{"id":459459,"date":"2026-10-07T21:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T21:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/459459\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T21:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T21:24:20","slug":"steamrolled-new-documentary-takes-hard-look-at-austin-dogs-head-development-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/459459\/","title":{"rendered":"Steamrolled: New documentary takes hard look at Austin Dog\u2019s Head development deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday at 7 p.m., the Austin Free Press and local filmmaker Steve Mims will premiere a 28-minute documentary<\/a> at Galaxy Theatres Austin<\/a> about the Austin City Council\u2019s rushed approval earlier this year of East Austin\u2019s 2,614-acre Dog\u2019s Head development.<\/p>\n

The free screening of \u201cSteamrolled: How billionaires remade Austin, Texas, in nine weeks\u201d chronicles the roughly two months between the city\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, raising a slew of economic, environmental and racial-equity concerns.<\/p>\n

\"PiperPiper Guinn\"SusanaSusana Almanza<\/p>\n

Those featured in the film include Susana Almanza of People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources<\/a> (PODER), Austin Free Press<\/a> reporter Piper Guinn, environmental attorney Bobby Levinski<\/a>, local real estate investor Brian Rodgers, attorney Richard Suttle and some residents who packed City Hall to push back.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe documentary premiere brings Austin\u2019s contentious Dog\u2019s Head development deal to the big screen.
Credit: Piper Guinn\"SteveSteve Mims<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been following stories nationally about how tech firms \u2026 have used money and governmental nondisclosure agreements to achieve their goals with minimum public awareness until it\u2019s too late for citizens to have meaningful input,\u201d said director Steve Mims<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a big national story. All these endeavors are on a fast track, I think, based on the stock market and the political calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dog race<\/p>\n

The city released its Dog\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The outcries centered on its rushed timetable, lack of transparency, environmental racism concerns and the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone<\/a> (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\u2019s General Fund, which pays for public safety, parks, libraries and other amenities citywide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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,\u201d Austin Free Press reporter Piper Guinn says in the documentary. Typically, she said, such an agreement would go through many months \u2014 or years \u2014 of public reviews during which city boards and commissions offer environmental, economic and development recommendations on such a far-reaching project.<\/p>\n

The Dog\u2019s Head development deal lacks significant environmental protections, according to local environmentalists<\/a> and the city\u2019s own environmental commission. The site was previously used for gravel, mining and agricultural uses, which significantly degraded the soil quality.<\/p>\n

Endeavor says that the development will restore a \u201cbombed-out<\/a>\u201d 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%.<\/p>\n

Many current Dog\u2019s Head residents are lower-income Black or Hispanic residents, raising concerns that they will be displaced by the development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is part of environmental racism,\u201d Almanza said. \u201cWe know that this would never happen in West Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amazon Robotics<\/p>\n

The city said that it had to rush the Dog\u2019s 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\u2019s Head vote, construction crews began breaking ground for Amazon, which plans to build a 300-acre manufacturing facility there<\/p>\n

District 5 Council Member Ryan Alter<\/a> said that the process might have been rushed, but the end result is good for the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when the rich are getting richer, you deserve a City that is investing in you,\u201d Alter wrote in a July commentary published in the Austin Free Press<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s 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 \u2013 prioritize you,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThat\u2019s exactly why I supported the recent \u201cDog\u2019s Head\u201d agreement: a deal that makes large corporations like Amazon and new development pay their full share \u2013 so their taxes fund our city, instead of yours shouldering the load.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly two months after the first vote, on July 23, the Austin City Council voted 8-3 to approve the Dog\u2019s Head TIRZ financing deal. Council members Jos\u00e9 Vel\u00e1squez<\/a> (District 3), Mike Siegel<\/a> (District 7) and Zo Qadri<\/a> (District 9) voted against the TIRZ.<\/p>\n

Last month, PODER and the Save Our Springs Alliance filed a\u00a0lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0against the city of Austin, challenging the Dog\u2019s Head deal. The plaintiffs argue that the city illegally surrendered its legislative authority over the site, granting Endeavor \u201cveto power over future efforts by City Council Members or Austin voters\u201d to regulate Dog\u2019s Head.<\/p>\n

They further argue that Dog\u2019s Head doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0session Thursday (Oct. 8).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis report is a straightforward account of what happened in the nine weeks to make the Dog\u2019s Head a contractual financial obligation for the city and the citizens of Austin,\u201d Mims said. \u201cI think it\u2019s useful to frame the story that way so people understand what happened and why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admission to \u201cSteamrolled\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Save Our Springs Alliance Executive Director Bill Bunch is a member of the Austin Free Press Advisory Board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Support for the Austin Free Press\u2019 reporting on government accountability and watchdog reporting comes from the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation. Sponsors do not influence AFP\u2019s editorial decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday at 7 p.m., the Austin Free Press and local filmmaker Steve Mims will premiere a 28-minute…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-459459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}