District 7 Runoff Summary

Leslie Pool and Jeb Boyt are similar in many ways. They both have lots of experience. Boyt has served on the city’s 2012 Citizens Bond Commission, the Downtown Commission, and the Waller Creek Commission. Pool has served on the city’s arts, downtown, telecommunications, and water/wastewater commissions.

 

  • For those of you not up-to-date on the intricacies of city government, city council periodically creates these citizen commissions to research/examine certain topics and then advise city council on the best course for action. The fact that Pool and Boyt have both served on several of them means that they have some experience in understanding how city government works and are knowledgable about the subject matter that their commissions covered.

 

They both have lots and lots of endorsements from environmental organizations. Boyt was endorsed by Clean Water Action and the Austin Environmental Democrats. Pool was endorsed by Clean Water Action and the Sierra Club. They also both have a track record of environmental protection. Boyt is on the board of the Hill Country Conservancy, a nonprofit that works to preserve the natural areas, rivers, and streams of Central Texas. While on the Water/Wastewater Commission, Pool stood in opposition to Wastewater Treatment Plant 4, the construction of which is considered one of the city’s greatest blunders by the environmental community.

In other words, they are both strong candidates and their similarities far outnumber their differences. But there are differences, and they are important ones.

 

1. Transportation

One of the major differences between Boyt and Pool is their views on transportation. Boyt supported Prop 1 and Pool rejected it.

 

Yes, it is true that the bond proposition that would have paved the way for Austin’s first urban rail project is done and over with. Austin voters resoundly rejected Prop 1 in the general election in November, but the candidates’ original positions about the initiative are still telling.

Boyt has made transportation a critical issue in his campaign. He is obviously very interested in the subject, writing in the environmental questionnaires that if elected, he would like to serve on the board of CAMPO, the land use and transportation committee, and the Lone Star Rail committee.

 

As a member of the Alliance for Public Transportation, Boyt participated in the Project Connect and urban rail planning process, and at the KUT Ballot Boxing forum, spoke passionately about why Prop 1 is best for Austin. “Unlike my opponents, I do support the rail proposal,” Boyt said, “and also unlike most of them, I actually participated in the public meetings and plannings.” He explained that over the last two years he has been very involved in the urban rail planning process, participating in most of the public meetings and hearings, “developing this proposal, listening to the citizen comments and concerns, looked at all the alternatives as they came through the process and suggested a few myself.” In the end, Boyt said that he was supporting Prop 1 because the route scored at or near the top of every technical and public criteria and will make the already existing Red Line work better.

 

Boyt is also very focused on the development of better pedestrian and bike trails throughout the city. In an AEN interview he said that he wants to extend the Shoal Creek Bikeway to the Domain and to focus on improvements in the corridor from ACC Northridge, to the Kramer Lane Rail Station, to the Domain, to the JJ Pickle Campus, to the Arboretum, and Jollyville Road. This will create, “good pedestrian, bike and transit connections all through the area,” Boyt said.

While also supporting a strong alternative transportation infrastructure, Pool has been much less specific about her plans for doing so. However, she has emphasized the use of buses more than Boyt has, taking the time to call for extended hours and routes.

 

On Prop 1, Pool rejected plans for a new urban rail line primarily over concerns that the price tag was too high and that the money could be better spent elsewhere. She has said over and over throughout her campaign that a lot of additional money is still needed to properly operate and maintain Austin’s pools, parks, and libraries and that filling up Austin’s bonding capacity on rail might take away the city’s ability to engage in other important projects in the future.

 

2. Land Use and Development

This is the big one. And it all revolves around Imagine Austin and CodeNext, the master plan for the entire city of Austin.

 

  • Imagine Austin is the city’s comprehensive plan. Most municipalities have one of these. It is essentially a guide that lays out a vision of how the city should grow and develop over the next 30 years. CodeNext is the city’s new Land Development Code. It is still being written and developed as you read this article. Although few things sound more boring that a land development code, CodeNext is extremely important to Austin’s future. It is being written to reflect the overall vision of the city, as laid out in Imagine Austin, which means that it will set the rules about where and how future development will take place. It will dictate where new buildings can be built, what those new buildings will look like, what environmental protections will be tied to new growth, and whether something can be built at all. The new city council will have a major impact over how these rules are written.

