On March 9, City Council will consider approving a plan to implement equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD) around current and planned transit stops in Austin. ETOD aims to give Austinites of all income levels more access to housing, jobs, transit, and other amenities, and a quality ETOD implementation is crucial to the success of public transit in Austin.
How you can help
We need to send the message to City Hall that Austinites strongly support ETOD and want to see ETOD done right. You can help by contacting City Council Members via email or phone, and you can speak at the City Council meeting on March 9 in-person or by calling in.
Contacting City Council
You can get a lot of impact by directly reaching out to your own City Council member (look up your Council District).
| District | Name | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natasha Harper-Madison | 512-978-2101 | natasha.madison@austintexas.gov |
| 2 | Vanessa Fuentes | 512-978-2102 | vanessa.fuentes@austintexas.gov |
| 3 | José Velásquez | 512-978-2103 | jose.velasquez@austintexas.gov |
| 4 | José “Chito” Vela | 512-978-2104 | chito.vela@austintexas.gov |
| 5 | Ryan Alter | 512-978-2105 | ryan.alter@austintexas.gov |
| 6 | Mackenzie Kelly | 512-978-2106 | mackenzie.kelly@austintexas.gov |
| 7 | Leslie Pool | 512-978-2107 | leslie.pool@austintexas.gov |
| 8 | Paige Ellis | 512-978-2108 | paige.ellis@austintexas.gov |
| 9 | Zohaib “Zo” Qadri | 512-978-2109 | zo.qadri@austintexas.gov |
| 10 | Alison Alter | 512-978-2110 | alison.alter@austintexas.gov |
| Mayor | Kirk Watson | 512-978-2100 | kirk.watson@austintexas.gov |
You can also send an email to all of City Council at once using this form.
Speaking at the Council Meeting
The City Council will meet on March 9th in Austin City Hall (301 W 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701) at 10:00 AM, which is when we’ll be making comments. Before discussing agenda items, Council will take comments from the public.
You can sign up to speak using this form:
- Select “March 9 – Regular Council Meeting”
- Respond “No” to “Are you a zoning applicant or zoning applicant’s representative?”
- Under “Regular Meeting Agenda Item Number” select “016”
- Stance: For
- Respond “Yes” to “Do you wish to speak?”
- Select “in-person” or “remote” (which is via phone call)
- Fill in your name and contact info
- Filling in the topic is optional, but you can mention that you are in favor of ETOD
- Submit form
Online registration closes at 12 PM the day before the meeting, and you can only register for remote speaking using online registration. In-person speakers can register at City Hall using the kiosks up until 9:15 AM on the day of the meeting.
Talking Points and Tips
- Contacting or speaking to City Council doesn’t require you to be an expert or make polished comments, just share your thoughts, preferably in your own words
- Mention that you support agenda item 16 to approve the ETOD plan
- Austin voters overwhelmingly approved Project Connect, which included ETOD
- The success of Project Connect, and transit in general, depends on good ETOD
- We need to zone for significantly more density/height and more mixed-use development within walking and biking distance of transit
- ETOD zones should have no minimum parking requirements
- Hitting our climate and affordability goals depends on successful transit and ETOD
You can read the full Council meeting agenda and find more details about the ETOD policy plan resolution (item 16) here.
If you have any questions, feel free to email us at info@aura-atx.org.