City Council Work Session
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Good morning, everybody. It's 901, and I'll call to order the work session of the Austin City Council on April 21st, 2026. We have a quorum of the City Council present, and we are meeting in City Council Chambers located in Austin City Hall at 301 West 2nd Street in Austin, Texas. Members, we have some speakers, so we'll hear from our speakers, and then we will go into an executive session to take a discussion of two items. Once the executive session is complete, we will come out and we will go with the briefing on the financial forecast, and we will follow that with the agenda item A6. So with that, I will turn to the city clerk and ask that you please call the speakers.
Thank you, Mayor. We're going to start with remote speakers. First speaker is Susana Woody.
Good morning, Honorable Mayor and Council Members. My name is Susana Ledesma Woody, and I serve as the president of the Del Valle Community Coalition. I am here today on behalf of our organization to express our support for the proposed economic development agreement for the hotel project at Circuits of the Americas. This development represents a real long-awaited opportunity for Del Valle. For years, our community has needed a true economic anchor, yet we have been consistently overlooked and underinvested. This project has the potential to shift that trajectory by bringing stable jobs and pathways for advancement, creating meaningful employment opportunities close to home for our youth, and attracting services, amenities, and gathering spaces that we don't have in Del Valle and have to travel far to access.
We respectfully ask for your support for this project, and we urge the city to ensure that revenue generated is reinvested into the Del Valle community within city limits. This is more than a development project. This is an opportunity to begin addressing years of underinvestment and ensure that Dell Valley is not left behind. Thank you for your time and your consideration. If you have any questions, please contact us at atx.dvcc.org. Again, thank you for your time. Y'all have a good day. Next remote speaker for item A6 is Luke Charlton.
Good morning, Mayor and Council Members. This is Luke Charlton.
I'm the Chief Operating Officer of Rita, proposing to be the developer of the hotel, and I'm available for questions when the item comes up.
Thank you. Thank you, sir.
We're going to switch to in-person speakers for item A6. As your name is called, if you can please make your way to the podium and state your name for the record. Rachel Melendez, Bill Bunch, Juan Rodriguez, April Brown, and Michael Whalen.
Good morning, Mayor.
Council, Rachel Melendez, I'm the political director for Unite Here Local 23.
And here to speak on item A6, we are in strong support of this.
We've worked with Rita across the country, particularly here in Houston. And we are very excited about them developing this hotel. I think as the president of the Neighborhood Association said, this is a huge opportunity for working people in Del Valle. And I think as many of you know, we've been able to really increase wages and benefits for working people in the city of Austin.
And we're very excited about this project. Yeah, that's really all I had to share. And I'm happy to talk with anybody about this project. So thank you. Thank you. Please. Good morning, honorable mayor and city council. My name is Juan Rodriguez. I'm the project manager for the Valley Community Coalition. And I'm here on behalf of DVCC today to support the potential agreement with the city of Boston and Dakota Hotel happening at Circus of the Americas. Our organization has worked well with Circus of the Americas in the past, and this is an opportunity. We're very excited. To have a new partner like Rita helps expand the work at Eastern Crescent. As Susana mentioned previously, you know this is an economic opportunity that the Valley has not had in previous years.
This will bring in jobs, it will bring in park lands, it will bring a lot of opportunity and people of the Valley deserve to have a place to work and where they live without having to commute an hour and a half.
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Agenda
3 itemsSpeakers
2 identifiedOfficials recognised by voice; public commenters shown as “Speaker N” unless they state their name.