Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 1 p.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Housing and Planning Committee
The Housing and Planning Committee, chaired by Council Member Harper-Madison with Mayor Pro Tem Vela and Council Member Siegel present, approved its April 14 minutes and a 2027 meeting schedule (February 9, March 16, April 27, September 7, October 19 and November 30) by unanimous voice votes. After an Austin Housing briefing on the 2017 Strategic Housing Blueprint, its progress report and housing market analysis dashboards, and an updated opportunity map, the committee voted unanimously to recommend to the full council a resolution initiating an update to the blueprint, which staff aim to adopt in mid-2028 using a federal Pro Housing grant. Staff also presented findings on green social housing, concluding that under current market rents cross-subsidized social housing is not financially viable without ongoing subsidy, and recommended testing its features in requests for qualifications on Austin Housing Finance Corporation land beginning in early 2027, with a final report by December. Planning staff briefed members on the land development code amendment timeline, including a data center regulatory framework with an initial phase by the end of 2026 and a comprehensive package in spring 2027. Under future items, Chair Harper-Madison suggested discussing approaches to blighted areas and community development corporation capacity.
0:04 Folks, it's one 16 on a lovely Tuesday afternoon in Austin, texas.
0:10 It is, excuse me, the 13th of October.
0:14 Good afternoon. I'm going to call to order the meeting of the housing and planning committee.
0:19 My name is Natasha Harper Madison, uh, proud Council Member for district one and chair for the housing
0:24 and planning committee. Um, I'm going to inevitably forget to acknowledge it later, but I do believe this
0:32 is my last time chair in this meeting as a Council Member in the city of Austin, texas.
0:37 Um, so I might take a few liberties along the way.
0:40 Um, we are convened right here at, uh, City Hall at 3 0 1.
0:45 That's 3 0 1 west second street in Austin, texas.
0:48 We are in chambers with some members potentially joining us at some point.
0:53 Um, during the course of the meeting, virtually, I'm joined by my colleagues, Mayor Pro Tem Vela, uh,
1:00 and Council Member Siegel.
1:03 Uh, the committee May go into closed session at some point under the open meetings, acts of section
1:08 5 5 1 0 7, 1 of the texas government code.
1:11 I don't believe that that is the case, but we do that to get legal counsel on items
1:15 on the agenda. I was told we don't have any speakers.
1:19 Uh, or has that changed?
1:21 That is, that's correct.
1:22 There is no speakers.
1:23 Thank you. I appreciate it.
1:25 That's the part of the meeting where I tell you, oh, that we're open to public speakers.
1:29 Um, but it doesn't appear that we have any signed up, although I do see a person who
1:33 doesn't work for the city who's in the room doesn't look like it.
1:35 Okay. Um, so no speakers signed up, uh, prior to this portion of the meeting.
1:41 So the first thing that we're gonna take up is item number one, and that's to approve meeting
1:45 minutes. Um, we met on April 14th, and now are gonna, um, take the opportunity to take or to
1:54 make a motion, take a motion and a and a second to approve our meeting minutes from our
1:59 April 14th meeting. Looks like that is moved by Council Member Siegel and, uh, Mayor second.
2:06 All in favor, please say, aye.
2:08 Um, we are you, uh, unanimous vote with the three of us on the day, um, with, um,
2:15 member ade. Um, the motion carries, oh, so this one is, um, important in that we take the
2:27 opportunity to create the calendar for meetings for the following calendar year.
2:34 And we had already done that.
2:35 And then, um, or we hadn't rather done that yet.
2:39 And considering we May not meet again before we need to do that, we're gonna go ahead and
2:43 do that today. So, item number two is discussion and possible action.
2:48 Um, for the schedule, uh, this item has been sponsored by myself and Council Member and, um, member
2:54 Siegel. Do we have any speakers on this item?
2:58 No, ma'am. And again, we don't have any registered speakers on this item.
3:02 So, uh, at this time, just like the last item, I'll take a motion, um, for the item,
3:06 we'll take a vote and then move on to a briefing for item number three.
3:11 I'd look yes, move by Council Member Siegel and seconded by Mayor chairwoman.
3:15 Mayor chairwoman? Yes. Can we read the dates out?
