EverGreen Austin Hosted Green Space
& Climate Change Policy Forum
Monday, September 30, 2024 5 PM - 7 PM
City Council District 7
Candidate Introductions
The following transcripts were created from a recording provided to us
Candidate District 7 City Council
Gary Bledsoe
Good afternoon, everyone. I want to thank all of you for being here. This is an extremely important event today. And I think you really showed your commitment to the city by being here. I’m a civil rights lawyer that has a long history in fighting institutions, fighting large battles, when sometimes, it might seem hopeless. Right now, in our city, we've had individuals from outside —billionaires to come in and decide they can dictate policy for our city. We've been, uh, we've been seeing our council, not allow or permit the honest engagement of issues where important matters are not considered for very important issues of public policy. We see where, where the council does not reach out to all the communities within Austin to get input. We have seen three violations of the open meetings act by the Austin city council. We have seen the adoption of an environmentally unfriendly policy. So you need someone who is clear. And, and somebody who, walk the talk. Not somebody who talks the talk? I'm the one who Walks to talk. So I think you can support me for City Council.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Mike Siegel
Good evening all. My name is Mike Siegel and I'm a progressive democrat running for city council and I'm running on a platform of frankly, protecting reproductive choice, taking strong action on climate, and standing up to the Texas GOP to protect Austin values. I bring 25 years of public service to this campaign, I started out as a public school teacher. I led an education non-profit. And I've been a civil rights lawyer for the last 15 years. Including four years at City Hall, where I wrote policy, went to court and advised the city manager and city council. And I think I bring that blend of both community organizing experience and inside City Hall experience, to be an effective representative. I think we're facing major crises as a community, whether it's climate change, whether it's housing and affordability, or even public safety, where we have to bring together diverse constituencies and take action. And so I'd be honored to represent you in District Seven and thanks so much for coming.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Adam Powell
Candidate District 7 City Council
Pierre Nguyen
Hi, everyone. I just want to echo, thank you for being here to come listen to us speak. I'm Pierre Nguyen, I'm also running for Austin City council for District Seven. Uh, I come from a background of Emergency Management, so I deployed to disasters similar to the one that we're seeing in Florida and Georgia. And it's actually really difficult for me to stay in place right now because I want to be out there. So I just want to also take a second to, you know, keep your thoughts and prayers for the disaster survivors out there. But I come from a lens of of understanding things at the most minute level. I've always been a field and operational person, but I also have a lot of experience in terms of conservation, advocating for national service programs, such as the Texas Conservation Corps and the Austin Civilian Conservation Corps. Which was a program that I work hand in hand with to create. So looking forward to the discussion moving forward. Thank you.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Todd Shaw
Hello. I'm Todd Shaw, I'm the only environmental professional here. I came here in 81 and I'll tell you about my experiences going down the Barton Creek, green belt and swimming all by myself, and sculpture falls and the other places I love the city, because the environmental Uh just the great environment that we have here, the clean water of Barton Springs. So I got my degree in chemical engineering with the idea of serving as an environmental professional, environmental engineer for over 30 years. I've done so much to clean the air, the water, the land, you see, look and see all the Holly, those are projects that my team led to clean those sites up return those to the public. So, again, 30 years, environmental professional six years on the planning commission. There is where I really honed my idea that o, I was the nimby but then over time I learned - You've got to have a bigger perspective. There's so many people that can't even live here that are professionals. We're losing people due to our 1984, land code. That doesn't allow housing for so many, but I know we can have the green space. I I saw the codex that failed. There are a lot of provisions for getting more open space. We can do this together. Please support me, toddshawforaustin.org.
