Austin, of course, places a high priority on both citizen involvement and input and protection of the environment. So I think because of that, our regulations do tend to be a little difficult.

We did receive a significant increase in both our new residential applications as well as our remodel and addition applications prior to council taking action.

Anyone can stop in with their plans and sit down with a reviewer and ask questions that are specific to their project.

If the regulations were to change at any given point...the regulations that were in effect on the date the application was submitted are the regulations that would apply to that application.

There's a role it (the Center) symbolically plays in protection of the natural environment, and there's even more of a practical role it can play under the right leadership. This is a woman who gets it, and is willing to try new things when it comes to protection of the environment.

The environment is very much an issue. But if we accept we're going to have dogs, (then) they're going to need to be walked. It's better to have one person out there than eight people, there's less of an (environmental) impact.