 

The key component of Imagine Austin, the creation of a compact and connected city, is the major source of conflict between Pool and Boyt. This plan says that Austin should direct development and infrastructure toward dense activity centers that can easily be served by transit, while reducing sprawl and negative impacts on existing neighborhoods. The problem is, these dual goals (reducing sprawl and negative impacts on neighborhoods) can seem mutually exclusive when the hard questions are asked and the time actually comes to put words into action. Pool and Boyt have each chosen to focus their campaigns on one of these goals. Pool is dedicated to protecting neighborhood character and Boyt is focused on reducing urban sprawl. In the end, they both want the same thing – a sustainable city. But, they have very different ideas about how to get there.

 

Boyt is passionate about whole-heartedly pursuing the compact and connected tenet of the Imagine Austin plan, saying in an AEN interview that it is, “something I firmly believe in.” He was actively involved in the development of Imagine Austin, even organizing a group called the Austin Urban Coalition to advocate for the compact and connected concept. Somewhat of a transportation wonk, Boyt seems to have really latched on to this idea because of its ability to promote alternative modes of transit, saying in an AEN interview that it would finally allow people to have a choice, “whether they can get by with one car, or whether a family can get by with even no car.” Not only will this help with improving air quality, Boyt said, but it will also help to keep taxes down by focusing infrastructure investments to areas where they will benefit the highest number of people.

 

Pool also says that she supports the concept of a compact and connected city, but she has devoted her campaign to making sure that old neighborhoods are protected in the process. Her actions both before and after entering the race have clearly reflected that. In an AEN interview, she explained that one of the first things she did after deciding to run was read through all of the neighborhood plans in District 7. “They are very clear on how they view their community, and what we need to be aware of with the writing of CodeNext and the adoption of it,” Pool said, “is those plans deserve respect and they should be reflected in the code, because that will codify those plans.” She continued on to say that she is concerned that all too often neighborhood input is ignored when it actually comes time to finalize new rules and regulations. “I think we need to have a more specific alignment,” Pool said, between what the neighbors are saying and the land development code.

 

Concerns have already been raised about the feasibility of honoring the wishes of neighborhoods (which tend to be more suburban), while pushing for the density needed to create a city that is conducive to public transportation and sustainable growth.

 

Pool doesn’t see this as a zero sum game. When asked in an AEN interview if the neighborhood plans can get us to where we need to go, in terms of sustainable land use, Pool responded with a reassuring, “I do, I do.”

 

For Pool, this issue seems to boil down to trust and the rights of individuals to decide the fate of the land around them. “We as a people, we affect the growth patterns,” Pool said. “We stay involved and we’re clearly focused and we speak from our hearts about how we see our neighborhoods developing, and I trust that.”

 

In response to one of the environmental questionnaires, Pool tacked on to this sentiment, writing that, “the test of CodeNext will be how well it protects the things we love about Austin while accommodating an increase in density. It will require a Council that is responsive to residents, not development interests.”

 

So this is what it boils down to. Both Pool and Boyt say they want a sustainable, compact, and connected city. Boyt thinks the best way to do this is to stick to the Imagine Austin plan and to see it through with enthusiasm (Note: This doesn’t necessarily mean Boyt is ready to throw existing neighborhoods under the bus. In response to one of the environmental questionnaires, Boyt wrote that, “by focusing development along transit corridors, there should be minimal impact to the tree canopies or character of Austin’s established residential neighborhoods.” However, he has not made the protection of those neighborhoods a tenet as Pool has.) Pool likes the general concept of a compact and connected city, but has devoted more of her focus toward protection of existing neighborhoods, as opposed to the advancement of Imagine Austin. “Growth is not paying for itself,” Pool said in her ATXN Candidate Statement. “It’s uncontrolled and it’s threatening our neighborhoods. It’s coming at us as fast as water out of a fire hose.”

 

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