Hey y'all, my name is Adam Powell I’m running for city council, North Austin's beautiful, district seven. I'm the one candidate in this race who was born right here in Austin but I didn't have the opportunity to grow up in Austin. I grew up in Leander because my parents lifelong educators, couldn't afford housing for me and my siblings here within the city. So when I look at the absolute housing affordability crisis, that we're facing, it's personal to me recognizing, I found my way back to Austin proper, but so many people that I grew up with have been forced out the city entirely. I'm also really passionate about transportation and mobility. We're going to talk a lot about environmental issues here, but very few environmental issues are more existential than our car dependency. And the amount of emissions that come from that, the amount of highway building and road building that takes green space away from us. And then I'm also passionate about fixing Austin energy, recognizing everyone in this room. If you've been Austin for longer than a few months, or even just a few weeks ago on the hottest day of the year, you've been subject to power, outages, we know, that we can make our local grid, stronger smarter and greener. I have a whole policy platform to do just that on my website. So please learn more about my campaign at Adam4austin.com and I'm excited for today's discussion.
Question 1
Do you support proposing a climate bond in 2025 or 2026?
What provisions would you like to see in the bond package and would
this bond funding be used to execute the city's existing climate plan?
Candidate District 7 City Council
Mike Siegel
Yes, thank you. I would definitely support a bond in 2025 preferably or 2026. If that's what we need to wait for. I support new funding for climate mitigation programs that are expected to run out of funds — Including land acquisition, transportation infrastructure for pedestrians and bicycles, and robust tree planting. But in terms of climate Equity, I have two things that I'm really focusing on one is weatherization and the second is food farms. Weatherization is a program we currently have from Austin Energy where we help multi-family properties, have better insulation, things like that, and it can literally put a hundred dollars a month, back in the pockets of working class people, while also reducing our energy demand. So it's a very cost effective program that accomplishes multiple public needs. Also, the idea of use of building food Farms, we have food deserts in other parts of the city where people don't have access to good produce. There's a lot of public land including City land, that could be used to grow food. We can create good jobs. We have an Austin civilian Conservation Corps, where we can put young people who work creating food and distributing that to the community. So those are two Equity programs I would support.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Todd Shaw
All right, to the first question — I think 2026 and the reason it's urgent and we take action but we have got to get the public behind this. Uh it's going to be a large Bond so we've got to identify specifically what we want to do. There needs to be a public vetting, and then I think we'll be ready to assure this passage. There's going to be a lot of competing potential out of other competing bonds out there. We've got a lot of other things that need funding. So we need to make sure that the public clearly understands what they're voting on to get the funding. So things I'd like to see supported. I really think we need to move to the electrification of our city vehicles. Our number one source of greenhouse gases is from our, uh, petro, fossil fuel burning cars, and we've got to address that. So that's the number one source, we need to take action, uh, public lands. Uh, there's so much that can be gained by purchasing large open space in public spaces. And lastly, I think we need to look at. Um, how do we move to a more distributive energy System to, uh, really limit the potential of fossil fuel burning for electricity. Those are the three things I'd like to focus on.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Adam Powell
Yes, I do support a climate Bond, whether that's 20 25, 2026. Addressing another piece of the question. I also do think it should align with the climate investment plan especially recognizing that. The climate investment plan is something we dig into, refresh on the regular basis. There are two specific components that I'm excited about within the climate bond. One that's already been put and already been proposed through Council member Ryan Alter’s initial proposal. Is the land acquisition piece. It's been touched on but the current estim is 20,000 Acres of land acquisition. I'm extremely excited about what that could do for our Watershed, what that could do for park space, and basically just the opportunity for the city to make that investment and control especially environmentally, what we do with that space. I'm also excited about that the climate Bond being an opportunity to invest further in community solar when we recognize that so much. So many residences are not able to have solar because of our tree canopy, because some limitations around there. Our community solar program that already exists is a great way for folks to tap into a renewable energy, opt into it. But currently we don't have enough capacity for more folks to do. So I believe the climate bond is a great way to incentivize that. Get more Austinites using renewable energy.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Gary Bledsoe
