FY22 Community Project Funding Requests
Project Name: Central Texas Community Mental Health Surveillance Collaborative
Proposed Recipient: Texas State University
Address of the Recipient: 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666
Requested Amount: $2,433,650
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
This project will engage Central Texas health care providers and policy-makers to improve mental health in the region through data-driven, culturally appropriate, and cost effective mental health services. This program creates a cost effective mental health infrastructure for Central Texas by cutting across jurisdictional and county lines to address mental hath needs in our area, and has the support of numerous local community leaders, mental health service providers, and residents stretching from Austin to San Antonio.
Signed Disclosure Letter: Click Here
Project Name: San Antonio College's Registered Nurse to Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing
Proposed Recipient: San Antonio College
Address of the Recipient: 1819 N. Main Ave, San Antonio, TX 78212
Requested Amount: $1,055,728.15
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
This request supports San Antonio College’s effort to enhance the educational preparation of nursing students to provide safe and effective patient care upon completion of the newly established “Registered Nurse to Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing” program. Funding would provide for additional equipment, management systems and allow the institution to better prepare their students to address the expanding and complex needs of the San Antonio community and the surrounding healthcare system. Funding cuts and budget shortfalls compounded by the economic constraints of the COVID-19 era prevent San Antonio College from providing the latest educational nursing technology in their classrooms; as a result, nursing students do not interact with the tools and technology that are most commonplace in hospitals and care facilities across the state and country. Through this request, the college would be able to outfit the department with updated patient-treatment technology that will assist with the institution’s goal to quadruple enrollment by 2023 and to provide a quality applicant pool for hospitals looking to expand their nursing employment.
Signed Disclosure Letter: Click Here
Project Name: Austin Community College/Austin PBS Educational Resource Center
Proposed Recipient: Austin Community College District
Address of the Recipient: 5930 Middle Fiskville Rd., Austin, TX 78752
Requested Amount: $700,590
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
Austin PBS’s relocation to the ACC-Highland campus in the fall of 2021 makes it possible for the two institutions to launch the Educational Resource Center (ERC), a virtual and physical site for the regional distribution of digital educational media and guidance on its uses. Initial activities will include direct outreach to 1,000 ACC students who are parents of young children, thereby supporting the learning journeys of both at critical times in their lives. The collaborative will simultaneously transform ACC’s Early Childhood and Education Instruction programs by infusing coursework with age-appropriate, research-based resources for young learners, and by creating digital teaching and learning modules that are reflective of the diverse needs and interests of the ACC student population, and responsive to the demand for increased quality child care access in Central Texas.
Signed Disclosure Letter:Click Here
Project Name: Texas State University Meadows Center Climate Change Impact on Water Initiative
Proposed Recipient: Texas State University
Address of the Recipient: 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666
Requested Amount: $2,475,000
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
The project analyzes climate factors, including dramatic increases in extreme weather events and drought projections, for Texas to assess how the state’s climate projections can best serve water stakeholder needs. The project will provide actionable climate impact information, informed by cutting edge research, in order to prompt policy and decision makers. The project will develop downscale global models of climate change aimed at analyzing the impact on surface water and groundwater. Project deliverables include: (1) developing actionable, down-scaled climate projections for the state (corrections to the global model projections to better reflect local conditions); (2) assessing what these projections mean for water resources and the environment; (3) developing climate-informed educational materials for K-12, the public, and policy and decision makers; (4) facilitating discussions for scientists, citizens, and policy and decision makers; and (5) providing a policy roadmap for individual stakeholders, communities, and public officials to prepare Texas for challenges ahead related to water resources, environment and the economy. According to a publication in ScienceDirect, funding for research to mitigate climate change continues to be extremely limited and not at pace with the rapidly closing window for maximum impact. The study finds between 1990 and 2018 only 0.12% of research was spent on climate mitigation. Without taxpayer funded research, efforts to mitigate climate change will continue to be stagnate and unable to address the impending challenge.
Signed Disclosure Letter:Click Here
Project Name: City of San Marcos, Texas Weatherization and Resilience Improvements for Critical Infrastructure Project
Proposed Recipient: City of San Marcos
Address of the Recipient: 630 E Hopkins St. San Marcos, Texas 78666
Requested Amount: $950,000
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
This project is an investment to improve critical facilities to ensure their resiliency during disasters will ensure public health and enable critical utility service even under adverse conditions. The provision of water, wastewater and electric service is paramount to a community, both during and immediately after a disaster. During the most recent extreme weather event such infrastructure was compromised and impacted critical health infrastructure including the hospital. Learning from these disasters and improving the ability to handle the next are key to community resiliency. The requested improvements will extend an investment already made by the City and will positively enable the community to persevere in cases of natural disasters and enable San Marcos to help others in their time of need.
