Just when you thought the evening couldn't get any weirder. And no, we're joking; there is no fire, at least not that we know of, but everyone has been evacuated out of City Hall until the fire department figures out what's causing the smoky smell in chambers.

OK, the scare's over. People are filing back in, but I'm so going home. Hello, Channel 6!

Thank God. It is finally upon us. A few considerations, before we get underway:

–The previous speaker sign-up numbers got blown out of the water, with the arrival of a large post-work Northcross crowd. Hopefully, the 45-minute limit still stands.

– Will Futrell even rear her head? She's been in and out all day, appearing to pose with Barrientos, but assistant CM Michael McDonald currently sits in the city manager's chair. Maybe the rumors of her recent vacation time burn-through are true.

Tammy Williamson will be "walking us through the site plan," says Laura Huffman. For now, Huffman is going through the ultra-lax zoning standards the original mall has.

"We did find a mistake which we made, which is notice," says Huffman. Goes over the "interested party" requirement detailed here. Translation: we're sorry, Wal-Mart! Don't hit us!

"The site plan review was solid." TA-DOW!

Tammy Williamson is going over the proposed site plan. Ooh, pretty pictures!

Wow. Remember the Fed Ex speed talker? She's kinda like him.

Numbers everywhere. 375,000 total space at Northcross, only 269,000 currently used. Will be 424,000 square feet after Wal-Mart's built. Damn, that was hard.

Liveblog continued inside…

To answer to our earlier question, no, it wasn't incriminating, lascivious photos attorney Richard Suttle draped across each council member's seat earlier this afternoon (so that's what council did at the Crossings); it was letters from several local musical and audio wonks begging them to let Redeemer Presbyterian Church go to 60 feet in order to build a "reverberant, modest-sized room, which has been carefully planned not only to have beautiful acoustics but to have a quiet ventilation system." (Almost as nefarious, we know.) Sweet – who needs bus stops and rail when you've got that? Council's currently trying to hack the zoning case out.

The transit oriented development controversy enveloping the project will likely continue on into next year, as Council looks likely to punt their third and final decision into their next meeting, in 2007. Suttle, of course, will return momentarily to deliver Lincoln Property's side in the Northcross Wal-Mart hearing.

Audience's first audible groan of the night: Suttle telling council a more binding agreement between Redeemer and the neighbors isn't needed, because it's "a letter from a church."

UPDATE: Vote is tabled after Redeemer threatens to pull their application and go home if they don't get all three readings tonight. WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

"There is no place like Austin, Texas," says the outgoing senator.

Twas some hours before Northcross
And all through city hall
The AC was cranked up
So asleep we would fall

The 2 o'clock briefing
On homelessness canned
To make room for zoning
20 cases, goddamn!

Richard Suttle rounded
The dais with care
At each members place
Placing a dossier
(What the shit is it? Naked pictures?)

Council finally emerged
From Executive Session
To yet another presentation
On upcoming legislation (yawn)

With proclamations and more
To still come, we're quite right
To say No-Doz for all,
It'll be a long night.

A few random musings:

– They really are sticking to their own 45-minute limit: On Item 81, the Big Box ordinance, 15 are signed in to speak, 123 signed in but not speaking; on Item 82, the Northcross discussion, 23 signed in to speak, 115 signed in but not speaking.

– Aside from its size and intensity, the noon protest was interesting for exposing some of the fault lines between the anti-Wal-Mart crowd and the Big Box ordinance's true believers. In passing the bullhorn around, some speakers had to be reminded that Big Box was up for passage tonight, and you could tell some Responsible Growth for Northcross members were a little confused to the whole thing. Council too, apparently – word was a late welter of amendments, some which would have gutted the ordinance's effectiveness, were being considered, but smart money has council just passing it on first and saving the rest for later.

– The Austin City Store is open for business today, a day early. No word on if Richard Suttle's infamous Austin Monopoly board game is up for sale. (Passed around City Hall as presents from his law firm, city legal said council had to return them.) Any readers with access to one, give it here. You can buy us off cheap!

At 2pm, two hours after more than 150 protesters descended on City Hall, it's finally quiet. Council has temporarily absconded behind closed doors into executive session, following a whirlwind of action and new developments in the Northcross/Wal-Mart saga. Not that it's over by half; with Supercenter foes Responsible Growth for Northcross still signing in to speak by the dozen, discussion of Wal-Mart's expansion plans, scheduled during council's 6pm public hearings, will likely stretch long into the night. This even despite a self-imposed 45 minute time limit, plus response, on the protesters' part – it's just that there's so much to say.

The biggest news currently is an announcement from Lee Leffingwell's office that Northcross developers Lincoln Property Group has joined Wal-Mart in their 60-day moratorium on building at Northcross. Wal-Mart's moratorium announcement yesterday left RG4N members cold, as it was developer Lincoln who stood to swing the wrecking ball. Their fears were seemingly confirmed by a story in today's Statesman, announcing Lincoln filed another site plan yesterday "to basically lock in the one it already has." The 60-day moratorium could conceivably grant Lincoln and Wal-Mart enough time to nullify neighbor's shaky legal arguments by renotifying all groups of the refiled site plan, this time with every conceivable legal failing fixed. But any hopes they had of the moratorium serving as a cool-off period look unfounded; if anything, judging from earlier, the heat can only build.

You would've thought the KKK was back in town. More details to come shortly; for now, enjoy the camera-phone picture.

It's a Big-Boxapalooza in the print edition this week, with Katherine Gregor dissecting the latest Northcross foibles in Mart Growth, Michael King weighing in in Point Austin, and yours truly sweeping up the rest (and surprisingly, a few non-Mart matters before council) in Beside the Point.