Thread by @BThompson_CI

🧵 for today's #atxcouncil work session on "housing supply and affordability" that council's been workshopping over the past month. The meeting will feature staff briefings on housing in Austin and a range of CM policy proposals communityimpact.com/austin/central…

More info on today's schedule, council priorities, and input on housing policy from community orgs is available thru council's online message board austincouncilforum.org/viewtopic.php?…

Mayor Adler kicking off by running through goals of today (debate, with no final policy votes), background on process, where the city's LDC lawsuit appeal stands ("Who knows" how that will shake out). Morning will feature CM intros and a presentation before afternoon discussions

Adler says the hope is that today's policy talks can narrow down CM priorities to those that have a consensus among officials, meaning those most likely to pass with a majority vote in the near future

CM Tovo starts individual comments by echoing hope for consensus and "positive direction" on this topic. She'll be bringing a resolution on accessory dwelling units, says she backs some residential allowances in commercial zones and working with universities on student housing

CM Kitchen up next, says it's important to move on these concepts quickly and find policy updates that are not divisive in the community. Kitchen partially started this off with her proposal on VMU zoning that council passed earlier this month: communityimpact.com/austin/central…

Kitchen backs the "residential in commercial areas" concept as well. Also mentions potential MF zoning tweak tied to affordability, relocation assistance/tenant protections, reexamining planning/zoning in targeted areas, and "comprehensive" reporting on affordable housing goals

CM Alter also speaks to finding consensus and pushing ahead "where we have the greatest impact," without more contentious talks. She backs the 'residential in commercial zoning' item, says a resolution on that topic will be put before council next Thursday

Alter says it's important for colleges to continue building out housing for students and faculty. On UT, says "they have not invested much in housing" in recent years. Also seconds Kitchen's mention of targeting new planning/redevelopment of retail centers on transit corridors

Alter closes with a few other points, including support for more skilled worker training/workforce building. Also points to things the city has done well: "We've made really significant investments" in affordable housing "more than many other communities...not all gloom and doom"

CM Casar starts off noting "unacceptable" spike in local home prices, rents. Supports residential-commercial plan and more mixed-income housing there, Tovo's item easing ADU restrictions, cutting parking requirements, and adding more affordable units in vertical development

CM Pool starts off with mention of goal to make "less intense" zoning categories more attractive and widely-used by developers. Also supports residential-commercial, focusing housing on major corridors, movement on more college housing, and district-level housing planning

CM Kelly starts off noting she's new on council and wasn't part of recent years' housing talks, but has noticed "completely broken" status quo. She wants a faster+more affordable permitting process, and to see council's push here to result in overall increased housing supply

CM Ellis highlights parking requirements, opening up ADU limitations, scaling site planning requirements, "preservation bonus" for existing homes, and ongoing equitable transit-oriented development (eTOD) policy talks

CM Renteria says he agrees with many points that have been raised so far today. He also points to Mueller as a success in the affordable housing space, and a concept he wants to see "all over Austin." He wants the city to keep buying up land for affordable housing along corridors

Renteria closes with a mention of major employers building some housing for their employees as well. Adler wrapping up this quick-hit rundown of CM priorities with another recap of council's recent work on this front+ homeless housing

Adler also floats a possible affordable housing bond for 2022 with much of the city's most recent housing bond funds now used up. Reiterates that today is to find what is "achievable" without controversy, but asks for future consideration of compatibility/bonus structure

He also says he wants a concerted effort to keep higher-income earners out of the "affordable" housing market in the 60%-80% MFI range and below

On the tail end here, MPT Harper-Madison brings up Austin's racist 1920s downtown plan that resulted in long-term city segregation persisting through today. Also says exclusionary zoning is affecting people based on race, class, and pushing poorer residents out

Harper-Madison sums up by asking to push back on what she calls "segregated, car-dependent, suburban planning" in Austin--although change on this policy front is still not a "silver bullet solution"

Now moving into the ~1 hour portion of today's meeting dedicated to city staff presentations about housing. Starting off with this briefing from consultant Jon Hockenyos: austintexas.gov/edims/document…

Hockenyos starting off with an overview of why Austin is now one of the least-affordable US metros: Says the local economy remains a "regional economic star" despite Covid concerns, with the major problem being supply+cost issues in housing, labor, supplies amid continuing growth

It has been a "perfect storm" in residential real estate, a "good problem to have" given that managing growth is better than trying to find growth in the first place, Hockenyos says. Still, the housing question remains a challenge

Hockenyos: "The pandemic actually put more focus on Austin" with even more population added due to desirability. As has been well-noted, housing supply just not keeping pace through this trend