3:18 I, I can read them chair if, if, if that's okay.
3:20 Oh, you want us to read the motion or, oh, read the dates for the schedule?
3:25 Sure. Thank you, chair.
3:26 Uh, so the proposed, uh, meeting dates for housing and planning for next year are February nine, March
3:32 16, April 27. September seven, October 19, and November 30.
3:40 So moved. Thank you, member sigar.
3:43 I appreciate it. We good to go?
3:47 Yes, ma'am. Excellent. Thank you.
3:50 Um, we took up the motion and a second.
3:53 And so all in favor.
3:55 Looks like we're unanimous again with the three that are on the days.
3:59 Um, member Ellis is off the days, um, in which case we're zipping right into item number three,
4:10 which is our strategic housing blueprint update.
4:13 Um, this item is for discussion and possible action regarding updates to the city's strategic housing blueprint, which
4:19 details the city's 10 year plan to help align resources and facilitate community partnerships around a single str
4:27 uh, strategic vision, um, to, uh, to create 60,000 affordable housing units.
4:34 This item is sponsored by myself and Council Member Siegel.
4:37 Again, um, members before us today is, you guys probably got an email with a version two of
4:43 this draft resolution that would initiate an update to the Austin strategic housing blueprint and provide direction to
4:49 the city manager for that process.
4:51 Um, looks like staff has a presentation for us.
4:55 Come on up please and introduce yourselves.
5:02 Do we have any discussion before our presentation?
5:05 Alright. Alright, with that good afternoon committee members.
5:10 My name's rachel teper and I'm a principal planner with Austin housing.
5:14 I'm joined today with two senior planners, mercy koya and chase bryan.
5:19 Um, and we're here to provide an update on the strategic housing blueprint.
5:25 So the strategic housing blueprint was adopted in 2027, or sorry, 2017.
5:31 And it's a 10 year plan that set ambitious goals.
5:35 Um, how do I advance the slides?
5:37 Oh, found it my, okay.
5:40 Um, so we know that the goals originally were to create 60,000 affordable units and 135,000 total units.
5:51 We did this, we set, uh, 64 policy objectives across production preservation and housing stability.
6:01 So we're here today as we end our 10 year horizon.
6:05 We're approaching 2027, and we know that conditions have shifted, um, including major transit investments, um, major investments
6:15 in anti displacement. Um, and so we wanna talk to you about why we, we believe the blueprint
6:21 needs an update. We also wanna share some of the work underway, and then we'll go over some
6:27 of the next steps that staff have identified.
6:30 So, as I mentioned, um, we are approaching the end of our 10 year planning horizon.
6:37 We were always intended for this document to be a 10 year plan.
6:42 Um, in 2025, uh, we were awarded a pro housing grant, which was a federal grant program that
6:49 allowed, um, cities to apply to get, uh, planning dollars, which isn't very common.
6:57 Um, so we are very appreciative of being able to get that money.
7:01 Um, and it's a six year, um, planning grant.
7:06 And so this project of updating the blueprint was already earmarked, which is great 'cause it wouldn't mean
7:12 that there would be any cost to the general fund.
7:15 Um, we also know that there have been major transit investments underway with project connect.
7:22 We've continued to come up with, you know, new policies around displacement and anti displacement efforts.
7:28 And we know that our housing conditions as well as our regulatory environments have shifted.
7:34 So what this update would establish is it would, it would look out for the next 10 years
7:39 and look at the housing production and preservation goals, uh, that we'd like to set, um, for up
7:46 to 2037. Um, it would also look at new objectives, new anti-displacement strategies, and new strategies to advance
7:55 housing stability and partnerships.
8:00 So, as I mentioned, we, we were awarded this grant in 2025, um, but we didn't start the
8:05 update right away because we wanted to make sure that one, we knew what we've accomplished.
8:13 Um, and so chase will be sharing a little bit about a progress report that is available on
8:17 our website, but we also wanted updated, uh, market analysis to understand what our needs are today.
8:23 And then finally, we are updating our opportunity map, and I'll give you a little bit of an
8:28 update of what that looks like.
8:30 This is a mapping tool that helps us ensure housing units all across the city.
