape. To summarize, downtown is not the only part of our city that needs to be
7:26 pedestrian and friendly, and private developers can assist in making this expanded vision a reality.
7:32 Uh, so just like the downtown density bonus program, the citywide density bonus program needs a street scape,
7:39 uh, gatekeeper requirement, especially within a certain distance of the light rail stations.
7:44 Thank you for your time.
7:45 Thank you.
7:52 That completes all speakers on item b one.
7:54 Great, thank you. Then we'll go to the briefing on item b one members, um, just, uh, by
8:05 way of, uh, some information.
8:08 Uh, Council Member Fuentes has had her baby this morning, so we all, we all wanna say, we
8:18 all wanna say congratulations to her.
8:20 That's just wonderful and what a great time of life.
8:22 Um, and the Mayor pro tim is speaking of babies.
8:27 His baby's graduating from law school today, so, uh, that's where he is.
8:31 <Laugh>, I I just wanted to point that out to everybody.
8:33 Uh, if I leave the daas for any purpose, I'm going to virtually pass the gavel to the
8:39 Mayor pro timm prior to that, and that's Council Member Ellis.
8:42 So, uh, if, if I leave the das Council Member Ellis will be, um, presiding at that point.
8:48 Thank you for letting me divert us.
8:50 No, good morning, um, Mayor council members, um, that's a hard announcement to follow, so hopefully we'll keep
8:57 you as excited with this presentation as that announcement.
9:00 Um, so staff is, is very excited to be able to share our proposal for a new suite
9:05 of density bonus tools that we're collectively calling the citywide density bonus program.
9:09 I'm stevie greathouse, I'm a division manager in Austin planning.
9:12 Um, and joining me to actually walk you through the details of the proposal is, uh, warner cook,
9:16 who's principal planner and project manager over this project.
9:20 This proposal reflects several years of engagement with stakeholders and the public and builds on work that began
9:26 with the development of the equitable transit oriented development, um, density bonus.
9:30 Moving forward, these tools would be available to property owners instead of vertical mixed use or the density
9:37 bonus, 90 db 90 tools.
9:39 They would also provide more flexibility as well as stronger protections for existing naturally occurring affordable housing.
9:46 This work response to, to direction that was provided by City Council last year that we look at,
9:52 um, refining our density bonus tools to better address our goals as a city.
9:57 We also wanted to acknowledge work that is being led outta the city manager's office, um, to continue
10:02 to expand our affordable housing toolbox beyond just density bonuses.
10:06 These are an important tool, but they're just one tool of many that the city has to support
10:11 affordable housing in Austin.
10:14 Um, I'll now turn it over to warner cook, who is going to walk you through the details
10:17 of the proposal.
10:23 Hello council members, as stevie said, I'm warner cook.
10:25 Today we'll go through some brief background information on where we are situated in creating this new density
10:34 bonus program. Then I'll walk through the details of the proposal and briefly touch on some of the
10:39 planning commission's recommendations and let you all know next steps.
10:44 So it's no surprise to you all or anyone in this room that Austin has seen tremendous population
10:50 growth over the recent decades as, and our housing production has not always kept up with this.
10:55 It does. We have in recent years seen moderate in moderate improvements to housing affordability at some levels,
11:02 but there are still many households in Austin that can't find affordable housing for their income level.
11:09 The strategic housing blueprint adopted in 2017 calls for various tools at different income levels to be deployed
11:16 by the city, including subsidies and grants fee waivers, and among them density bonus programs, which I'm walking
11:22 through today. Uh, the last piece of background information is that as stevie mentioned, out of the city
11:27 manager's office, we've done a recent housing gap analysis that showed that the greatest need where the private
11:33 market is not delivering housing is at and below 50% median family income mfi.
11:40 And today that is about $67,000 for a family of four.
11:44 So families, uh, are struggling the most to find housing at that and below a density bonus program,
11:52 which is is one of the tools recommended by our housing policy, allows a developer to build more
11:57 in exchange for community benefits, which usually include affordable housing.
12:02 They're market based and voluntary tools in the state of texas.
12:05 And so therefore they depend on current economic conditions for their success.
12:09 They tend to therefore be most effective in moderate income ranges, such as between 50% and 80% median
12:17 family income. And additional subsidies or fee waivers or tax incentives typically need to be layered on in
12:25 addition to the density bonus in order to reach lower median family income levels.
12:31 Austin's real estate and construction market has changed in the last five years.
12:36 We're in a different place with costs and uncertainty rising and we've seen fewer new starts on denser
12:42 developments because of that.
12:44 And additionally, recent changes to state law like senate bill eight 40 or sb eight 40 have encouraged
12:50 more market rate housing by right, but this does impact the effectiveness of the city's density bonus program
12:56 tools. So taking all that context into account, City Council directed us in June of 2025 to create
13:03 a new tiered structure of a bonus program that we are calling the citywide density bonus program to
13:10 offer an additional range of heights in exchange for income restricted housing.
13:14 They also asked us cons to consider market feasibility, community benefits, relaxed compatibility standards and redevelopment requirements.
13:24 At the same time they asked us to look at updating or aligning existing density bonus programs such
13:29 as density bonus 90 or db 90 vertical mixed use vmu and d-b-e-t-o-d density bonus equitable transit oriented