One of one of the things we must make sure that we do in this community. Is to make sure that we actually committed to something that we actually undertake. You know, we adopted a climate Equity policy but as, as if it was in file 13, it's not being utilized and it could be of enormous value today. We understand what's occurring with the climate in our community, your own poll, just showed us exactly what people understand in this community. So number one, that has to has be front and center. I agree with the councilman Alter in terms of the land acquisition. As another matter that I think is very important and something we can do, and that can help on so many different levels. If we do that. And the third item obviously is, I think we need conservation easements because we need to make sure that we do all that we can to protect our water sources. And and, and so I would encourage us to make sure that we include those three things in the package. But again, we, we have to be committed and not just do something because it's a politically correct thing to do.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Pierre Nguyen
I could talk about this for a couple hours, so in the interest of time, you can look at my 16 point plan online. But some of the things that I really want to include in a climate bond, which I would support in 2025 or 2026, is more Workforce Development. Expanding our programs like our conservation programs. Also expanding programs to help with rain Garden xeriscaping. And and expanding our our rain, our reclamation program that allows five thousand dollar rebates for those that are looking to reclaim rainwater, uh, to help with our water shortage. I would also like to add to it, some monitoring and investigation systems, including the ones that look at air quality. Something that's really challenging to capture is, is air quality in different areas as someone that has served at the National Response Center, taking thousands of reports on oil spills, and hazardous material releases. That's something that we don't do very well. Thank you very much.
Question 2
Many Austinites support addressing affordability with increased density,
but wonder if a denser city means a less green city.
​
How would you as an elected official advocate for and implement policy to prioritize green space planning to keep pace with development?
Candidate District 7 City Council
Adam Powell
Well, I would disagree with the characterization that a denser city is not more environmental, saying specifically, because what we've been doing for generations here in Austin is incentivizing sprawl, is incentivizing former green spaces to become places that are no longer green. I want to keep our current green spaces green, maximize the land that we currently have. And I also want to recommend or, you know, recognize the locus of control, of what we can do when we're in the process of development. For context all of District Seven, you can look at historic aerial photos was a field in 1940. A field that did not have many trees when neighborhoods like Crestview and Brentwood and North Shoal Creek were developed Austinites of the past made the intentional choice to plant trees to create green spaces within the context of housing that folks needed at that point in time. We can do the absolute same thing. I'm extremely invested in. Increasing our tree canopy recognizing that we have to fight the urban heat island effect. And again, it's about keeping our green spaces, green, maximizing the land we have right now and I'll tell y'all from growing up in Leander. A town that used to not have a Starbucks where you can now see, a Starbucks from another Starbucks, I recognize what suburban sprawl looks like, and I don't think that's the path forward.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Mike Siegel
Right on for me, uh, for Green Space. You know, we actually have a great plan as a city. Uh, the parks department has a 10-year plan called our Parks our future, and it really creates a framework for this discussion. Um, like a lot of things. We have a lot of great plans as a city. We've seen it, Implement them. Um, so the plan runs from 2020 to 2030 and sets a goal of acquiring 4,000 to 8,000 additional Acres for the city and apparently so far, we've already acquired about 1,900. So basically we need to make sure we have additional investments to get to that goal. But at the same time, uh, we have to make sure that we're developing existing park land. We have, we have a lot of land that's not developed with real park facilities and we also need park maintenance. Some of you may have seen, we had this report come out, that we used to clean park bathrooms every day or two across the city. And now, it's every 30 to 35 days. So we definitely need to buy land now because this is the best time to buy land. But we also need to maintain all of these other systems. Another avenue we have is there's about 150,000 Acres of publicly owned land by the city, Austin Energy, Austin water and this is another, another resource to develop Park land. Make sure we have adequate green spaces.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Gary Bledsoe
