The Real Estate Council of Austin Questionnaire to Candidates Austin City Council November 4, 2014 Election

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1 The Real Estate Council of Austin Questionnaire to Candidates Austin City Council November 4, 2014 Election responses to Nancy McDonald by Wednesday Aug. 20 Completed candidate questionnaires will be made available to all RECA members. CANDIDATE NAME: Jeb Boyt DISTRICT: 7 1. Why do you want to run for Austin City Council? This first election under the 10-1 system is an important opportunity for Austin. I am excited at the chance to be part of the first council; one that will set in place the practices and procedures that will be used going forward and one that will have the responsibility of ensuring that the new systems works for the benefit of all Austinites. I ve served on numerous boards and commissions, I have been active in local politics, and I ve worked in public policy positions. I ve served on the Parks Board, Downtown Commission, Waller Creek Commission, and 2012 Bond Commission. I ve been active in many local campaigns, and I ve worked on every city and county bond campaign since I have worked with local organizations such as the Hill Country Conservancy, Alliance for Public Transportation, and Austin Metro Trails & Greenways. As an attorney, I ve served as an Assistant Attorney General for Texas and as a staff attorney at the Texas General Land Office and the Railroad Commission of Texas. I ve both served on public boards and represented public boards. I look forward to bringing my policy experience to the City Council. Truly, this year, I cannot imagine sitting on the sidelines. 2. What are the three most pressing issues facing the city of Austin? Affordability, transportation, and water. These are the three issues that pose the greatest threat to our quality of life and our continued economic success. 3. What are the three most pressing issues in your district? Affordability, transportation, and redevelopment. Affordability is a pressing concern in District 7. Existing homeowners are worried about how they will be able to stay in their homes when their taxes and utilities are steadily increasing. Renters worry about finding apartments. People who might want to sell their home worry about

2 finding another place to live in Austin. Businesses worry about their rents and the cost of renovating their spaces. Transportation is a key issue. District 7 is generally defined by Burnet Road and Parmer Lane, and is bordered by Mopac, North Lamar, and 183. These are all major traffic corridors and all have significant congestion. In addition, people are concerned about being able to travel across town on Koenig, 45 th Streets, and other routes. Currently there are major mobility projects underway with the potential to benefit District 7: Mopac managed lanes and the 801/803 MetroRapid. The North Corridor plan for Project Connect has proposed extending all of those projects north to Round Rock and Pflugervillle in addition to adding a new east-west MetroRapid line, likely along Parmer, in addition to other transit projects. There are also discussions about adding managed lanes to 183 from Mopac to 620. Generally, we need to work on mobility improvements bicycle, pedestrian, and transit in the corridor that links the Arboretum, Domain, Pickle Campus, Kramer Rail Station, and ACC Metric. Redevelopment is a concern because there is so little agreement over how it might be done and so many concerns about the additional impacts it might bring, particularly with traffic and compatibility. The challenge is that redevelopment, particularly redevelopment along our transit corridors, is one of the keys to addressing our problems with affordability and transportation. 4. Should the city and other groups such as the Austin Chamber of Commerce continue to aggressively recruit companies to re-locate and grow in Austin? Yes 5. How do you feel about using tax incentives to attract and retain businesses in Austin? I am conflicted. I see the value and the need for such incentives, but there is growing public concern about inequities in our tax structure, about income inequality, and about why we need to use these incentives when our economy is doing so well and with so many people moving to town. We need to better explain how the incentives work, why incentives make sense relative to the total benefits of each proposed project, and how the incentives fit into the larger scheme of the economic activity generated by a business and the taxes and fees paid by business. 6. Explain policies you would support to address affordability. What has the city done to help or hurt affordability? I would support development along transit corridors, the wider use of accessory dwelling units, and a broader mix of housing in general. I would support a limited, across the board homestead exemption for the City of Austin of $5,000 per household. I am strongly in favor of using the CodeNext process to simplify the land development code to reduce the cost and time required for development. The City has helped affordability through the use of affordable housing bonds, through active partnerships with housing groups like Foundation Communities, and through exploring innovative initiatives such as land banking. The City has hurt affordability by neglecting to reform the land development code and by generally allowing the code to become more and more complex without reviewing the cost and difficulty of compliance.