Signed Disclosure Letter:Click Here
Project Name: City of Austin - Colony Park Sustainable Community Health & Wellness Center Water, Wastewater, & Stormwater Infrastructure Project
Proposed Recipient: City of Austin
Address of the Recipient: 301 West 2nd Street Austin, Texas 78701
Requested Amount: $1,000,000
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
Funding for the Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater Infrastructure project will initiate the development of the Central Health Northeast Health & Wellness Center in Colony Park, which will serve current residents of Colony Park and serve as the catalyst to fully develop and complete the remainder of the Colony Park Sustainable Community. Currently, the project lacks the essential utility infrastructure needed to build and support the Health & Wellness Center. The City of Austin will use federal funding to develop the water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure needed to fulfill the City’s responsibilities to provide the utilities on the parcel of land before it is conveyed to Central Health for its development of the Colony Park Health & Wellness Center.
The Center will provide health and wellness services in an underserved community. It will also include facilities for Austin Public Library & Austin Public Health, improving opportunity, affordability, and public services in Colony Park. The facility will provide public health services as well as quality and affordable childcare adjacent to an elementary school, public library, and recreation center in a low- and moderate-income neighborhoods with majority African American and Latino residents. The proposed facility will be the first of its kind in Northeast Austin located east of US Highway 183.
The Colony Park Sustainable Community is a City and community led effort to develop 208 acres of City-owned property in Northeast Austin, Texas. When complete, the project on Loyola Lane between Johnny Morris Road and Decker Lane is expected to feature a mix of housing types, including affordable housing; a grocery store; retail, and office space; a public transit center; and Loyola Town Center where the Health and Wellness Center is planned for development.
Signed Disclosure Letter:Click Here
Project Name: City of Austin MoKan Trail
Proposed Recipient: City of Austin
Address of the Recipient: 301 West 2nd Street Austin, Texas 78701
Requested Amount: $1,000,000
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
The requested federal funds will complete a one-mile segment of the MoKan Trail along former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad right-of-way between Plaza Saltillo and Springdale Road in a rapidly growing portion of East Austin.
The MoKan Trail will increase pedestrian and bicyclist mobility and safety, providing local and regional access to transit, jobs, education, and services. Adding this trail segment will provide a safe connection for pedestrians and bicyclists to connect from downtown Austin to downtown Manor and destinations along the way. This trail will also connect to proposed transit stations, providing people more mobility options. In addition to the regional connections to jobs, education, and services it will provide, the one-mile segment of the trail constructed with the requested funds will directly serve two rail transit stations, several neighborhood commercial nodes, numerous schools, and the immediate neighborhood’s only full service grocery store.
The trail is a priority as it will improve mobility and help to reach the Austin Strategic Mobility plan goal of achieving half of all commute trips by transit, walking, teleworking, carpooling, or bicycling by 2039. Included in the City of Austin 2014 Urban Trails Plan, the trail is a key part of the regional trail network, with direct connections to the Red Line Trail and the Southern Walnut Creek Trail.
Signed Disclosure Letter:Click Here
Project Name: City of Austin IH-35 Cap & Stitch Study
Proposed Recipient: City of Austin
Address of the Recipient: 301 West 2nd Street Austin, Texas 78701
Requested Amount: $1,500,000
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
The current design of IH-35 through central Austin creates a major physical and psychological barrier, hindering mobility and reinforcing past and current patterns of segregation. TXDOT’s redesign and reconstruction of IH-35 through central Austin presents Austin with a generational opportunity to address past injustices that purposefully divided the community along racial and economic lines.
To seize on this opportunity, the Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA) in conjunction with the Urban Land Institute, local elected officials, and civic leaders conducted a study of the proposed IH-35 project and the potential for creating lids and enhanced crossings (Caps & Stitches) across the depressed highway lanes going through downtown, as shown in initial project concepts. The Cap & Stitch proposal leverages the planned reconstruction of IH-35 to begin the process of addressing those past injustices and better connect East Austin with Downtown.
The City of Austin and DAA, in conjunction with a diverse community stakeholder group, the Scoping Working Group, have continued the work of assessing feasibility of the cap and stitch improvements, building upon the initial study done in spring 2020. The City of Austin has committed $750,000 in a preliminary engineering and feasibility study to further verify location of the caps and stitches as well as required infrastructure to support potential surface improvements. DAA has also been supporting a public outreach and engagement initiative called “Our Future 35,” including hiring Life Anew Restorative Justice to facilitate community dialogue around racial equity outcomes for IH-35. Over the past 2 years, the DAA has invested over $400,000 – first to produce the ULI panel, and then to continue the feasibility analysis, community conversations and momentum.
The City of Austin’s preliminary engineering study is planned for completion in late summer 2021. The City and DAA are planning to quickly launch the next phase of refined design and development of surface improvements and amenities, as well as an impacts and opportunities analysis focused on economic development, equity, land use and planning considerations, impacts on vulnerable communities and several other considerations that need to be taken into account as cap and stitch improvements are contemplated. This next phase study will also include a robust public outreach and engagement process. The study will also include financial analysis to better determine cost of construction and potential funding sources for this endeavor.
This funding request would go directly to fund this next phase analysis.