The new land use plans that have been adopted will eliminate Green space. They've taken away the limits on what kind of space can be covered by a structure. They've allowed you to come closer to the street. They encourage other use of impervious cover. So I think if we look at those items, we understand that that's the new policy. I don't know how one can say that they want to see more green space and we want to have a dense community with green spaces and support that ordinance and the way that was put forward, that's why I say it should have been a home plus. What you need to know is, is importantly, uh, there was an amendment put forth by my wife. That was adopted by the Planning Commission that would have made it clear that the Climate Equity plan that would address a lot of this would be applied to construction under the home ordinances. For some reason, even though it passed the Planning Commission, it did not end up in the ordinance.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Todd Shaw
All right, uh, this is a great question because what, I find being an environmentalist, uh, we've got environmentalists that can't agree on the best path forward. We've got urbanists that are anti-sprawl. We've got folks, like, me and have been a lot here, a long time, that are really concerned about the amount of density, is what, what it's going to do to our quality of life. But I think we can do both and what I saw, as an example of this. There was a recent development of a Duvall near 183 where the neighbors were worried about the amount of the density and they weren't getting the parkland that they wanted, and the developer didn't want to buy the Parkland and along with the affordable housing. So they were pitting the affordable housing against the parks. The answer was we let them build taller and I think a lot of our solutions here are going to be allowing more height to make sure we get the parks and the affordable housing. So, there are solutions to these to these uh, things that fit environmentalists each other. But I think we can come together and do it all. Thank You.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Pierre Nguyen
Sorry, I'm just rereading this question real quick. Um, I I think this is a really challenging question, um, because I think one of the challenges that I have is that we can build density, in some places, but we also have to be aware of our soil and our climate. A lot of what we do is we compare models to cities that are different than our own San Francisco, New York. Chicago, they're all different, the climate's different there, the soil's different there. You set a house on clay here, it’s gonna break in half, right? And so, those are things that I want to be careful of when we're developing. And I think that's, that's the, the message that I want to come across is making sure that we're when we're developing, we're intentional about it and building with nature not against it. Um, and you know, I would work with everyone, um, all the experts to be able to reach a consensus on how we can best cultivate a space that where we're respecting nature.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Edwin Bautista
Hello everyone. Thank you so much for coming. My name is Edwin Bautista. Um apologize for being a little late but again, thank you for being here. Uh, to answer the question of, you know, balancing development in Green Space, I think is really important to discuss and I think we have a beautiful example in our city of what we can do if we come together and that's Mueller. As someone that has been here, the past eight years, and has actually worked in Mueller as a leasing agent. Um, and as a, someone that studied urban studies and got a master's degree in government planning, we looked deeply into that plan. I know of it as far as what the community, uh, how the committee was engaged in that conversation, how we get together. We're able to really create a beautiful desirable place and that's something that I look back as an example of our of our power, to, to create, and I know it's the difficult difficult conversation as far as land use. But I'm definitely of the mind that we need to reform our land use but we need to do it in a way that is holistic and also going to mitigate some of the displacement pressures that we are, uh, experiencing as a city. And so for me as someone that is certified urban planner and has also included the experience of a displacement here in the city. I'm deeply interested in this in this topic and I'm excited to speak with the people that are also passionate about preserving our character of our city. And I look forward to discussing this further.
Question 3
The city of Austin set a goal to provide park space within a quarter of a mile walk for the urban core and a half a mile walk for those outside of the urban core. In 2023, the city of Austin lost an important tool to acquire parkland with the elimination of parkland dedication fees, estimated at 20 million dollars, annually.
Do you support finding a permanent source of funding for parkland acquisition?
​
If so, how would you approach finding a permanent source of funding for our parks?
