Austin at Large: “No Significant Impact”

Right now we have in the headlines two different long-planned city projects, from different departments and in different parts of town, that have gone at least temporarily FUBAR as angry and frightened neighbors have raised alarms about these LULUs. ("Locally undesireable land uses." You can ask your elders about the other one.) If we really were hitting our intended marks as a city and community for equity and justice, these two scenarios would be a lot more similar than they actually are.

Because you read the Chronicle, you know of these two projects already – the Downtown Austin Community Court's envisioned new home in the old Municipal Building on W. Eighth, and the planned new jet fuel depot on U.S. 183 at the airport. We reported on both controversies last week, and we have more on the fuel depot this week, as it promises to be the main event at today's City Council meeting (Thursday, April 7). The angry and frightened neighbors at the airport, who are predominantly Latinx families of modest means, will probably be told to suck it up, but in a much more politically elaborated fashion, as Council tries to honor Vanessa Fuentes' efforts to advocate for her Del Valle constituents who got left out of the decision to move and expand AUS's fuel depot several years ago. While everyone agrees there's no upside for the neighbors here, the city and its aviation department are themselves frightened that The Airport Formerly Known as ABIA will lose flights and passengers and billions of dollars because it lacks fuel storage at precisely the moment when everyone in this solar system wants to fly into Austin.

The Same Age as Luka Dončić

Our airport, barely old enough to drink (it opened in 1999), has lived a charmed life, seeing constant growth beyond projections while still maintaining a reputation as one of the nation's better, more charming, more laid-back places to catch a flight. Those good vibes translate into happier CEOs of companies that then relocate here, happier airlines that bring us more direct flights to more cities, and happier Downtown hotels and convention-serving businesses. Money spent to floof up your airport is a pretty reliable investment in economic development.

The 1.5 million-gallon fuel tanks are not very floof-y, but when AUS runs low on fuel it screws up travel for miles around and at other airports, and people in suits get very cross. When the depot got its required environmental clearance from the feds in 2020 – a "finding of no significant impact," universally pronounced, "Fonzie!" – its construction was supposed to be nearly a decade away, plenty of time to check in with those neighbors across U.S. 183, maybe offer them buyouts, maybe give them tours of facilities in other cities, maybe develop a coherent environmental justice policy for the city of Austin, maybe Google "tank farm" and "East Austin" – lots of options.

But things got accelerated, and here we are. Perhaps the relevant city and AUS topsiders and their consultants can identify, in hindsight, the point in the process when they should have figured out that moving giant tanks of explosive chemicals to a highly visible location on the western edge of the airport property would attract problematic attention, no matter how safe the tanks truly are or how easily addressable the neighbors' concerns seem to be in their professional opinion. Can't fix what you don't understand!

But Older Than These Lofts

Back Downtown, the residents of the Brown Building, and their advocates in high places, have not been told to suck it up. Their dumb, clueless, and embarrassing objections to unhoused people receiving help a few blocks closer to their early Aughts condo conversion (it used to be an office building with a colorful history, about the same age as the old Municipal Building) have not only put the DACC's relocation on indefinite hold but given Downtown stakeholders an opportunity to open up for review the whole DACC model. It's like if the response to the AUS fuel depot flap was, "Maybe we shouldn't be flying planes after all. Let's think outside the box."

A key role is being played here by the Downtown Austin Alliance, which is not really NIMBY by nature and has been at the table throughout most of the long slog of crafting a workable Austin homelessness policy, while other local real estate interests were writing checks to Save Austin Now. It seems plausible that the DAA's taking aim at DACC now is also a reflection of busted engagement processes and communication loops – that they've been trying to make their concerns heard and got ignored in Austin's rush to solutions over the past few years of crisis. The DACC is imperfect as are all the other players and programs in the homelessness system, which like AUS has struggled to keep up with rising demand; maybe the DAA could turn its gimlet process-improving eye toward Integral Care or Caritas of Austin or Front Steps next. (We hear stories.) But it also is arguably the DAA's mandate and legacy, more than anyone else's, to help Downtown residents with homes relate to Downtown residents without them. If they don't want to do that job, we need to find someone who does.