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Environmental Commission backs bird‑friendly building rules, asks council to act
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Summary
On Sept. 17 the Austin Environmental Commission voted unanimously to ask City Council to pursue land‑development changes requiring bird‑safe facades and dark‑sky lighting for larger commercial and multifamily buildings and to require city buildings to follow the same standards.
The Austin Environmental Commission voted unanimously Sept. 17 to ask City Council to begin amending the city’s land‑development code to require bird‑friendly building measures for commercial and multifamily buildings larger than 10,000 square feet and to adopt dark‑sky lighting standards. The commission added a provision asking that city‑owned buildings be required to set the same example.
Commissioners said the change would protect birds that migrate along the Central Flyway and reduce deadly collisions with glass and light at night. “It is estimated that approximately 1,000,000,000 birds die every year due to collisions with buildings,” said Leslie Lilly, environmental conservation program manager with Watershed Protection, presenting staff’s feasibility analysis.
Staff recommended code changes that would require a material threat factor (MTF) rating of 20 or less for building surfaces up to 100 feet — a technical way of describing facade treatments that make glass perceivable to birds — and adopt dark‑sky lighting for the same range. The recommendation also calls for a waiver pathway for deeply affordable housing projects and asks Austin Energy’s Green Building program to incorporate bird‑friendly measures into its next update.
The commission discussed costs and implementation details. Lilly told commissioners that vendors and architects report a wide range of incremental costs, depending on product and whether glass is specified at manufacture or retrofitted; staff’s review showed retrofit sticker or film options for houses and smaller buildings and factory‑applied options such as ceramic frit, acid‑etching or UV‑coating for larger projects. The staff memo referenced benchmarking from other cities and the American Bird Conservancy guidance.
Public commenters and members of the commission working group voiced support. Craig Naser, conservation chair of the Lone Star Chapter Sierra Club, told the commission the measure “is fantastic” and argued protecting birds also supports ecosystem functions such as pollination and carbon cycling. Roy Whaley of the Sierra Club said the staff work was “knocked out of the park.”
Action: Commissioner Dave Sullivan moved the recommendation; Vice Chair Mariana Krueger seconded. The motion — which asked Council to initiate the staff‑recommended code amendments and included the commission’s added recommendation that all city buildings be required to follow the guidelines — carried unanimously.
What’s next: Staff plans additional briefings to other boards and commissions before taking a code amendment package to Council. The record shows staff will continue to refine cost and compliance details and coordinate with Austin Energy and Building Plan Review on implementation and enforcement.
