Austin, TX
Why some Texas cities are getting rid of their minimum parking rules
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In car-dependent Texas, most cities have rules on how many parking spots must be built anywhere people live, play or do business. But those requirements have come under scrutiny in recent years, with critics saying they do more harm than good.
As the nation tries to curb carbon emissions and fight climate change, climate activists and urbanists have chided the regulations for encouraging car dependency. Housing advocates and developers have also identified those minimums as a barrier to building more homes and taming housing costs.
“This is a pretty obvious target for helping to address [the housing affordability crisis],” said Tony Jordan, co-founder of Parking Reform Network.
In major Texas cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and El Paso, developers usually can’t build single-family homes or apartments without parking. Government regulations like those, critics argue, effectively force housing developers to provide parking spots where they may have instead built housing — contributing to higher home prices and rents.
Doing away with parking minimums doesn’t mean parking will be abolished, reform proponents say. For instance, cities without parking mandates still must require properties to comply with federal law and build accessible parking spaces for people living with disabilities. And proponents expect developers will still build parking spots even if they’re not required to. But the decision of how much parking they should provide, reformers argue, should be left up to builders, not local governments.
Austin last year became the largest city in the country to do away with its minimum parking requirements, following in the steps of other major cities like Portland, Minneapolis and San Jose. Nixing parking minimums is part of a slate of reforms in Austin to loosen city land-use regulations and allow more housing to be built amid the city’s severe housing affordability crisis.
Before the parking rules were overturned, Austin required single-family homes to have at least two parking spots and apartment buildings to have one-and-a-half spaces for every one-bedroom apartment, plus half a space for every additional bedroom. Those requirements drove up construction prices and resulted in higher rent bills. A city estimate projected that requiring one additional parking space per unit raised monthly rent by up to $200.
And at a time when Austin is trying to beef up its public transit to the tune of billions of dollars and encourage denser transit-friendly development, policymakers concluded it didn’t make sense to continue requiring a minimum amount of parking spots.
“A city like Austin that has adopted progressive mobility, affordability and climate goals should not be in the business of requiring an arbitrary amount of car storage in every new development,” Austin City Council Member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri, the proposal’s author, said in a statement after the November vote.
Dallas could soon take Austin’s place as the largest U.S. city to get rid of its parking requirements. In January, a subcommittee of the Dallas’ City Plan Commission advanced a plan to nix parking minimums — a proposal the Dallas City Council could take up this year.
Dallas is also facing a dire housing shortage. The Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region surpassed 8 million people last year, and that booming population growth has put pressure on its housing stock. Dallas by itself is short some 33,000 homes that would fall within the price range of the city’s lowest earners, according to an estimate from the Child Poverty Action Lab. That shortage is expected to balloon to 83,000 by the end of the decade.
Allowing housing developers to determine how much parking they need rather than imposing city requirements on them is one way to speed up the development process and chip away at those needs, said Michael Wade, senior planner in Dallas’ planning and urban design department.
The current requirements are “slowing things down to a rate that makes it hard to meet our housing goals,” Wade said.
Rethinking parking in Texas
Reforming parking requirements isn’t just a big-city fixation. The week after Austin got rid of its parking minimums, Taylor, a town of about 17,000 people perched about an hour away, did the same as part of a broader rewrite of its land development code to allow denser housing stock. Taylor is the latest Texas town to ditch its minimum parking requirements, joining Bandera and Bastrop, according to the Parking Reform Network.
Taylor nixed its parking minimums, Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis said, in an effort to bring down housing costs, boost their tax base by allowing denser development and encourage more walkable development — in line with how the town developed in its early years before the rise of the automobile and parking minimums.
“If we start to build neighborhoods that are built around small walkable blocks, maybe in the future we’ll have the opportunity in neighborhoods for people to walk or bicycle to the grocery store,” Yantis said.
Minimum parking spot mandates arose as automobile ownership took off in the middle of the last century. U.S. cities adopted these rules in an attempt to ease a shortage of curb parking spots, relieve traffic congestion and accommodate suburban commuters and shoppers arriving to the urban core by car. Now, it’s common for cities to have rules on the books determining how much parking should be built with homes and businesses like grocery stores, restaurants, offices, video game arcades and even places that serve and sell alcohol.
Critics say those requirements have had nasty side effects, including increased sprawl, overreliance on cars and a proliferation of unsightly parking lots. If people know there’s a parking spot waiting for them at their destination, they’re more likely to take a car than other modes of transportation. Parking is an invisible cost even when it appears to be free, they argue — landlords and businesses ultimately pass on the cost of providing that parking to consumers via routine costs like monthly rents, grocery bills and restaurant tabs.
Some of the rules are also fairly arbitrary, opponents say. Jordan points out that, for example, Dallas requires sewage treatment plants to provide one parking spot for every million gallons of capacity and water treatment plants must provide two spots regardless of capacity.
“The constraint is completely artificial,” Jordan said. “It’s just based on some number that someone put in a book 40 or 50 years ago.”