Hockenyos's conclusion on this topic, as he says the affordability/quality of life gap widens on a daily basis: "Austin and regional agencies must go beyond subsidy to meet the challenge of better aligning demand and supply" and increase housing supply across all income levels

CMs following up on this first briefing with asks for additional market data based on location, income level, etc. Hockenyos says he used city and ABoR figures for his presentation. Kitchen says extra data is needed to determine whether council's work will end up being successful

Alter wants to figure out what % of Austin's housing stock is taken up by short-term rentals, esp. when folks aren't permitted to do so. She also asks if it's possible to figure out what % of housing comes from foreign investment, Hockenyos says that's unlikely

Alter: "We can create a lot of damage" with the wrong types of supply. Notes recent report showing that Austin's per capita housing supply has been among best in the nation through the pandemic, while not meeting all needs esp. with much demand coming from high-income sphere

Harper-Madison says her constituent concerns on housing sound different than some items on the council dais today, asks housing orgs to engage/educate on the topic: "Bringing people along to where they actually understand what's happening around them, that's a critical component"

H-M now asks Hockenyos about outreach to poorer Austinites. Says he is most often engaging with younger lower-income residents, esp. in the restaurant biz. "What they see is the tip of the spear," which is wages that are not sufficient to cover housing

Tovo asks for examples of places that have successfully added housing of all kinds on/near campus for students and faculty. Hockenyos says he's also in touch with A&M about College Station housing crisis, and will return to council with some possible examples in this area

Tovo circles back to Alter's short-term rental ask, and wonders how much they might be eating into the long-term rental market as well as how many might be operating illegally

She also points back to Austin's "significant challenges" with enforcement of illegal short-term rentals. Renteria now comments again on tying tax breaks for any big corps. coming to town with new housing, and asks consultant how city can push for that type of workforce housing

Alter also wants to see investment in corporate "campus-based housing" and asks for staff update on potential legal issues related. Kitchen then says Renteria's focus on new corporate housing is a "great idea"

Kitchen is also interested in consultant's mention of institutional capital earlier, wants info on how those funds/groups may be competing with residents for housing and engaging in the market. Hockenyos says they are "not really" contributing needed housing in the city

On the overall concept of development incentives, Hockenyos cautions against more incentives by right. Tells council those adjustments can end up baking additional cost into land/housing rather than simply broadening development options

On incentive topic, Alter says she may be developing a proposal related to campus-based/workforce housing that could end up as an "analog" for the city's existing Affordability Unlocked bonus program

Council's running a little behind on their schedule, were supposed to get thru 2 staff briefings before lunch break but only got to 1. So after lunch at 1:30, they'll get to that second presentation ahead of an afternoon of discussion with 4:30 hard stop

Council's trickling back in so we'll likely be getting started up again in a few. Before the afternoon policy talks get going, we do have a recently-updated list of the # of CMs firmly supportive of the range of ideas on the table today: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

Leading the group is Tovo's ADU proposal with 8 CMs "expressing interest." Allowing more residential uses in commercial areas also has broad support with 7 CMs, then everything else on that sheet has 5 or fewer members interested in supporting

Not at a full dais yet, but we are starting off the afternoon session here with a presentation from Housing & Planning Dept. Director Rosie Truelove and other city staff: austintexas.gov/edims/document…

Truelove starting off with a recap of where Austin stands on its 10-year Strategic Housing Blueprint to add tens of thousands of housing units by 2028, and on overall housing market conditions. Austin's median home price sits at $536,000, a 28% 1-year increase

On the Blueprint, Truelove notes that the first 3 years of the decade-long plan show "significant work remains" for adding to Austin's stock of deeply-affordable housing

Another note that has been mentioned throughout the day and repeated in this presentation: Austin's 2018 housing bond money is almost used up. It sounds like there's some desire to see another bond package put to a vote in '22

Here's how the city's been spending those bond dollars, set to run out in FY 22-23

Staff have now run through more bond info and some background on displacement prevention, with a focus today on the city's Project Connect anti-displacement funds and tenant stabilization work. Truelove now closing this briefing

She says city housing dept. may look into possibly creating a Public Facilities Corp. and continue seeking housing funds, using public land for affordable housing, and partnering with other entities/businesses on housing creation. Now back to council for questions, discussion

CM Fuentes follows up on anti-displacement. Mandy DeMayo with Housing & Planning says the dept. is looking to bring a handful of developments before council in 2022 to consider funding for preservation/renovation work

