CITY& COUNTY
News from Austin & Travis County
Austin loses land code rewrite appeal
EMERGENCY HOUSING RELIEF Travis County closed applications after receiving a high level of requests.
BY BEN THOMPSON
citizen appellees. “Whatever the final outcome in the courts, our city’s most pressing chal- lenge is still housing affordability and increasing housing supply,” Mayor Steve Adler said in a statement. Austin has spent nearly $120,000 on the land development code litigation so far, according to the city, while millions more were spent on the code revision process since 2012. In Texas, cities are required to notify residents when land near their property is under rezoning consid- eration. If at least 20% of noticed residents object, the possible zoning change must pass by a higher margin at the city level. The 19 property owners who chal- lenged the city in court contended the Austin leaders ignored that state rule during the process. Moving forward, the city can either seek to appeal the new ruling or bring the land development code rewrite back to council. Leaders have not announced any next steps.
AUSTIN On March 17, the 14th Court of Appeals dealt another blow to Aus- tin officials’ yearslong push to revise the city’s land development code. The 1980s land code governs what can be built in Austin and where. Over the past decade, the city moved multiple versions of a code rewrite through often contentious and tense public forums. The latest code revision made it through two of the three City Council votes required to make the change official. However, a resident lawsuit halted the effort in March 2020 after a Travis County judge ruled the city skirted state law related to property owners’ rights to protest the rewrite. The city appealed that ruling, leading to the March decision. “What it really boils down to is the citizens in Austin are going to be heard, and their voices are going to be heard, and the city is going to have to acknowledge those protests,” said Doug Becker, an attorney for the
3,400 is the approximate number of applications the money will fund.
$9.2 million was allocated by the county for this round of assistance.
4,678 applications were accepted before the program closed.
SOURCE: TRAVIS COUNTY/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Travis County pauses applications for rental, mortgage assistance program BY DARCY SPRAGUE
As of March 16, the county had 4,700 applications from renters and homeowners for assistance. Staff is estimating the county can fund about 3,400 requests, based on the number of applicants it was able to support previously. Each recipient is awarded the past-due balance on their rent or mortgage, so the amount of applicants the $9.2 million can help varies. Staff expects some of the applicants will not qualify for the relief.
TRAVIS COUNTY On March 16, Travis County stopped accepting applications for rent and mortgage assistance due to high demand. The program opened March 1 with more than $9 million to be used to pay rent and mortgage balances with a focus on helping individuals facing eviction. The county’s eviction moratorium also ended March 1, and state law does not permit an extension.
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COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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