8:34 And we've, we also wanna make sure we note that this will also build on council and city
8:40 manager direction, as well as all the blueprint scorecards that we'll continue to release, um, for the near,
8:46 you know, uh, for the future.
8:49 Um, and then all of these will be a foundation for the updates and the strategies, uh, for
8:55 the revised blueprint. So I'm gonna pass it off to chase brian to talk a little bit about
8:59 the progress report. Thanks.
9:03 Hello, my name's chase brian.
9:05 I'm a senior planner with Austin housing.
9:07 I'll provide a little bit more information on that strategic strategic housing blueprint progress report as an input
9:12 for this process. This progress report evaluates the objectives that the 2017 blueprint identified, and the primary goals
9:21 are to establish an understanding of progress made on the strategic objectives that the blueprint identified.
9:26 Establish an understanding of the realized impact of these objectives, communicate this information through an interactive dashboard, and
9:34 to use this information to help prioritize certain objectives in the future, uh, to inform recommendations for the
9:39 next blueprint. Overall, we just wanna know about the strategies that we've pursued to date so that we
9:45 know what to do in the future.
9:47 We released the progress report dashboard in August.
9:49 This is also the first time we've done an evaluation of this nature, and it involved a lot
9:53 of input from numerous other departments and program managers.
9:59 So the work reviews 64 objectives using two primary lenses that are progress level and realized impact, which
10:06 are categorized as shown in the tables at the bottom of the slide.
10:10 The review of objectives considered contributions to housing affordability and the blueprint goals overall, including income restricted housing,
10:17 market rate, housing preservation, and production overall.
10:21 The dashboard also organizes objectives by the five community values that are outlined in the 2017 blueprint.
10:29 And this is just a little snapshot of one of the objective pages.
10:33 The left side of these pages shows general information.
10:37 The top right, you'll have the progress notes, which are the bulk of the content on those pages.
10:43 And below that to the bottom right are helpful links and additional resources.
10:48 And these are the objectives that have the highest estimation of realized impact so far, such as implementing
10:55 displacement prevention programs, developing a strike fund that is a low interest private loan designed for housing creation
11:02 and preservation, pursuing strategic land banking, leveraging litech, focusing federal funds, adopting affordable housing goals to guide policy
11:11 and better utilizing land in general.
11:14 That includes stinc city bonuses.
11:17 And I'll pass it off to marcia o coye.
11:21 Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone.
11:22 My name is Marc o coia.
11:24 I am a senior planner with Austin housing, and in August we published our housing market analysis, which
11:30 is our in-house data-driven assessment of austin's housing market conditions, which is designed to help us understand past
11:37 trends. And, um, also, can I get you to get a little bit closer to your mic, please?
11:41 Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
11:44 Uh, yeah. So it's designed to help us understand past trends, but also to help us identify where
11:49 the greatest, um, areas of greatest housing need relies.
11:54 Um, this is an update from our 2020 analysis, which was published in the form of a static
11:58 dash, a static document.
12:00 It was about a hundred plus pages.
12:02 Um, we decided to update it in the form of a, a dashboard, not only to encourage usability,
12:07 but also to make it easier for us to update it along the way.
12:13 So just to highlight some of the elements of the market that this dashboard illustrates.
12:18 It looks at the trends in housing supply and demand.
12:21 So things like, uh, permitting trends, housing production trends.
12:25 It looks at the characteristics of cost burden and low income households by racial categories and other characteristics.
12:32 It also addresses the geographic distribution of poverty by zip codes with the within the county, and also
12:39 renter and owner housing cost trends.
12:42 Some market insights to highlight.
12:44 Um, it looks at the major shortage of units affordable to renters who are extremely low income and
12:50 low income. So that's households earning between zero to to 50 area media income or a mi house
12:56 salaries have not been keeping pace with the increasing cost of housing and the share the change in
13:02 the share of various housing types, including middle housing types.
13:05 So these are structures with two to nine units.
13:11 So this is a snapshot of one of the dashboard pages.
13:16 All of the content pages are formatted similarly to this page.
13:20 So it has a summary at the top left.
13:22 It has navigation buttons that makes it easy for users to navigate throughout the dashboard.
13:28 Um, and then there's an informational on the bottom right, um, outlined by this lowercase I that you