Austin City Council approves items on safety, charity auction; hears comment on housing

Austin City Council looks at housing, safety

While housing remains the focus at Austin City Hall, the City Council has approved other items involving public safety and a future auction to help officers who are struggling financially.

AUSTIN, Texas - At Thursday's Austin City Council meeting, two items were approved and put forward by council member Mackenzie Kelly. This included a resolution directing the city manager to explore options when it comes to finding spaces for public safety purposes.

"I really believe it will help us grow our public safety, infrastructure and resources for our growing city," council member Kelly said.

Council member Kelly says she specifically included this for police, fire and EMS. She told FOX 7 Austin these groups are in desperate need of more space in Austin's growing population.

"When I look at the City of Austin being the 10th largest city in the country, I realize that we're running out of property and space that we could potentially purchase as a city," said council member Kelly.

Austin City Council could pause I-35 project

The Austin City Council has passed an agenda item that could pause construction on the upcoming I-35 expansion project. They ask TxDOT to delay the project until it comes up with a plan to reduce pollution.

Another item passed was council member Kelly’s item to urge the city manager to enter an agreement with a charity who will auction off hundreds of police patches collected from departments across the state.

"I have all of these patches here. Those patches, each one is individual and unique and, as such, it's a symbol of pride and the work that they do," council member Kelly said.

The money made from the future auction will go straight back to officers and their families who are struggling financially.

"It's such a great thing to be able to have this available for the officers," said council member Kelly.

AUSTIN CITY COUNCIL NEWS

During the general comments, most of the speakers spoke against the city’s HOME initiative, also known as Home Options for Middle-income Empowerment initiative. It is an effort put forward by the city to change land development codes, so more people can afford to live in Austin.

"The real solution is to preserve existing affordable housing and to build more deeply affordable housing. Vote no on the HOME initiative," said one public speaker.

Those who spoke out say this is a developer’s dream and does not benefit the lower to middle class in Austin.

"HOME will accelerate gentrification and displacement in these communities. I'm here to ask council members to prevent the displacement of these families by voting no on the HOME initiative," said a public speaker.