The details
Austin offers several development incentives that trade increased building allowances for community benefits, such as income-restricted housing. For example, projects participating in the Vertical Mixed Use bonus program can build taller than otherwise allowed if they include a percentage of affordable units.
City Council on Nov. 30 pushed forward a request from Kelly to create a new incentive in Austin: one that promotes developers "providing space for public safety purposes."
Kelly said there's a pressing need for such spaces around Austin as public safety resources are strained with the population continuing to increase. She said issues experienced amid Northwest Austin's continuing growth illustrate similar drawbacks now felt around the city.
“When The Domain was created as kind of a second downtown, there wasn’t a plan in place for the increase in density and the potential response for public safety. And so as such, the city did not require police, fire or EMS stations there," Kelly told Community Impact. "Now what we’re seeing is police, fire and EMS resources from other areas like my district being pulled into The Domain for calls, which adds to increased response time for people who live in the areas where they’re supposed to be served by those resources.”
Public safety benefits under the new program could be physical additions, such as office space accessible to public safety departments, or funding for new police, fire and EMS stations. City staff are directed to come up with a framework that'd encourage such updates.
Quote of note
“I think it would be a great benefit for the city, almost a win-win in a way. I’ve talked to developers who have done things like this in other places, that it’s been incredibly helpful for the community," Kelly said. "If a developer were to come in and create a large multifamily development on a property ... and they could actually say to the people that were going to live there, ‘By the way, we have a two-minute response time for police, fire and EMS,’ that would be an incredible benefit. It would make our community safer.”
In other news
Another Kelly-sponsored public safety proposal advanced in late November is intended to support police officers and families during times of need.
Over many months, Kelly reached out to law enforcement agencies across Texas to gather commemorative items, such as patches and coins from their departments. She said she now wants those materials to be used in an effort to aid Austin first responders.
Kelly's office ended up with a large collection of policing memorabilia to eventually be auctioned off. Proceeds would benefit police who may need financial assistance, or officers and their families recovering from an injury or line-of-duty death.
“I wanted to make the biggest, most complete collection of police patches from across the state of Texas because it’s pretty unique. And I know that there are people who respect police officers and appreciate the history behind each patch that are willing to put money forward for a good cause," she said.
She said the response to her statewide requests was "overwhelmingly grateful."
"A lot of the chiefs who wrote me back gave me a letter; a couple of them called me; they said they didn’t know anybody in Austin supported police. That was a pretty common theme," she said. "Overall, they also wrote a lot of kind words for the officers in Austin."
