Airport Boulevard changes are up for vote

Austin City Council Member Chris Riley wants the city to take a new approach to land-use planning along some key corridors, including Airport Boulevard, Lamar Boulevard and Burnet Road.

Austin's planning and zoning efforts tend to focus on the uses allowed in individual buildings — a house here, an office building there — rather than considering streets and neighborhoods in context, he said.

Under a resolution proposed by Riley that the city will vote on today, the city would lead residents in creating a master plan for mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly and passenger-rail-oriented development along Airport Boulevard from Lamar to Interstate 35. Capital Metro's awaited commuter rail line will pass through that corridor.

The plan would envision how buildings should relate to one another, Riley said. He hopes the planning process could be applied to other neighborhoods that are bounded by busy streets.

The resolution asks the city manager to research ways to pay for and carry out the Airport Boulevard planning effort.

Energy plan discussions costly

Austin Energy, which has spent the past year and a half holding a wide-ranging public discussion on the city's energy future, is asking the City Council for another $40,000 to continue the effort.

The utility has used public input to help craft a plan for the city to aggressively add more solar and wind energy between now and 2020. The plan, which the City Council still must approve, calls for 35 percent of the city's electricity to come from renewable sources, up from about 12 percent now.

Austin Energy says it needs to spend an additional $40,000 to hold more forums and continue paying a private company — Fox, Smolen and Associates — to maintain a Web site that contains just about every comment document on the energy-generation plan.

Austinites tend to demand their government give them such transparency and opportunity to be heard, especially on environmentally trendy topics such as renewable energy. But Austin Energy's request is a reminder: Public dialogue isn't cheap. In this case, excluding the staff time spent organizing the forums and counting the $40,000 request, the price tag is $307,835.

Park Plan to be Discussed

Designs for improvements to Northeast Metro Park in Pflugerville are under way, and officials are inviting residents to learn more about the project during a pair of meetings next week.

A meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Pflugerville City Hall, 100 E. Main St. Another meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 17 in the county commissioners courtroom at 314 W. 11th St. in Austin.

Travis County voters approved $17 million to buy land and develop the park in 1997, 2001 and 2005, according to county officials. In the first phases of the development, soccer and baseball complexes were built. Picnic pavilions, trails, a playground and a skate park are included in the upcoming phase.