Candidate District 7 City Council
Pierre Nguyen
How do you support one? I think one of the things that we can definitely do is create more public private Partnerships to make that happen. I think that we should you know, really move towards trying to build an urban Green Fund to Source uh Source from fees related to new developments. Um, as we talk about more developments being pushed forward, I think that's, that's the, that's the source we can, uh, really pull from for, for that. Um, And yes, that I I definitely support a way for us to be more sustainable with having parkland acquisition happening.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Mike Siegel
Well, I definitely support identifying a permanent source of funding. Unfortunately, in Texas, some of these things are illegal, you know, develop an impact fees or legal in other states but they're not legal in Texas. Uh, we would have to petition the state legislature to create a Park District over the whole city, but that's the legislative reform we can seek to make. Um, but I would definitely support, you know, working with Evergreen, all of our preservation and conservation allies to develop strategies, whether that's through, uh, tax rate elections, bonds, you know, other City funds, to create a permanent source of support. Another opportunities basically is to partner with the school district, they've done this in Houston. It's called the spark program where Houston ISD and the city parks department basically uses school property to develop Park land and that's also a big opportunity. The school district in Austin owns a ton of land and that could be an opportunity to develop parks with a lot of the amenities that we need.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Todd Shaw
Yes, it's a big deal. I spoke for the Parkland ordinance. Uh, I recall block walking for Allison Alter to make sure we had a parks advocate on Council and she was our council member. Thank goodness. I also been a lot to on the Grove. I was there each public hearing to fight for more Parkland. So this is important to me. Where we get the money? You know, we can try to make some more code changes. I do know, we can structure our development code to where you have to incorporate more open space as part of these larger developments. We need to look at that again. It was left on the scrap table with code Next. We need to look at the private Public Partnerships, like has been said here. So many different groups, like Evergreen, Shoal Creek Conservancy, there's Parkland Foundation, we’ve got so many and we need to leverage those relationships. Conservancies are another way to go, but it's going to take all of us. Uh, the city's budget is constrained. We have a new police contract, it's probably going to eat away a lot of budget and not leave much for everybody else. So it's going to take everyone but there probably will be a whole lot in our budget. So we're going to need folks like you to help out.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Gary Bledsoe
This is something that I think we need to be very intentional about, I would say. Number one, we don't need to even consider putting anything on the backs of the people who use Parks. Because parks are extremely important. Uh, they're for your mental health, they help improve that, uh, we need parks that for even environmental reasons. So we need to be committed to make sure we continue to expand our park space. I think it means so much for our community. Now the one thing I would do I think that I'd like Mr. Nguyen's idea about the public private Partnerships and those Endeavors, but what I was pledge to do, but be to travel around the world and find out different things that may be done in different areas and to talk to you, because we have a very enlightened Community people that have great ideas. And so the idea of may be out there in this room right now or maybe elsewhere in Austin, but when you adopt that kind of attitude where you respect people and you talk to people and you listen to people, you don't know what kind of ideas that you can come up with. And when I travel in places like Europe, et cetera, I can see how they're light years ahead of us and many of these environmental issues. And so, I think there may be some answers out there that we can find, but I'd be very aggressive in trying to find it.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Adam Powell
I definitely support trying to identify and find another permanent source for the park land acquisition. But we have to be honest in saying that we lost a very robust tool and one that's very difficult to replace with Parkland dedication fees. So we have to be creative. Some of which, uh some solutions folks have already mentioned. Public- private partnerships. I've been personally involved for years now. We’re actually trying to get a park in North Shoal Creek where as vice president or neighborhood association for two years, through a public partner, public private partnership with some green space nearby. It’s difficult getting focus to sign on that easement is tough, but it can be done with good community efforts. I strongly do support that method. I also look to our past for guidance, for our future. I look to the fact that Walnut Creek Metro Park. The Zilker of the north, a total pillar of the district 7 Community was established through a federal program in the LBJ era in the 60s, 20 years before it even became a Park or became part of Austin. So we have to find opportunities for collaboration with the federal government with Green Space and infrastructure Investments happening there so that they can help us out locally as again, we've been robbed of a very robust tool losing Parkland Dedication fees.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Edwin Bautista
So this is a very serious issue that we need to look at as far as a community, how can move forward because our it's no secret that our Parks are in disrepair. Our crown jewel Zilker is incredibly uh in need of love, some love and I know it's a it's a sensitive topic but one thing needs to be had as far as how do we engage with our green spaces around the community and as far as funding had something obviously that we've been talking a lot about and just to add a little bit more as a possible options. Um, we need to start thinking about, um, having periodic bond elections for parks specifically, you know, maybe every four or five years or so. In addition to leveraging, state and federal funding, whether that may be grants or, or a, or trying to solicit philanthropic donations in some kind of way. We have a great organization here, Austin Parks Foundation, who does a lot of great work with our our local communities, and in the the, uh, and works with the community in terms of of existing Partners, such as through Austin City Limits. And lastly, um, Exploring more tangible strategies such as Community, land trust and also land banking and seeing, how we can acquire land in, uh, at a time that is opportune such as right now, but making sure that we don't, uh, of let go of this issue is far, making sure that it's funding is going to be the the important question as far as Parks.