Kitchen asking about the state of Austin's housing "pipeline," or the projects that the city has already committed funding toward. Kitchen has asked for more info on such projects in recent weeks, wants to see them added to future Strategic Housing Blueprint progress reports

Staff briefings wrap up. Council has about 1.5 hours left to hash out their priorities and figure out which policies have a shot at moving forward in the months ahead

Starting off with Tovo's ADU item, which has 8 CMs now listed as interested in supporting. This is a proposal that could be coming up for council consideration next Thursday. Tovo says she wants to revamp preservation process for ADUs, reduce ADU categories, and more

After some discussion council's moving on, the ADU item will be revised and revisited soon. Next up, the Adler-Alter proposal to allow residential uses in areas that have been zoned as commercial. This item has 7 CMs listed as interested in supporting

This also will be up for a vote next Thursday, Alter says this draft resolution will be revised and reposted tomorrow assets.austintexas.gov/austincouncilf…

Wrapping up, Kelly says this is a "great" concept but wants to hear more from staff on how the update would be rolled out if it's approved, and see it calibrated to market conditions

Moving right along, council now talking about item on collaboration with colleges/universities and other local orgs to add student housing in order to free up affordable housing. 5 CMs listed in support of this one

Adler says universities and the city may be seeing a "mutual need" on the housing front: "We have a willing partner [UT] ...to try and solve this issue." He also suggests possible subsidy as an option

Alter also references the housing dept.'s work with UT on rezoning 4 university properties across town that could result in redevelopment, new housing there. And on to the next one: Workforce housing incentives for local companies. 6 CMs interested in supporting this so far

This is something that could be facilitated through Chapter 380 econ development agreements or public-private partnerships. Adler again says he's growing concerned about trend of lower-MFI housing being taken up by folks earning higher levels of income

Still running through a few more details on this. Looking ahead, council has about 2 dozen policy proposals left to cover today, all of which are shown as having below 50% interest among CMs so far. TBD if more sign on or if some of these will be left behind

Adler says a #1 community benefit for companies looking for incentive agreements in Austin is housing. Tovo wonders if an item asking corps. about housing plans should be added to Austin's economic incentive policies

Moving down the list, Adler touches on several remaining proposals. Kitchen speaking to concept of re-planning standards for districts/small areas, but notes that she's not 100% sure about the extent of a potential problem on this front and wants to know more

Ellis now commenting on the city permitting process and how it ties to affordability. Wants to make sure that "missing middle" projects have city policies that are right-sized to match the scope of development

City Manager Cronk says staff could follow-up to talk though tools/changes aimed at easing the city's development process. Tovo says she's also concerned that projects under S.M.A.R.T. Housing and affordable housing programs may be missing out on expedited permitting

Fuentes wants a peer city analysis of Austin's permitting process. Also notes that dozens of new full-time employees were added during the summer budget process and asks how they've played into permitting

On reduced parking requirements, sounds like there may need to be a broader conversation about changes to those policies especially on transit corridors. Kitchen and Renteria may be collaborating on something there

Circling back to permitting, Alter also notes the additional staff, new Permitting and Development Center, and other resources the city has put up in recent years. Wants a report on the positive effect those changes have had, or if none, why that spending hasn't sped up permits

She also follows up on her earlier point covering how the city can support the regional pipeline of skilled trade workers, notes the need for that sector to continue growing local housing stock

Adler echoes support for CM proposals aimed at infill development, including Pool's item on improvements to SF-5 and SF-6 zoning categories. And now, Tovo wants to take time to figure out next steps in this overall deliberation process

She says she thinks the best way to move forward could be individual CMs taking ownership of their favored proposals and bringing them up for discussion and final votes in the near future. Although, some items will require further staff research/calibration/recommendations

Sounds like there's agreement on that outline for the process going forward. Adler also asks Cronk, staff to bring back more info on most impactful policies

Kitchen now moving ahead to ask to postpone an item on Thursday's regular meeting agenda, resolution from Harper-Madison asking city management to take on a study of "the cost of producing housing in Austin" and options for lowering that cost. H-M is open to a 1-week postponement

Kitchen also says she wants to dig deeper into issue of relocation/tenant assistance this month. Notes council passed a resolution on this topic years ago but city was not able to follow through on that path, and says this'll be covered in an executive session next week

Closing, Cronk says today's talks are "exactly where we should be as a community." Adler repeats ask for staff recommendations on how to implement top CM policy proposals in the near future. And Harper-Madison also wants to continue using message board to workshop ideas

That ends today's session. The policy worksheet from city staff has been updated with some possible next steps on top items: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…