ATX-BAS: Impact 9/18/2025

Bastrop officials are planning more revisions to the Bastrop Building Block, or B3, Code throughout the end of the year.

During a Bastrop Chamber of Commerce’s State of the City event in early September, City Manager Sylvia Carrillo-Trevino emphasized that changes are needed to the document—which dictates how structures are designed and placed—to address a variety of real estate aspects, including:

• Drainage and flooding
• Lot sizes
• Setbacks, which balance development needs with community aesthetics and functionality
• Lot occupation, which focuses on land utilization without compromising the environment
• Parking growth
• Building height
• Landscaping

Bastrop County Animal Services will address challenges with overcrowding at its shelter by expanding its existing location at 589 Cool Water Drive. 

The facility will grow by approximately 4,000 square feet—a project estimated to cost $200,000, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. 

The details: Lyndsey Schroder, public information officer for Bastrop County, told Community Impact the expansion will include: 

• 28 indoor and outdoor kennel runs
• Five isolation kennels
• Space to add cage banks for small breed dogs, such as chihuahuas

Nonprofit Urban Alchemy's contract with the Austin Homeless Strategy Office, or HSO, to operate the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, or ARCH, and the Eighth Street Women’s Shelter will not renew.

The decision comes after some staff, identified by Urban Alchemy, "misrepresented Homeless Management Information System exit dates and records," according to a city memo.

What happened: An Urban Alchemy spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Community Impact that the nonprofit notified Austin officials after discovering the issue and terminated the employees responsible.

What's next: HSO officials plan to enter into an emergency contract with Endeavors, which City Council will need to approve Oct. 9. The agreement would authorize Endeavors to operate the shelters through Sept. 30, 2026. HSO officials will begin the process of seeking a new operator for the shelters Oct. 1, 2026, according to the memo.

"We are grateful for our years of partnership with the city of Austin and to the community and guests we served and impacted," an Urban Alchemy spokesperson said.