Todd’s Top Priorities
Climate Change Infrastructure Resiliency
Todd will make preparing our infrastructure for the impacts of climate change while our urban centers become more populated his top priority. According to global records dating back to 1850, 2023 was the warmest year on record by a significant margin, highlighting the urgency of the issue. While Austin is a leader among cities in reducing greenhouse gases, the lack of global cooperation is almost certainly going to result in continued temperature rise. In response, Austin must improve our infrastructure in a way that prepares for the changing climate such as increased flooding, drought, and wildfires with a focus on protecting the most vulnerable populations.
The City has invested significant planning resources to prevent and prepare for climate change, including Atlas14 Floodplain Regulations, Water Forward, Austin Energy’s Climate Protection Plan to 2030, Climate Equity Plan, Austin/Travis County Community Wildfire Protection Plan, and the Climate Resilience Action Plan. There are a large number of infrastructure improvements identified within these plans. Todd will bring his years of environmental and construction experience to prioritize projects that will protect our communities. He will also make sure that the City is aggressively pursuing Federal grants for climate resilience and monitoring the use of funds to ensure effective and equitable allocation of resources.
Rethinking Affordable Housing Strategies
According to the sobering report to the Council in late 2023, the City of Austin is not making sufficient progress toward achieving its ambitious housing goals outlined in the 2017 Strategic Housing Blueprint. At the halfway point, the City significantly underperformed in creating housing units that are affordable for many with important jobs in our communities such as public school teachers, emergency responders, service sector employees, musicians, construction workers, and so many others. Todd, like most Austinites, supported the 2022 $350 million affordable housing bonds. Even with this considerable accomplishment, however, the Strategic Housing Blueprint must be re-evaluated given the changes to the housing market over the last five years. Todd will work tirelessly with fellow council members to generate new strategies to meet our housing goals.
New Land Development Code Having Broad Community Support
The highest priority for meeting housing goals in Imagine Austin and the subsequent Strategic Housing Blueprint was to revise Austin’s 40-year-old land development code. I will support a complete overhaul of the land development code, but this time, it must be done in a way that gains a supermajority of council votes and broad community support. The current approach of making incremental changes to the land code and then having them invalidated by the courts is not sustainable. It exhausts our city’s staff, boards and commissions, and the public. The new code should prioritize density, particularly missing middle housing, which aligns with our Strategic Mobility Plan and Project Connect. Additionally, the code changes must prepare our infrastructure for the effects of density combined with climate change, establish density bonuses that maximize affordable housing for those with lower family incomes, and include measures to minimize gentrification in the Eastern Crescent.
Reversing Homelessness Trends
Travis County has witnessed its most significant single-year increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness. Even more disturbing, many lived in gentrified areas of Austin before becoming unhoused. Although recent councils have increased funding for programs and housing, Austin must do more to improve its response to the homelessness crisis. Todd will take the lead in passing policies that allocate more significant funding for housing, particularly permanent supportive housing, and programs that ensure the unhoused are treated with dignity and connected more effectively to housing resources.
Parkland for Everyone
Todd strongly believes that access to parkland and the natural environment is crucial for the well-being of our communities, especially for the health of our children. As a lifelong lover of sports, Todd has benefitted from our incredible park system for playing lacrosse, soccer, ultimate, tennis, and volleyball. With more people, we need more places to play. Todd fought for additional parkland in the Grove PUD and as a Planning Commissioner, consistently pushed for adequate parkland linked to large multi-family development zoning changes in neighborhoods that lacked parks. The last State Legislature passed HB1526, which effectively gutted Austin’s Parkland Dedication Ordinance. This new law will lead to at least a 100-acre deficit in the park system by 2030, and it will also increase the financial burden of maintaining our park system on taxpayers. Todd will work with fellow councilmembers to ensure all Austinites have safe spaces to play and connect with nature.
Public Safety
Another one of Todd’s main priorities is to establish trust with the Austin Police Department to ensure that it has enough staff, highly motivated officers, and proper training. Todd supports the current efforts to solidify a new contract with the Police Union that will enable the Police Department to bolster officer recruitment and achieve the goals of the “reimagined” cadet training program while honoring the oversight provisions approved by voters last year. Moreover, the contract terms should be available for public viewing before the City Council approves them. The public deserves full transparency to ensure the department is shifting its culture to a service-oriented model using de-escalation strategies and moving away from a trend of militarizing police forces.
The second public safety issue that Todd wants to focus on is the fentanyl crisis that has gripped Austin and surrounding counties. We must make every resource available to our public to prevent deaths from this drug. For example, it is absurd that fentanyl test strips are still illegal in Texas. Todd will work with leaders throughout the state to advocate for the legalization of test strips, ideally at the Federal level.
Transportation and Mobility
During his tenure at the Planning Commission, Todd recommended passage of the Strategic Mobility Plan, including recent amendments. Todd is committed to promoting measures that will achieve the primary goal of increasing safe, alternative modes of transportation, thus reducing the number of people who drive alone to work from 74% to 50% by 2039. Todd’s construction experience will be crucial to the Council’s oversight role, ensuring that Project Connect tax dollars are used effectively.
Like many who voted in favor of Project Connect, Todd was pleased with the $300 million allocated for anti-displacement programs and projects to address concerns about the impact of transit investments on people at risk of displacement. The community-inspired Racial Equity and Anti-displacement Tool, created to evaluate the effectiveness of Project Connect programs and projects, could be used as a decision-making standard for future anti-displacement initiatives. As a council member, Todd can be counted on to approve funding for projects with the greatest long-term impacts.
Protecting Austin’s Music Culture
Todd is a huge fan of Austin’s music culture and wants to do more to expand our reputation as the “Live Music Capital of the World.” The City of Austin does so much to support the live music economy through Economic Development Department grants and funding through the Austin Cultural Trust. Todd will advocate for continued increased funding for these resources. Another success was that the City Council passed code changes that made it easier for music venues and other creative spaces to operate in all parts of the City. He will propose additional code changes allowing music venues to use their spaces for alternative types of business during the day and also promote the reduction of City fees applicable to venues. The Red River Cultural District includes many of the City’s most influential music venues, critical to Austin’s identity. However, the rapid redevelopment in the area threatens the district’s future as a historic music district. While on the Planning Commission, Todd served on the Palm District Working Group, crafting and successfully advocating for recommendations that contribute to preserving the Red River Cultural District. As a council member, Todd will continue to champion code changes and funding to prevent the disappearance of these and other iconic music venues.