1. The council will hear the staff recommendation that Apache Lane remain open between Woodland Park and Sun City.
2. Consideration and possible action to approve a Resolution documenting the City of Georgetown’s support and acceptance of grant TxDOT CSJ NO.: 1514GRGTNAirport Project Participation Agreement in the amount of $7,905,950 for Improvements at the Georgetown Municipal Airport
3. Rezoning and Special Use Permit requests for affordable housing.
Councilman Steve Fought has some excellent thoughts on the affordable housing issue published in his newsletter. Here is an excerpt:
"After considerable discussion with readers of the newsletter, and doing some further exploration on the topic. I reached the conclusion that the whole area of "Affordable Housing" needed to be broken into three parts, based on the differing needs of the target populations. I also asked that the Council be given time to structure some guidance to the Staff before we moved ahead. The three partitions, and my suggested guidance, follow:
Senior Housing. Our demographics dictate that we should work in partnership with the private sector to provide more senior housing, especially Assisted Living, Nursing Care, and Hospice facilities.
Workforce Housing. I believe the City has a responsibility to pay a reasonable wage and to take other actions to stimulate housing in the general proximity of Georgetown for those whom we employ. This would include all members of the City Staff, our Utilities Company, and of course our Public Safety employees (Police, Fire and EMS). By the same token I believe we have a responsibility to the companies we recruit and seek to retain as part of our economic development plan to establish policies, incentives, etc., so that their employees can also live within a reasonable proximity of Georgetown.
Low and Very Low Income Housing. I believe this is a regional issue. Georgetown has a responsibility to play a fair-share role, along with Williamson County and neighboring towns to address it.
The reason I proposed these partitions was that, while the general term "affordable housing" is being applied across the board, the needs and circumstances of individual groups within the general target population differ significantly --- to the point that the remedies for each population are so different that a universal approach for the aggregated population is unlikely to be achievable or, if achieved, unlikely to produce desirable results.
The Council has not yet had the opportunity to discuss this issue and offer guidance to the staff. However, the Council did authorize the Housing Advisory Board to initiate a study in order to provide recommendations that might focus the Council's debate. That study is not yet complete.
Nonetheless Pedcor (Live-Oak) and Merritt Heritage are on the Council agenda for 28 June requesting approval of their multi-family projects, which in turn would add credence to their request to receive a Federal Tax Credit for low income housing. (Please click here for the council Agenda, then go to Item "M" for Pedcor/Live-Oak and Item "N" for Merritt Heritage.)
The two items on the Council agenda will be public hearings and First Readings of Ordinances. I encourage anyone who is interested in these matters, no matter what your view on the projects, to comment. Letters have been sent to the neighbors of each property (please clickhere to see the sample re-zoning letter and here to see the sample Special Use Permit letter).
There is a form in the letter which can be submitted to the City Staff. You may also submit comments via e-mail to
Contact your council person if you believe the Council should delay any action until they have the Housing Advisory Board and staff study results.
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