Celebrating 27 years of citizen advocacy to Save Our Springs
Twenty-seven years ago on June 7, 1990, over 800 Austinites showed up at City Hall to protest the proposed 4,000 acre "Barton Creek PUD" development. The City Council heard public testimony all through the night, and voted as the sun rose the next day to deny the project. That night sparked the "Save Our Springs" movement, and led directly to Austin voters approving the citizen-initiated Save Our Springs ordinance in August 1992.
Watch excerpts from the Barton Creek Uprising here . Check out Austin photographer extraordinaire Alan Pogue's photos from the uprising here.
Tax Black Hole Discovered Downtown!
According to NASA, “a black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out.” If gravity was limited to pulling in money and light, then the Austin Convention Center is the biggest black hole in Travis County.
The downtown black hole is pulling in so much money, barely a spark of light can emerge on the true fate of $75 million in City funds sucked into the Convention Center hole this year alone.
If you ask the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) or the Austin Convention Center Department (both funded by the City of Austin’s hotel occupancy tax, or “HOT” tax) they will tell you the Convention Center is a roaring success, and we need to expand it with another $400 to $600 million expansion in order to keep visitors coming to Austin. If you ask them to show their success and where all the money is going, they hide the ball, change the subject, or claim the information is “private.”
Thankfully, KXAN TV’s investigative news team began to shed light on the Convention Center black hole with an in-depth report that aired last Friday evening.
So what does this have to do with saving Barton Springs and keeping our home waters clean and flowing? By state law, the HOT tax must be used to support and promote tourism. This includes supporting the arts, historic and cultural preservation, tourism promotion, transportation that primarily serves visitors, and, yes, convention centers. But fewer than 2% of Austin visitors come for conventions at the convention center, yet the convention center collects over 70% of the HOT tax. That’s over 70% investment for less than 2% of the return. The people and places that attract tourists to Austin—the arts, musicians and music venues, iconic local businesses, cultural festivals and events, historic preservation, parks—get about 15% of the money--for all of those areas combined. Barton Springs is reported to be the number 2 tourist attraction next to the State Capitol. Barton Springs preservation gets zero ($0) from Austin HOT tax revenues.
Please help kill aquifer polluting bills
This bill would force the City of Austin to extend water and wastewater service to developers in the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. The bill was tailor-made for developers after the City of Austin denied the service request due to environmental concerns. This bill is not intended to help Hays City residents (who do not need these services), but rather to support high-density development on the Recharge Zone.
Save the Date for Code-What's Next? Workshop
The City of Austin is about three years into re-writing its land development code, and the draft zoning map of the entire city was released April 18th. Check out the
comparison map to see how the new draft map measures up against the current map. Attend the Citizens Advisory Group meeting April 19 from 7-9 PM at City Hall to see the mapping presentation.
Unfortunately, the city presentations have been mainly dog and pony shows, with minimal outreach and no real opportunity for dialogue. That is why SOS has joined with several other Austin groups to co-host Code-What's Next? - a community workshop and information exchange. Join local community leaders to talk about equity in Austin and CodeNEXT. Small breakout groups will allow for robust discussions on issues related to the environment, economic development, and neighborhoods, and local leaders of color will help us examine these issues through an equity lens. Together, we'll organize and amplify our voices to put our people and our environment before developer profits. RSVP on Eventbrite and share our Facebook event. Childcare and translation services provided.
More junk science surfaces in Keep Mopac Local lawsuit
Wednesday, March 22nd U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel heard final trial arguments in the Shudde Fath et al v. TxDOT and CTRMA lawsuit challenging the construction of an SH 45 Southwest/Mopac South toll loop project without first preparing a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement. TxDOT and its toll agency partner, CTRMA, instead have divided the project for environmental studies into three smaller pieces—each of which (miraculously) is deemed to have “no significant effects” on the environment.
While chopping up the environmental studies into three small pieces, all of their traffic studies assume all three pieces—SH 45 SW Phase I, Mopac Intersections, and Mopac Express Lanes—will be built together, at the same time.
The court is likely to issue a ruling within the next three weeks. TxDOT has already cleared the SH 45 SW right-of-way and initiated staging for construction. The Mopac Intersections expansion is currently set to begin in September absent a court ordered injunction or further TxDOT delay.
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