Statesman reports: Council voted at 2:30 a.m. to keep Austin Pets Alive in old animal shelter

from: statesman.com

By Sarah Coppola

American-Statesman Staff

Austin Pets Alive should have the chance to build and run a new animal shelter and adoption center on a prime piece of city parkland, the Austin City Council decided early Friday.

The nonprofit currently operates the city’s former — and many say, dilapidated — animal shelter at 1156 West Cesar Chavez, but says it has raised $1.2 million of the $10 million it would need to build a new facility there.

At 2:30 a.m. Friday, the City Council decided unanimously to create a master plan for Lamar Beach, the area across from Lady Bird Lake that includes the old animal shelter, West Austin Youth Association sports fields and a YMCA.

The master plan should be completed by August 2015 and it should include an agreement with Austin Pets Alive to construct and run a new animal shelter on the site, the City Council decided. (The city would own the new facility and continue to own the land.)

Other animal rescue groups had said the idea was rushed through without proper vetting, but no one showed up to oppose the item Friday morning.

The city depends on a network of more than 100 animal rescue groups that keep Austin the largest no-kill city in the nation, city officials said.

Last year, the city’s new animal shelter at 7201 Levander Loop in East Austin saved 94 percent of the animals that came in. About 47 percent of those animals left with rescue groups, and Austin Pets Alive was the largest rescuer, city officials said.