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The Austin City Council voted 6-0 in favor of transferring $650,000 from the Building Fund to the Austin Port Authority pending the approval of a purchase agreement with the YMCA during its regular meeting Monday evening.

The funds will be used to purchase the old YMCA, which the City hopes will be the location of a market rate apartment complex proposed by the Stencil Group. During its last meeting, the council voted in favor of allowing due diligence on the proposed complex as well as authorizing the City and the Port Authority to negotiate terms with Stencil Group.

“This will allow us to move forward with having the YMCA take action on the purchase agreement and have it before the Port Authority,” said City Administrator Craig Clark.

Councilman Jeff Austin (At-Large) expressed concern that taking action might be premature.

“We don’t even know that this is going to happen,” he said, noting that the City hasn’t had anything back from Stencil Group and that they didn’t know if the YMCA was willing to sell for $650,000.

Clark said that the Stencil Group wanted to know the property was under contract to move the process along, while Mayor Steve King said he got a commitment on the price from YMCA Director Diane Baker.

In other council news, Christopher Moore was welcomed as the newest Honorary Council Member during the meeting. The council also passed resolutions declaring the cost and adopting the assessment roll on sanitary sewer improvement assessments for the “Turtle Creek 2” area after a public hearing on the matter. The amount to be assessed to adjacent properties is $104,100 with an interest rate of 4% for 10 years with the first of the installments payable on or before Jan. 3, 2022. The City did not receive any objections.