Urban is Core - Austin Super Forum: Sheryl Cole

City Life

2. What is the city's role in creating jobs?

The city is responsible for encouraging economic development, which includes being attractive to new companies in terms of our tax rate, utility costs, services like solid waste, and creating incentives for sustainability rather than mandates. We also have a responsibility to provide access for opportunity including small business support, meeting MBE/WBE goals, and supporting education at all levels from public grade school to higher education. Chiefly, the best role for the city to create jobs is improving livability including creating viable transportation systems and maintaining quality of life like great parks and trails, cultural arts, and affordable housing.

3. What should the city do to address conflicts between music lovers and neighborhood residents? Should the city implement any recommendations of the Live Music Task Force that have not already been implemented?

As the live music capital of the world, we should maintain our reputation and keep encouraging the performance of music throughout our community. I understand the neighborhoods need to keep the decibel level at a certain rate and also the need to end performance times earlier at some locations. However, I am concerned that we may be making it too restrictive, as we require restaurants with outside amplified music to have a separate venue permit. I know there is support for a music office at the City, but know we have limited resources and many needs for our cultural arts throughout the city.

4. What role do you think public art plays in the creation of the built environment? Do you consider public art an important part of urban development? If so, what are some ways to include and finance art in development?

Public art is a vital part of the built environment and not only enhances our quality of life, attracts tourists, and is a community benefit that we should not only fund through our CIP funding, but also ask our private developer community to contribute.

5. Sixth Street is arguably Austin's best-known brand, a National Registered Historic District, and the gateway between the Waller Creek District and the heart of downtown. Sixth Street is also primarily a nightlife district - crowded most nights, but quiet during the day. Are those in conflict? How should Sixth Street change?

This past November, I actively championed the RHI stakeholder process with 6ixth Street Austin and I hope that the report that will be released very soon will help us improve the Sixth Street experience. I believe that it is an important asset, but we should have more daytime use of Sixth Street and a more diverse offering of entertainment in the evening. I would also like to see us restore the historical elements of some of the facades and maintain the built environment better, including the sidewalks.

6. The Waller Creek revitalization project could dramatically improve a sizable portion of downtown. As it stands today, which aspects of the plan are you for and which are you against?

Obviously I am in support of all aspects of the revitalization as I championed the project, created the partnership with Travis County to fund the TIF paying for the tunnel construction, and lead the effort for the entire project including surface level improvements on Council. My vision for the future of Waller Creek is to create an urban park with multi-modal connectivity through the eastern edge of downtown that will bring people from throughout Austin together in the City’s most vibrant public space.

Transportation

7. Access to downtown is difficult, and bound to become more difficult, due to congestion on our highways and arterial streets. What strategies would you support to make it easier for people to get downtown? How should those strategies be funded?

As a member of the CAMPO and the Austin-San Antonio Rail Corridor, I understand my responsibility to the community for a multi-modal future for Austin and our Central Texas region. I would like to see an urban transit system linked to a regional transit and more sidewalk connections, bicycle facilities, and improvement to I-35. Right now, the City of Austin is supporting a local-option funding bill in the Legislature to allow us to fund these improvements. I also support looking at a comprehensive mobility bond measure in our future.

8. Part of the Envision Central Texas "Vision"; is more transportation choices, including transit options such as commuter rail, light rail, and rapid bus. Will you support planning for and implementing transportation choices, both as connectors of towns and activity centers and as a tool to guide future land-use? Do you support the streetcar system proposed as part of the Downtown Plan?

I definitely support the current urban rails system proposed for Downtown and more transit. I support planning and implementing transportation choices and using transit as a tool to guide my future land use decisions.

9. Bicycles are a cheap, effective way to meet many of our transportation, environmental and fitness goals. What are three things the City should do to encourage biking? Are you a cyclist? If so, how do you use your bike?

I am an occasional recreational cyclist, but am proud to receive the League of Bicycle Voters endorsement recently. I believe that the City needs to create a strategic mobility plan that looks at all modes of transportation and create more connectivity. I support more bicycle facilities on our streets as identified by our Bicycle Master Plan and bicycle stations. I also want to mention our recent efforts to merge our sidewalk, trails, and bicycle efforts and the creation of our Neighborhood Connectivity Division to help encourage both recreational and transportation-related activity throughout our city.

10. Most Austin residents pay about $5 a month for a transportation user fee on their utility bill to support transportation projects, but automobile projects get far more funding than bicycle projects. Would you support allowing bicyclists to opt for their user fee to go toward bike projects?

It is definitely an idea I would consider and if feasible, would encourage the change.

11. The Great Streets program has shown promise on many streets downtown, but other streets have not seen any improvements years after implementation of the program. How should we speed up progress improving the walkability of Austin's streets?

I believe our most recent Sidewalk Master Plan has provided a real assessment of which sidewalks need the most improvement and given the City a tool to prioritize. I am pleased that the City Manager’s Accelerate Austin program will allow for some streetscape improvements and believe that we need a multi-modal transportation bond initiative for our next bond election.