Parking minimums drive up the cost of housing, too, critics say. A spot in a typical parking lot can cost between $5,000 to $10,000, some estimates show, while a spot in a parking garage can cost from $25,000 to $65,000. Landlords then pass the cost of building and maintaining those parking spots on to tenants — who are more likely to have fewer cars than homeowners or not own one at all — in the form of higher rents.
“If you’re not having to use land for parking, you can use it for housing,” said Claudia Aiken, director of new research partnerships at New York University’s Furman Center and Housing Solutions Lab. “If you’re not pouring that money into developing parking, you could provide units that are more affordable.”
Minimum parking requirements can limit how many housing units are built on a lot and discourage builders from creating homes with more bedrooms. In Dallas, housing developers must build one to two parking spots for single-family homes and one space for every bedroom in an apartment.
When designing a mixed-income development with 21 units that includes townhomes, duplexes and fourplexes in South Dallas, the city’s parking requirements limited how many housing units could ultimately go on the lot, said Lisa Neergaard, associate director of planning at buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, a nonprofit architecture and planning firm. The rules also prevented designers from including more three-bedroom units designed to accommodate families, Neergaard said.
“Land was pretty inexpensive for a very long time, so parking was not as big of a burden,” Neergaard said. “But as the value of our land continues to increase, because the amount of available land is decreasing, parking is infinitely more expensive.”
Life without parking minimums
Cities elsewhere that have retooled or nixed their parking minimums saw more home construction in the aftermath. Minneapolis got rid of its minimum parking requirements as part of a slate of reforms intended to spur housing production — which has helped the city keep rent growth in check and build housing at a quicker clip than other places in Minnesota and the Midwest, the Pew Charitable Trusts found. Seattle and Buffalo, New York, also saw more homes built after reducing or getting rid of their parking requirements.
Getting rid of parking requirements has its detractors. Neighborhood groups and residents opposed to such reforms worry that developers will skimp on parking spots, forcing drivers who can’t find adequate parking at their destination to search for it on neighboring streets and clog traffic. Laura Palmer, a Dallas resident, told the city panel that approved a proposal to nix parking minimums that patrons of the nearby Bishop Arts District, a pedestrian-friendly collection of shops, restaurants and bars, already take up the curb on streets in her neighborhood.
“We are asking you as the city to help protect our neighborhoods,” she told the panel in January.
There are ways to make sure that neighborhoods don’t suffer spillover effects, reform proponents argue, like only allowing residents to park on residential blocks or installing parking meters. But Dallas city staff and transportation officials with the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which coordinates transportation planning for the region, agree that parking in “local districts, main street-like corridors, and transit-oriented developments tends to be either adequate for auto demand, or to even far surpass demand,” Dallas officials wrote in a recent report.
The decision of how much remaining parking to build will simply be left to developers, proponents say, and financiers are unlikely to back developments without parking if they think offering a certain amount of spaces makes financial sense. After Seattle retooled its parking requirements, developers built about 40% less parking than they would have without the changes, one study found. But more than two-thirds of developments that weren’t required to build parking still included some, the study found.
It will likely take years if not generations to see the full effects of abolishing parking mandates, Wade said, but it’s a small step to allowing denser development and weaning people off of cars.
“We have the power to become an even more resilient city and provide that to the next generation,” Wade said.
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Austin, TX
Still Austin Tanager Cigar Blend Is One Of The Best Whiskeys Of 2024
I drank a lot of whiskey this year, from American single malts and bourbons to Scotch, Irish, Japanese and others. With so many bottles currently on shelves and more being released each week, it’s become increasingly difficult to put out products that are genuinely new and innovative. Unique barrel finishes can get the job done, but the practice is so commonplace these days that it takes something truly special to move the needle. But making whiskey using an old technique traditionally enlisted for cognac? Now we’re talking.
Still Austin Whiskey Co., a grain-to-glass distillery in Austin, Texas, makes a solid lineup of bourbons and ryes. Led by Master Blender Nancy Fraley and Head Distiller John Screpel, the distillery released Tanager Cigar Blend Whiskey on December 6. It’s available onsite at the Austin distillery and in select markets across the country.
Tanager Cigar Blend Whiskey begins with bourbons made from red, white and blue corn, plus a selection of rye and malted barley, which were all blended together and aged for about five years. That’s step one.
The second step called for a six-year-old high-rye bourbon that was blended with Texas water, cut down to a very low 25% ABV (50 proof), and aged in barrels for a minimum of one year. This method is known as petites eaux (“small waters” in French) and has been used in cognac and Armagnac production for centuries. According to the company, this process creates a rich and complex flavor profile, with more caramelized wood sugars and overall depth. To complete the whiskey, a portion of the petites eaux was incorporated into the base whiskey, and the final product was bottled at 53% ABV, or 106 proof.
The petites eaux method is a unique choice for whiskey, considering that whiskey is typically aged at full strength and then either bottled at full strength or cut with water right before bottling to reduce the proof and achieve the desired alcohol level.
Tanager Cigar Blend Whiskey is also just unique for its name. Most cigar blends are characterized by deep barrel finishes, often via a fortified wine like sherry or port, or a spirit like rum or cognac. But Still Austin achieved this deep, complex flavor profile from its Texas-grown ingredients and petites eaux aging method.
