Lady Bird Lake

New plans revealed for Lady Bird Lake: More developments, trails and roads

The City of Austin is planning on adding roads, trails and more along Lady Bird Lake.

Photo courtesy of The Trail Foundation/Facebook

KVUE — The city is revealing its plan for the 97 acres along the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, including more roads, running trails, trees, buildings, recreational spaces and a rail stop. The area is currently a hodgepodge of businesses with a lack of connecting streets, open space and access to the lake.

"The current system is [that] we make kind of one-off deals with development parcels but in the end, they don't add up," said Alan Holt, principal planner for the city's South Central Waterfront Initiative (SCW).

Holt is charged with changing that. For the past few years, the city has worked on a plan for the 97 acres stretching from Hooters to Joe's Crab Shack. It created an interim draft vision that revamps the area, but the plan has met some conflict.

The city's vision suggests the Austin American-Statesman property, 19.3 acres owned by parent company Cox Media Group, will be redeveloped. On one of the renderings, the current building is gone.

"It makes sense that eventually something else is likely to take place at that property. And so we don't know when that's going to be exactly, but we do know that change is coming," said Holt.

Statesman publisher Susie Ellwood said there are no plans for the property and released a statement that simply states, "The Austin American-Statesman building and property is not for sale."

Regardless, city leaders say the area needs a plan. Without one, city staff said $1.2 billion will be spent redeveloping the area in the next five to 10 years, and the result will be more clustered buildings. With a plan, the investment dollars increase to at least $1.8 billion and tax revenue from that can be designated for affordable housing or parks.

The city is expanding its plans and kicking off the next step of the planning process by hosting a discussion with internationally renowned waterfront designer and Harvard professor Alex Krieger.

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Read the full story and view the video on KVUE.com.

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Eviction Notice

Major landlords with Austin ties being investigated for illegal rent hikes

Photo courtesy of KVUE

Some of Austin's rent woes could be a result of this alleged scheme.

The Justice Department (DOJ) is suing six of the country's largest landlords, along with RealPage, alleging they took part in a pricing scheme that harmed renters.

We already know the increase in population and businesses moving to Austin raised rental prices. But lawyer and owner of Texas Tenant Law Jennifer MacGeorge said the new DOJ lawsuit could prove illegal rent hikes made it even worse.

"It's about collusion versus competition," MacGeorge said. "It's just about trying to gouge the market and get as much as they can."

The antitrust lawsuit claims six property management companies — Cushman & Wakefield, LivCor, Cortland, Greystar, Dallas-based Willow Bridge, and Houston-based Camden, which have numerous locations in the Austin area — are using software like RealPage. Together, the landlords control 1.3 million apartment units.

According to the lawsuit, the software uses an algorithm to help set rents and privately share sensitive, non-public information with competitors, allowing landlords to align their prices and avoid competition.

MacGeorge said the result is higher rents, for not only residential but commercial properties. She said this type of behavior exacerbates affordability issues and displaces residents and small businesses.

"We're getting rid of people that help the economy sustain itself and be stable, which is what everybody's looking for in this environment where you can't even afford your groceries, and now you're worried about your rent. It's absolutely unacceptable," MacGeorge said.

The lawsuit names the Austin-Round Rock metro area multiple times, saying 30 percent or more of the residential properties in the area are using this type of software.

While MacGeorge mainly represents tenants, she found out some of her landlord clients are using similar pricing strategies to artificially raise prices.

"They are engaging in other practices that are artificially raising prices, such as putting in a rental rate at a renewal that's maybe 20 percent above what the tenant was paying before and leaving it that high only until the tenant moves out and then immediately dropping it," MacGeorge said.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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