On Thursday at 7 p.m., the Austin Free Press and local filmmaker Steve Mims will premiere a 28-minute documentary at Galaxy Theatres Austin about the Austin City Council’s rushed approval earlier this year of East Austin’s 2,614-acre Dog’s Head development.
The free screening of “Steamrolled: How billionaires remade Austin, Texas, in nine weeks” chronicles the roughly two months between the city’s May annexation of that land along a Colorado River bend and its approval of a special tax deal on July 23 that will reinvest an estimated $1.2 billion in local tax dollars into the development over 35 years.
In that plan that unfolded publicly in just nine weeks, the city made a complicated web of wonky concessions to developer Endeavor Real Estate Group, raising a slew of economic, environmental and racial-equity concerns.
Piper Guinn
Susana Almanza
Those featured in the film include Susana Almanza of People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER), Austin Free Press reporter Piper Guinn, environmental attorney Bobby Levinski, local real estate investor Brian Rodgers, attorney Richard Suttle and some residents who packed City Hall to push back.
The documentary premiere brings Austin’s contentious Dog’s Head development deal to the big screen.
Credit: Piper Guinn
Steve Mims
“I’ve been following stories nationally about how tech firms … have used money and governmental nondisclosure agreements to achieve their goals with minimum public awareness until it’s too late for citizens to have meaningful input,” said director Steve Mims. “It’s a big national story. All these endeavors are on a fast track, I think, based on the stock market and the political calendar.”
Dog race
The city released its Dog’s Head plans at the last minute, with materials and a public notice in the Austin American-Statesman appearing just two days before the City Council voted on the May annexation. Still, the plan drew a swift and thunderous response from local residents.
The outcries centered on its rushed timetable, lack of transparency, environmental racism concerns and the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), which returns 75% of property and sales tax to the developer for 20 years and 66% for the next 15 years. Those tax dollars otherwise would go into the city’s General Fund, which pays for public safety, parks, libraries and other amenities citywide.
“It is very abnormal for a development agreement that concerns a 2,600-acre tract of land and over $1 billion in tax revenue to be negotiated behind closed doors,” Austin Free Press reporter Piper Guinn says in the documentary. Typically, she said, such an agreement would go through many months — or years — of public reviews during which city boards and commissions offer environmental, economic and development recommendations on such a far-reaching project.
The Dog’s Head development deal lacks significant environmental protections, according to local environmentalists and the city’s own environmental commission. The site was previously used for gravel, mining and agricultural uses, which significantly degraded the soil quality.
Endeavor says that the development will restore a “bombed-out” region. But the development deal does not require environmental restoration or any guarantee that housing will be built. If Endeavor does build housing, 20% of it must be affordable, with the developer responsible for 10% of that share and the developer and city jointly responsible for the remaining 10%.
Many current Dog’s Head residents are lower-income Black or Hispanic residents, raising concerns that they will be displaced by the development.
“That is part of environmental racism,” Almanza said. “We know that this would never happen in West Austin.”
Amazon Robotics
The city said that it had to rush the Dog’s Head deal to accommodate a Fortune 100 company that would locate there if the city moved fast. That tenant turned out to be Amazon Robotics. Just weeks after the May Dog’s Head vote, construction crews began breaking ground for Amazon, which plans to build a 300-acre manufacturing facility there
District 5 Council Member Ryan Alter said that the process might have been rushed, but the end result is good for the city.
“At a time when the rich are getting richer, you deserve a City that is investing in you,” Alter wrote in a July commentary published in the Austin Free Press. “It’s too hard for too many people. We owe it to working families, seniors, and everyone worried about how they can afford to call Austin home to prioritize them – prioritize you,” he wrote.
He added: “That’s exactly why I supported the recent “Dog’s Head” agreement: a deal that makes large corporations like Amazon and new development pay their full share – so their taxes fund our city, instead of yours shouldering the load.”
Nearly two months after the first vote, on July 23, the Austin City Council voted 8-3 to approve the Dog’s Head TIRZ financing deal. Council members José Velásquez (District 3), Mike Siegel (District 7) and Zo Qadri (District 9) voted against the TIRZ.
Last month, PODER and the Save Our Springs Alliance filed a lawsuit against the city of Austin, challenging the Dog’s Head deal. The plaintiffs argue that the city illegally surrendered its legislative authority over the site, granting Endeavor “veto power over future efforts by City Council Members or Austin voters” to regulate Dog’s Head.
They further argue that Dog’s Head doesn’t meet a TIRZ legal requirement reserving this tax-finance tool for developments that would not occur in the near future without such a tax deal.
The city has not yet responded to Austin Free Press regarding the lawsuit. But the Austin City Council is scheduled to discuss the TIRZ lawsuit during an executive session Thursday (Oct. 8).
“This report is a straightforward account of what happened in the nine weeks to make the Dog’s Head a contractual financial obligation for the city and the citizens of Austin,” Mims said. “I think it’s useful to frame the story that way so people understand what happened and why.”
Admission to “Steamrolled” is free, and after the showing at 7 p.m. at Galaxy Theatres Austin, guests are invited to stay for a moderated panel with those interviewed in the film.
Destini Ambus is the growth, housing and affordability reporter for the Austin Free Press. She is a Report for America corps member. She attended Auburn University, where she earned her B.A. in journalism and was the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman. She was also a member of the inaugural class of the New York Times Corps. Before moving to Austin, she worked as the general assignment reporter for the Savannah Morning News.
Disclosure: Save Our Springs Alliance Executive Director Bill Bunch is a member of the Austin Free Press Advisory Board.
Support for the Austin Free Press’ reporting on government accountability and watchdog reporting comes from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation. Sponsors do not influence AFP’s editorial decisions.