Parks

12. What are the elements of great urban parks? How should the City, or the City and private-sector partners, create and maintain quality parks and open space downtown and around transit centers?

People are the core of a great urban park and to get people at our urban parks, we need to make them well maintained, safe, and attractive. This means having programming at our parks, a diversity of activities for all ages, and even concessions. The City cannot afford the maintenance of our urban parks beyond a very basic level so we need to create more public-private partnerships that can take our urban parks to a higher level of care and make the parks improvements that will bring people to them.

13. In light of tight budgets, how can the City conserve, restore, and improve our parks and fulfill long-standing objectives like the Boardwalk Trail at Lady Bird Lake?

I believe that we need the support of the community, especially groups like the Austin Parks Foundation and The Trail Foundation, that help leverage private funding for our best community assets. I am looking at partnerships throughout the downtown parks and I am very excited about the recent partnership that led to the improvements at Republic Square.

Crime

14. Do you think Art Acevedo has done a good job so far as Police Chief? What changes do you think should be made to the ways Austin deals with crime?

I believe that Chief Acevedo has done a remarkable job so far as Police Chief and I recently met with him, his downtown commanders, and a group of individuals concerned about downtown safety. I support his efforts so far that has led to better policing of Sixth Street and will also support the use of technology to better ensure public order.

15. Many downtown businesses and visitors complain about panhandling. Should steps be taken to curb panhandling? Would you support adjusting current panhandling ordinances?

I am always mindful that we do not curtail constitutional rights to free speech, but I support adjusting the current panhandling ordinance so that it applies during the day in our CBD area and also improving the enforcement of the existing ordinance.

Urban Development

16. Will Wynn estimated that 80% of the taxes generated by downtown are used to subsidize city services and maintenance in other parts of the city. Should more of the property taxes generated downtown be used to help downtown? How would you improve city services and maintenance services downtown?

Downtown is truly the economic engine of the region and I have to make sure that we keep investing in our downtown. I recently supported the Phase II of the Downtown Austin Plan at Council because I see how valuable the taxes generated are to the community as a whole. I believe that we need to keep investing in infrastructure and transportation downtown and will look at ways to help fund these services.

17. If you agree that sprawl is not a desirable development pattern and that a strong core is necessary for a strong city, what are some ways you would discourage sprawl, but encourage urban density and good urban design?

Given that we already have many properties in our CBD limited by height with a capitol view corridor, I want to encourage greater heights on the properties that do not have a current limit. I would also hope that the City does more to upgrade infrastructure in our TOD areas to encourag development in these locations. I believe in the importance of our great streets program and will require them in our CBD zoning cases if they are before council and also support commercial design standards and VMU.

18. There have been problems implementing some neighborhood plans. What will you do to ensure consistent and fair implementation of the comprehensive plan? How would you engage the public in the development of a comprehensive plan?

I understand the fractious nature of our community and hope that the comprehensive will allow the entire city to set a vision and direction for the future of Austin. It is going to be difficult and I hope that the Envision Central Texas model will prove true for our comprehensive plan. I also want to make sure that the entire city sees the value of participating and equally distribute desired and less desirable land uses throughout the city.

19. Most social services in Austin are concentrated downtown. How are the social service providers, their clients, downtown businesses, our community and visitors affected by the location of these services downtown? Would you change the existing conditions?

I have spent a lot of time in my first term on this issue and supported a resolution that would have created housing by Mobile Loaves and Fishes for some of our homeless. I am also working on the concentration of service at 7th and Neches and even plan a trip to Houston to see some examples from the private sector downtown that appear to be more affective than ours. Most of all, I support more housing and hope that we can construct more housing with our non-profit developers throughout the city.

20. Are you committed to the concept of nodal (also referred to as activity centers) growth, as an alternative to sprawl development, as found in the Envision Central Texas "Vision"; and the CAMPO 2035 Draft Growth Concept?

I am definitely in support of the nodal concept and want to see dense “nodes” especially connected to viable transit rather than sprawl. One of the problems I find frequently in Austin is that citizens have committed to limited development over our critical water zones, but cannot accept density in the urban core.

21. Do you think tearing down an existing 100-unit apartment complex and replacing it with a 200-unit complex increases or decreases overall housing costs? What other relevant effects does this type of redevelopment have?

Basic supply and demand models would show that the more supply, the lower the individual unit costs. I believe that we have to increase density as land values become more expensive and for the city, the cost of service is dramatically decreased if we can double the housing in a complex. Density is the only way we can maintain city services as the cost of new service extension in the service is so cost prohibitive.

22. Do you think Austin is better now than it was 10 years ago? Do you think it will be better in 10 years than it is now?

I see the diversity in the Austin economy, the diversity of people who are attracted to Austin, and diversity of opportunity for my children and I have to believe that Austin is better now than 10 years ago. We need to maintain the spirit of Austin, but I believe that Austin can be even better in 10 years with more East-West connectivity, an urban transit system, and sustainability as a more energy efficient community.