Question 4
Most Austinites would be shocked to learn that the Trust for Public Land's Park score ranks Austin's Park system, 44th out of the top 100 most populous cities.
Thought leaders attribute this embarrassing ranking to a departure from Austin's green cultural roots. What policies will you champion and what actions will you take to put Austin on a pathway of ranking in the top five cities?
Candidate District 7 City Council
Edwin Bautista
Like many people, I love our Parks. I it's one of the place, one of the special dirt cases in the city that really brings us as far as together as a community. And I think that as far as you know, how we can go about increasing the the uh accessibility of the parks is one thing. As far as Mobility and transportation but also finding ways to use our existing funding mechanisms such as Hotel occupancy taxes to potentially um, Um, a fund our Parks and in particular looking into the the specifics of Public Improvement districts or or uh to some degree maybe Tax increment financing, as potential schemes for specific areas in our city, that desperately need these Improvements in our Park systems, and lastly we need to look at how our parks are being programmed. I think right now we are starting to reimagine that as a conversation as far as understanding that we have parks like Waterloo that have undergone, massive improvements and investment but also we have more Community oriented parks such as Peace Park. That has a, a great Community and organization that are helping guidance and Steward into the future. So I would be supportive of similar measures if I'm elected to council.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Pierre Nguyen
Top. Five cities is pretty ambitious, but what I would say is preservation preservation, preservation. I would also say that I feel like our green spaces are very connected to a lot of our social issues like our homelessness issue, our mental health issues, our policing issues, right? Is - we, we've gone away from governing our city in a way that is prosperous. And I think this goes to Mr. Bledsoe's, um, you know comments, about the fact of we need to be able to protect what we have, but also, you know, cultivate a city that is growing. So I think there needs to be a lot more intentional growth. I think that's the biggest thing. And uh, yeah preservation, preservation, preservation.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Todd Shaw
Thank you. Uh, the other thing I am is a founding, father of Families in Nature. They strive to get kids out in nature and I think we need more groups like that. But right here to be top five, we need to go benchmark. We need to go visit the top five and figure out how they're doing it. Um, we have unique challenges being in the state of Texas. It has already been mentioned, but we can get there and I think it's a mission and vision at the top. It's got, It's a collaboration between the public. Um, we can't do it alone. We need Partnerships. Um, I think But really, Um, I wanna. I'm thinking right now that I'm sorry pause. I had a thought that this very um, so what will put us on the map? I think there's really that collaboration in benchmarking with the uh folks here. I'm gonna pass the baton.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Gary Bledsoe
I think we can argue that we've clearly moved away from our green historical roots, I think right now, it might be argued that we worship the green that you fold and put in your pocket. And so I think that's a real issue that we've got to deal with here. And so what do we do to counter that? We should make sure that we don't allow our city to be taken over by individuals, who want to develop every single inch of space that they can see, who don't have the same values that we do. You know, we need to expand, we need to have more density, but we need to do it in a smart, Austin way. And so the number one thing that you can do. Is to make sure that you vote for an elect leaders who are committed to keeping Austin green committed to keeping Austin weird, committed to keeping Austin special. So that we can do that. Because with the right without the right kind of leadership, the individuals who have gotten their hooks into the community will continue to operate in ways that we would find the barriers.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Mike Siegel
My first memory of Austin about 20 years ago, I wasn't born here but was actually driving down North Lamar by Peace Park and Shoal Creek and feeling how beautiful the city was. And that's one of the things that attracted me here and to me there's a lot we can do to take care of our parks and take care of our community. If you look at the stats for trust for public land, they have a score ranking. The lowest score we have for our Park system is the amenities that was almost near the bottom for the city. And so that means basketball courts. That means splash pads. That means bathrooms. And so there's a lot we can do with our existing parks, if we really want to get to the top five where we can lift that up, and I see Parks Equity as really emblematic of broader equity concerns. I started my career as a public school teacher and to me access to Parks is one of the foundations of democracy, right? That you can have a place to recreate, you're going to place to have picnics with your family. And so to me investing in our existing parks, acquiring new parks, and making sure we have all the maintenance that we need as part of what we need to get our score up.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Adam Powell
