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Community Development Commission urges Austin City Council to budget for equity-overlay recommendations
Summary
The Austin Community Development Commission unanimously recommended the City Council proactively allocate funding to implement anticipated recommendations from an equity overlay feasibility study, after reading and voting on a budget recommendation at its March 11 meeting.
The Austin Community Development Commission voted March 11 to send a budget recommendation to the Austin City Council asking the council to plan for funding needed to implement recommendations expected from an ongoing equity overlay feasibility study.
Commission Chair Elias read the commission’s recommendation aloud: “The Austin Community Development Commission received unprecedented testimony from the community supporting the equity overlay. An equity overlay would allow for vulnerable communities to have a voice in the development process in order to decrease the pressures from gentrification and displacement...The Austin Community Development Commission recommends that the Austin City Council plan for the budget implications that will come from implementing the recommendations that will come from this study.”
The commission’s action directs the City Council to “proactively allocate appropriate funding to properly plan for the anticipated recommendations.” Commissioners said staff drafted the language based on public testimony collected over the past year and consultations with other commissions and the Planning Department.
Commissioners acknowledged the recommendation does not include a dollar amount. Chair Elias and other commissioners noted the study’s findings, which the commission expects later, will determine the fiscal needs and that it was “extremely difficult and...impossible” to assign a precise number now. Commissioners also said staff had contacted the Planning Department about possible budget numbers but none were available by the March 11 deadline for the commission’s recommendation.
Commissioner Longoria moved to approve the recommendation; Commissioner Ortiz seconded. The motion passed; recorded discussion shows one abstention in the roll call.
The commission moved the budget recommendation earlier in the agenda so it could be submitted before the March deadline. Commissioners said they intend the request to ensure the council can plan proactively for potential program and staffing costs that might follow implementation of any equity-overlay measures.
The commission’s recommendation will be transmitted to the Austin City Council as part of the City’s budget planning process; the commission did not specify exact funding levels or implementable line items pending the feasibility study’s recommendations.
The commission will continue to monitor the equity-overlay study’s timetable and follow up with further budget guidance if specific recommendations and cost estimates are made public.