Diving in, the whiskey is deep and dark on the nose, and I got lots of dried red and black fruits, berries, sweet tobacco, vanilla, cloves and ginger. The palate is intense, in a good way. I found more dark fruits and tobacco, plus a pleasant note of candied or honey-drizzled oranges, caramelized sugar and baking spices. You don’t have to drink this alongside a cigar, but it will certainly stand up to a stogie if you enjoy one.
Tanager Cigar Blend is Still Austin’s most luxurious and expensive whiskey to date, clocking in at $150. But the combination of unique production method, solid results and good-looking packaging makes it worth the splurge if you’re into American whiskeys or want to try a good example of Texas whiskey. It’s also here if you just need to buy someone a belated holiday gift.
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Austin, TX
New Year’s Eve 2025: Celebrations In Austin And Houston – Reform Austin
Still deciding where to ring in the new year? Don’t worry—we’ve got you covered with a list of some of the most exciting events in Austin and Houston, ranging from lively parties and concerts to family-friendly and sober celebrations.
Austin Events
Austin is known for its vibrant nightlife, and this year’s lineup has something for everyone.
Austin’s New Year
The city’s official celebration will light up Auditorium Shores starting at 7 p.m., culminating in a midnight fireworks display. Highlights include a performance by Third Eye Blind, food trucks, drink vendors, and other live acts. For more details, visit the city of Austin’s website.
The Capital Countdown at The Belmont
Ring in the New Year at The Belmont with three unique zones: a stylish indoor space, a heated courtyard, and a VIP rooftop deck. Dance to live DJs, including a Silent Disco with three different genres. On Tuesday, December 31, 2024, at 305 W 6th St, Austin, TX 78701. Tickets range from $65 to $1000.
Bob Schneider’s Great Big Spectacular New Year’s Eve Party
Catch Bob Schneider at The Paramount Theatre for his annual NYE concert, joined by Austin’s William Harries Graham. Doors open at 8 p.m., with tickets starting at $35. Check the Paramount Theatre’s website for availability.
New Year’s Eve at Hotel Viata
Celebrate New Year’s Eve at Hotel Viata with up to 20% off your stay, plus a bottle of bubbly delivered to your room for a midnight toast. Enjoy live music at Laurel Restaurant & Bar from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. On Tuesday, December 31, 2024, at 320 S Capital of Texas Hwy, West Lake Hills, TX 78746. Prices vary.
Blue Year’s Eve
When Where What Austin is hosting its second “Blue Year’s Eve” at La Zona Rosa. The party, running from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., features an open bar, DJs, free tattoos, and even a virtual blue square drop at midnight. Tickets are $110.
Cheer Up Charlies Dance Party
Celebrate with DJs, drag performances, and complimentary drinks at Cheer Up Charlies from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tickets are $17.
For more events you can visit KXAN.
Houston Events
From family-friendly activities to lavish dinners, Houston has its own array of celebrations.
Light up the Lake at Margaritaville
Enjoy live music, fireworks, and dancing at Margaritaville Lake Resort in Montgomery starting at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $49.95.
Hyatt Centric’s Groovy NYE Party
Celebrate 1960s London-style with an open bar, dinner, and live music at the Hyatt Centric in The Woodlands. Tickets are $225. Visit the website for more information.
Mixers and Elixirs at HMNS
Dance into 2025 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science with live music, DJs, and a champagne toast at midnight. Tickets range from $50–$120. Visit the website for more information.
Highnoon Countdown at The Woodlands Children’s Museum: Create hats and time capsules with multiple time slots available. Tickets are $10 for adults and $20 for kids. Visit the website for more information.
For more events you can visit Community Impact Newspaper.
Austin, TX
Texas teen arrested for fatally poisoning classmate’s goat, reports say
CEDAR PARK, Texas – A teenager is facing a felony charge after allegedly poisoning and killing a classmate’s show goat, according to multiple reports.
CBS Austin first reported that security footage captured Aubrey Vanlandingham, 17, administering a toxic pesticide to a goat using a drench gun at the school’s barn facility in Cedar Park on Oct. 23.
The goat, Willie, later died after experiencing symptoms including convulsions and respiratory distress, TMZ reported.
Vanlandingham confessed to police that she poisoned the goat because she believed the animal’s owner’s daughter was “a cheater,” according to CBS Austin.
Vanlandingham allegedly confessed this was her second attempt to poison the animal, TMZ shared.
A caprine pathologist confirmed the cause of death as organophosphate intoxication from phosmet, a pesticide commonly used for external parasite control in livestock.
A show goat can be worth thousands of dollars. For example, the winning show goat at the 2024 San Antonio Live Stock and Rodeo was worth over $75,000.
Investigators learned that Vanlandingham’s search history on her phone included questions about lethal doses of bleach for animals and methods of poisoning pets, according to several reports. She then allegedly searched “How to clear search history.”
Vanlandingham was arrested on Nov. 22 and charged with cruelty to livestock animals, a state jail felony, CBS Austin reported. She was released on the same day on a $5,000 bond.
Copyright 2024 by KSAT – All rights reserved.
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