So, in terms of getting to the top five, I have a secret policy proposal that will definitely get us. There, is no secret sorry, it doesn't exist the way. I would look at it is applying frameworks like what we mentioned, the last question, the half or the quarter mile, the half mile distance to a park. My step one would be taking a map of District Seven, overlaying those circles with those radiuses across the map. Identify what current green spaces we have that have the opportunity to become parks, and I say that because again, that's what happened in my neighborhood. A decade before I came into neighborhood association leadership. Folks did the same thing there and they identified, hey, this green strip of property, behind five private businesses is also located in a floodplain. They can't do anything with it. Let's try and pursue a partnership that benefits both sides. Now, we've been stuck in a while with three, four of those private business owners coming to the table. The last one, not. But those are the types of frameworks that we can find that we found have been successful and can be successful in our communities. There's no shortcuts whatsoever. It's looking at our communities overlaying frameworks like the half mile, quarter mile frameworks, and then having conversations with the folks in that community. Saying, hey, that green space right there, let me dig in personally as a city council member with my staff to make sure that we do everything we can from the city level to make that a reality.
Question 5
So Robert Mace executive director for the Meadows Center for Water
and the Environment states --
We don't need a water plan that allows us to survive.
We need a plan that allows us to thrive.
What does the what does a water plan for Austin look like?
Candidate District 7 City Council
Todd Shaw
Okay, water plan, quick on that last question. 12 years of unprecedented growth. The problems we have here in Austin are due to an outdated 1984 land code. We've got to get that changed to get the parks and the density, we need, we're living with a relic. Anyway, that's my thought I did finish it. So the water plan. Number one water is gold. We have surrounding communities that are running out of water. It is going to be a precious resource. We have to start today, treating it that way. We got to stop watering our lawns uh like it's an endless resource. resource. Reclaim water. Purple pipe. I work on several projects where we have pitted the future of uh water conservation against affordable housing. We can't do that. Developers say oh I can't put reclaim water in it'll cost too much. You won't get that housing. We have to stop making those kind of decisions. We have to do it all. We have to conserve and for the future. We've got to start thinking about big aquifer storage and other programs to make sure we're prepared for the next drought. Those are the things we need to take, seriously. Thank you.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Mike Siegel
Right on. This is another one of the questions where we already have a great plan on the books, it's called water forward. And a lot of the best minds in Austin, help put this together. It was recently adopted by the city council and it's a hundred year plan. And so really, the the framework is there, and we just need to go ahead and implement it. A big part of it is finding new water supplies. Uh, some of that might be from desalination, actually, there's brackish water in this region, that's above the shale that that there's attempts right now to desalinate. Maybe if we can figure out the technology, we can even desalinate sea water right. And bring it from the gulf. Uh there's another water source that's available if we can close the Fayette coal plant which is a big priority for my campaign. Some of you know, we co-own a coal plant out there in Fayette County and that uses Millions upon millions of gallons of water. And if we shut that plant down convert it to renewable power, that will open up a new source of water for our city. We also need to improve conservation of course. We need innovative ways to help people conserve water. We gotta stop watering our lawns. That's a big one. Water reclamation. But ultimately it has to be a big cultural shift. This is one of the biggest issues that people don't talk about it and we're gonna have to talk about it a lot more in the years ahead.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Pierre Nguyen
