City Council Notebook

Agenda highlights for the Thursday, Jan. 10, meeting

Item 2: Purchasing land for Austin Energy at Crestview Station for $1.4 million. The first mixed-use substation? (Probably not.)

Item 18: Wheelbarrowing $260,000 more to Scott, Douglass & McConnico for their Responsible Growth for Northcross lawsuit legal fees – bringing their haul to $684,000. And what was wrong with out staff attorneys again?

Item 29: $200,000 to architects COTERA + REED for their I-35 makeover work. Because the biggest problem with our freeway is the way it looks. (But hey, anything to improve the view from the Beauty Bar patio!)

Items 32-44: From the Purchasing Office this week: $230K for the Holly Power Plant decommissioning project, $188K for 138KV air switches (oh boy!), and $88K for marketing services for the Austin Water Utility’s Water Conservation Division.

Item 49: Brewster's Garage opens for business, with McCracken's call "to create an Austin Parking Enterprise to finance and own structured parking and to fund investments in trails and transit infrastructure."

Item 51: Jennifer Kim, Mike Martinez, and Will Wynn put the spurs to development of Gus Garcia Park.

Item 52: Martinez, Wynn, and Lee Leffingwell call to make the Trail of Lights carbon neutral. Deck the halls with CFLs …

Items 54-61: Setting public hearings on a gang of hot-button issues, largely for the January 31 meeting: more revisions to food carts, affordable housing incentives, residential mixed-use, and CWS Capital Partners appeal on their Waterfront Variance denial (for Feb. 14).

Item 69: Action on executive session talks "authorizing negotiation and execution of a retail lease with a selected operator for operation of the City Hall retail space." We hear you'll be lacing up your running shoes …

Items 71-78: Second and third zoning reads, including Sealholm Power Plant redevelopment, and Habibi's Hutch. (despite the need for day care Downtown. the latter ain't moving to the former.)

Items 79-99: First reads, including opt-ins into VMU zoning from the Judges' Hill (80), Old West Austin (81), Bouldin (95), Dawson (96), and Galindo neighborhoods (97), and opt-ins and outs from Greater South River City.

Item 107: Public hearing on an ordinance requiring sidewalks on new buildings, amongst other pedestrian and construction concerns. Step on a crack, break a developer's back!