City Council meets today (April 16) in what looks to be its first dedicated zoning meeting – a 32-Item agenda focusing primarily on zoning cases. There will be at least a few that might draw sparks, but the land-use questions could be overshadowed by a couple of other items. Most prominently, District 4 Council Member Greg Casar is sponsoring a resolution (Item 5) to rescind D6 CM Don Zimmerman‘s appointment of Rebecca Forest to the city’s Commission on Immigrant Affairs, which now may be moot. After a video surfaced of a 2011 Tea Party Capitol rally at which Forest argued that the way to get anti-immigrant legislation passed was to vote out Hispanic legislators, Casar drafted the resolution (co-sponsored by Ora Houston, Delia Garza, and Pio Renteria). It doesn’t mention Forest by name, but says appointments should “represent the values of the city.”
At Tuesday’s work session (chaired by Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo in the absence of Mayor Steve Adler), most members supported the resolution, and D10 CM Sheri Gallo tried to persuade Zimmerman to withdraw the appointment – he declined.
On Wednesday, Zimmerman announced that Forest had decided to withdraw. Casar and others argued that the issue was not a “difference of opinion,” but statements by Forest that were bigoted – e.g., on her Facebook page last November, she referred to President Obama as a Muslim and Central American refugees as “BIO-WEAPONS … infected with SERIOUS diseases.” To put it simply, the Commission’s stated mission – to “maximize benefits to local immigrants” – does not appear high on Forest’s personal priorities.
Zimmerman – who says Forest simply distinguishes between legal and illegal immigration – responded that he respects his colleagues’ opinions, but that the episode will demonstrate that Austin’s claim to “tolerance” is hypocritical. It appears Casar has the votes, although members were concerned at setting an unworkable precedent of review for Council’s hundreds of commission appointments.
If Item 5 doesn’t get folks sufficiently exercised, there’s Item 29, a public hearing to consider an ordinance on adult-oriented businesses. Earlier this year, an application was filed to permit a strip club at Fourth and Congress; it apparently wouldn’t violate existing code (as too near a school, church, or park), so the proposal is to outlaw AOBs too close to a museum (e.g., The Contemporary) or library. The club doesn’t appear to have any defenders on the dais, and the documentation reaches back to a 1986 Council report on AOBs concluding they need to be strictly corralled.
Of the zoning cases, the only one raising eyebrows at work session was Item 24, for a “pet motel” (yes, that’s a thing) on city land near ABIA. CM Garza pointed out that her southeast district (which includes the airport) is bereft of grocery stores, and a pet motel is not exactly high on the list of working-class, constituent desires. But the land is in the flight path, restricted to airport-related uses – and apparently there’s a hot-sheet market for pets-on-the-go – so the zoning change will likely pass. Woof, woof.
This article appears in April 17 • 2015.