I talked about some of my plans, um, to help with water reclamation earlier, but one of the things that I like to emphasize is education. Educating people on where the state of our water is right now. Just a little story about me is I was a neighbor kid. I didn't know how to swim until I joined the Coast Guard. And I also my parents when I went camping, they were like, what are you doing? You have a shelter, why are you going and going outside to the woods to go camping? And one of the things that I learned from that though, is that as an urban kid, I was not really introduced to nature and I didn't have a real understanding of it. And water is our life source. It is the source of all life. Um, and so there's a lot of programs that we can consider. Something that that's working right now is is Waterloo. Where they have reclaimed water that they use in their bathroom versus brand new water that we could be drinking. Um, there's purple pipes, there's a lot of different programs we can consider when we're talking about. How can we conserve our water.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Edwin Bautista
So water is a very personal issue for me. I was born and raised in Wichita Falls and and you guys particularly grew up at the 2010s, which we as a state had really incredibly, uh, devastating droughts and in particular my city. Um, so much so that we were one of the first in the nation to use uh, reuse, uh, direct reused, potable water, and in certain terms of our uh, space system. And so for me, um, this is something I could think about a lot about as far as what he got me to plant, Urban planning to begin with. Just because that's what I do. Now right now for a living, I mainly help rural communities, develop the comprehensive plans in rural Texas. And as far as water goes and thinking about planning, I'm someone that you might, you know, not be surprised to know that I enjoy reading plans, as much as I enjoy making them in. As far as Austin, we do have a serious issue around conservation and how we can maximize our efficiency around, um, you know, setting agressive targets. And also make sure you have a diverse source of water, whether that be storm mitigation or conservation of running water. And lastly, making sure that our infrastructure is is up to date and or not losing water to leakage is really important because we're losing a lot of water to leaking.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Gary Bledsoe
I think we've been moving forward as if we have an illusion of abundance. I think it's clear that we have an emergency situation relating to our water. And so I think one of the things that we should have done like many of the surrounding communities have done, is that the the number one of the Implement, some kind of conservation requirement to actually look at this realistically. And number two, I think another thing that we that we is very important that we do. I think it's it's essential and that is, uh, we need to take a take a look at what's actually of occurring, uh, in in our communities, to understand that this could, the idea of just unlimited construction in building, that, those things can also impact the issue in reference to the water. So we have to be smart about that. I think there was some requirements that were passed by the by the planning commission that related to infrastructure and some other related issues that weren't ultimately adopted. But you, you've got to be smart. You can't just hope and think that things aren't going to happen. Because we can see in front of the very eyes, what's happening. So we actually need to be more serious about it and adopt it as a priority because like Mr. Siegel said we have a plan but what's happening with the plan? So that again, is another problem.
Candidate District 7 City Council
Adam Powell
I'll pull back the curtain on this whole being a candidate for city council thing for a moment. When you got six, you know, smart talented, great options for district Seven. You go last. There's not a whole lot extra to say. So I will say 100 Year Water forward plan. I haven't met a water expert, you know, folks who have gotten more about water than I've ever that I'm ever going to learn. Who haven't said that's at the, very least on the right path. I like the five-year renewal cycle. We just had an open house last in, uh, the city had an open house in late August to have community input. I think that's a smart idea. Continue to update despite its longevity. And then I'll say well we need to do now, as we continue to try and fund and find opportunities to invest, in that water forward plan, is maximize what we have right now. We know for a fact that we have many, many pipes of water that are leaking water as we speak. We know that for a fact, we have to continue to find opportunities to invest and upgrade infrastructure. We know for a fact and I think everyone in this room would agree, we use far too much more water on lawn care. We have to find ways through the city council to make sure using our water, more wisely, incentivizing the right behaviors there, we have to maximize what we have right now, invest in the future because we all know water is a bank that you can only withdraw from.