Signed Disclosure Letter:Click Here
Project Name: Rehabilitation of the historic Kusch and Tynan-Sweeney Houses at Hemisfair
Proposed Recipient: Hemisfair Conservancy
Address of the Recipient: 424 S. Alamo San Antonio, Texas 78205
Requested Amount: $942,997
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
This project is seeking funding to complete repairs of the dilapidated Kusch and Tynan-Sweeney Houses so that two small business tenants can operate out of the rehabilitated structures. Both homes will undergo a public solicitation process for selection of the tenants. The Kusch House will likely be used as a family-friendly, casual restaurant with an affordable menu that serves lunch and dinner. The Tynan-Sweeney House can provide a space for a small café, art gallery or other local offering.
The neighborhood now called Hemisfair underwent a major transformation when existing homes and buildings were demolished to accommodate the 1968 World’s Fair. Saved from the wrecking ball were 21 historic homes, many of which date back to the 1800s. Boarded up and neglected during the decades following the Fair, Hemisfair is now giving these structures new life. As funding allows, the homes are stabilized and rehabilitated. The renovated buildings add vibrancy to the neighborhood and are providing affordable opportunities for local business owners to lease space, creating an additional revenue stream to support the financial sustainability of the park.
Yanaguana Garden, the first of three complete public parks at Hemisfair, serves more than 650,000 annual visitors, making it the second-busiest park per acre in the state of Texas. Eighty-four percent of visitors to Hemisfair are local and reside in every San Antonio City Council district. The park is a center of community activity and a home for start-ups, thriving businesses and economic growth. This is accomplished in a sustainable and scalable way through an innovative business model. Hemisfair expands and improves the park, renovates historic buildings and creates a thriving neighborhood where start-ups grow and families come together. To date, eight historic buildings have been renovated and leased to five local small businesses: Paleteria San Antonio, CommonWealth Coffeehouse & Bakery, Bombay Bicycle Club, Dough Pizzeria Napoletana and Chocollazo.
The economic stimulus from these activities helps revitalize the local community and create jobs, and revenue generated by leasing the historic homes provides financial sustainability for Hemisfair, helping it become an urban parks district for residents and visitors to enjoy.
One of Hemisfair’s guiding principles is accessibility, meaning everyone can visit, afford, interact, play and experience the parks at Hemisfair. A family can fill an entire day at Hemisfair without spending a dollar. Hemisfair’s housing policy ensures diversity of residents by including below-market-rate and low-income housing options as part of mixed-income residential development bordering the public parks. Revenue created by the small businesses within the historic homes goes directly into maintaining and operating the parks at Hemisfair, which in turn benefits all who visit, live or work within the Hemisfair district.
Since the opening of Yanaguana Garden in 2015, Hemisfair has prioritized small- and minority-owned design and construction firms as well as operators of the small businesses that occupy the historic homes surrounding the park in order to reflect the diversity of the San Antonio community. Additionally, Hemisfair provides a flexible leasing structure where business tenants operating out of the rehabilitated historic homes pay a percentage of sales as rent, which provides opportunities to those who would otherwise not be able to afford operating within a prime downtown location adjacent to the River Walk and Convention Center. This allows for local small business owners and entrepreneurs to get their business idea up and running in a space that is set up for success.
The Community Project Funding Request includes two protected structures located on designated parkland. Our efforts to rehabilitate and activate the structures affect our goal to expand and improve public park offerings for the community, which in turn helps offset climate change and resiliency with green space.
Last year, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation committed $750,000 for historic preservation efforts at Hemisfair to create economic development opportunities for small businesses. To complete the rehabilitation of the Kusch House, this funding will be leveraged with Community Project Funding to finish renovation and create a kitchen space for a food and beverage tenant to be selected after completion of the project. If allocated the full requested amount, the Tynan-Sweeney House will also undergo stabilization, rehabilitation and “white-boxing” to be ready for selection of a park-activating small business tenant. These projects can be completed within the required 12-month timeframe.
Signed Disclosure Letter:Click Here
Project Name: City of Buda South Loop 4 Wastewater Extension
Proposed Recipient: City of Buda
Address of the Recipient: 405 E Loop St., Building 100 Buda, Texas 78610
Requested Amount: $1,636,364
Explanation of the request, including the purpose and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds:
This project is important for the City of Buda because it will open approximately 70 acres of property identified as a strategic priority area for economic development. This area is adjacent to rail and at the intersection of state highways South Loop 4 and Robert S. Light Boulevard. An extension of Robert S. Light Boulevard will begin construction this summer to extend the current roadway to the west to FM 1626, creating an important commercial node. The City has seen significant development interest in this corridor. However, projects have not moved forward because of the need for sewer service.
Expansion of the City’s wastewater system through this project should be viewed as an investment in the future of the Buda community. By providing wastewater to this important corridor, it will allow economic development to move forward. New businesses will add jobs and add to the city, county, and school district tax base providing tax relief for other taxpayers. Some existing businesses in the area have delayed planned expansion because of the need for increased sewer capacity.