3 The City has also not encouraged the development of enough multifamily housing, particularly in the Central City. In particularly, we appeared to have neglected developing multifamily housing during the fifteen years between the bust of the 80s and late 90s tech boom. Had we constructed more multifamily housing in the Central City then, we would have a larger affordable housing base now. 7. What, in your opinion, are the factors making Austin a less affordable place to live? Austin is becoming a less affordable place to live due to the cost of housing, the cost of utilities, and increasing transportation costs. Housing costs have been increasing dramatically, particularly in the Central City where many people who bought homes in the 80s and 90s know that they could not afford to buy their houses today. I bought my house in Allandale in 1995, and today the land cost alone is appraised at more than I paid for my house. Increasing transportation costs, and more importantly the time required to get somewhere, are also important factors. Due to both the development in Central Texas and changing cultural attitudes, the drive until you can buy model isn t working well anymore. People often aren t interested in living where they can buy, or interested in making the necessary daily drive from where they can afford to buy. 8. How familiar are you with the process to develop real estate in Austin? Does the city efficiently review development projects or does it need to improve its process? Be specific. I am familiar with the real estate development process in Austin. Although I have not participated in it as part of my businesses, I have renovated my house twice. I have closely observed the process through my service on public boards and commissions, and through work with local groups. I also have many colleagues and acquaintances whom are actively engaged in real estate development who have discussed their concerns and difficulties with me. 9. Imagine Austin is the city s comprehensive plan on how the city should grow over the next 30 years. CodeNEXT is the rewrite of the land development code intended to orient the code to support priorities outlined in Imagine Austin. Please specifically state your opinion on Imagine Austin and CodeNEXT. I am a supporter of Imagine Austin, CodeNEXT, and the goal of a compact and connected Austin. I closely monitored the drafting of the Imagine Austin plan on behalf of the Austin Urban Coalition, a group that I helped to organize to monitor the comprehensive planning process on behalf of a number of groups such as the Congress for New Urbanism, the Downtown Austin Alliance, and the U.S. Green Building Council. The rewrite of the City s land development code through CodeNEXT has the potential to be one of our most effective tools for improving affordability for homeowners, renters, and businesses.

4 10. It s no secret that Austin has been in a drought for seven years. How can we address our shrinking water resources? How should land development change, if at all, in response to the drought? Increasing conservation is one of the best things that we can do to manage the water resources that we have. Austin should also look at working through the Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCoG) with other local governments in our region on ways to better manage our surface and groundwater resources. Otherwise, I generally support the findings of the recent Water Resources Management Task Force, and I would work to implement those findings. Regarding land development, we should design developments to minimize their water needs and to more efficiently use stormwater. 11. Do you support public transit? If no, why not. What form of public transit will contribute the most to reducing congestion and travel time? Yes. Through my work with the Alliance for Public Transportation, I have actively supported improvements in public transit throughout Central Texas. I support the Project Connect vision, and its method for determining individual projects through corridor plans. The North Corridor plan has identified a number of projects that will improve mobility in North Austin, Pflugerville, and Round Rock, including expansion of the 801 and 803 MetroRapid lines. I support the proposed urban rail plan. I am also a strong proponent of Lone Star Rail, and I will make finding the funding for Lone Star Rail one of my top priorities if elected to Council. 12. Will you support the likely $1 billion transportation bond expected to be placed on the ballot this November? Yes. 13. Is Austin spending enough money to keep up with road construction? Why or why not? Do you support building State Highway 45 Southwest? Please explain your position Given our increasing congestion, it is hard to believe that we re not spending enough money. But, the real question is whether we could spend enough on construction to keep up with increasing congestion on our roads. What we need to do is determine what would be the best balance of roads, transit, and other initiatives to meet our transportation needs. We also need to work with our neighboring communities to bring them all into Capital Metro so that we might more efficiently and effectively provide public transit throughout the region. I do not support building SH 45 SW. The citizens of Austin have consistently and clearly expressed their interest in protecting the aquifer. Furthermore, as proposed, the project would only build SH 45 SW as far as FM No right-of-way has been acquired to link this segment of SH 45 SW to I-35, and this project is just setting up the people of Austin and Central Texas for another, more expensive road project.

5 14. The Travis County Appraisal District has come under scrutiny this past year. What is your position on property appraisal reform? A number of good questions have been raised about the accuracy and equity of tax appraisals in Texas, not just in Travis County. We need to push for legislation to improve the appraisal process so that appraisal districts have accurate information to conduct appraisals and are able to freely defend their appraisals in court. 15. Would you support commissioning a study to measure the economic impact of regulations? Yes