Voting is the foundation stone of political action.

Martin Luther King

Early Voting is over.   Election day voting is Tuesday, November 5th,  from 7 am to 7 pm. Find locations and poll hours here.   This is your chance to use your vote as your voice. Please vote.

 We told you how the Austin City Council violated its rules to marginalize public input and diminish the democratic process.    We alerted you to court rulings finding the Mayor and Council in violation of the Open Meetings Act.

We informed you that the Mayor and Council voted to deregulate land use, beginning with redefining most single-family zoning as muti-family. Additionally, the city has diminished or eliminated off-street parking requirements, compatibility standards, and reasonable height and density controls.   These actions will destabilize neighborhoods, displace vulnerable residents, and increase concrete, runoff, heat, and property taxes while failing to provide affordable housing. They have taken planning and decision-making away from the community and put Austin’s future in the market’s hands. The market knows one thing: profit.

Now, the council has acted on two proposals that granted higher zoning for free to hundreds of commercial properties, some within neighborhoods and some on the edges.

 

They applied automatic ETOD upzoning to hundreds of properties along the proposed first phase of the light rail to heights of 90 to 120 feet (8 – 12 stories) up to ½ mile from the proposed route (not the station).  The city’s stated intention, against all reason, is to roll out dozens, possibly more than a hundred, additional ETOD districts untethered to rail reveals that these districts, their name notwithstanding, have no genuine connection to high-capacity transit. The reference to transit is merely a cover for setting the city up for redevelopment.

They also have upzoned 50+ properties with the DB90 combining district (which allows 30 extra feet of height) all over the city, with more upzonings in the works.

Both the ETOD and DB90 entitlements require only a tiny amount of affordable housing and allow the buildings to reach full height 25-50 feet from your home.   All of these zonings were provided at no cost to the developers/landowners by the city.  In short, they have handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in entitlements.

The Council voted or will vote to do all of these things. Now it’s your turn to vote.

Vote like your community depends upon it, because it does.