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Mayor warns of 1 million people “coming to town”

Add a million people to this scene, from the September 2011 Austin City Limits festival, and you get a fact check (Austin American-Statesman, Jay Janner photo). Add a million people to this scene, from the September 2011 Austin City Limits festival, and you get a fact check (Austin American-Statesman, Jay Janner photo).

Add a million people to this scene, from the September 2011 Austin City Limits festival, and you get a fact check (Austin American-Statesman, Jay Janner photo).

By W. Gardner Selby May 21, 2013

In an opinion article, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, joined by City Council Member Bill Spelman, suggested Austin Energy should have a change in oversight because the City Council stands to confront multiple other challenges.

"We’ve got 20-odd departments to watch over and — with nearly a million people coming to town in the next 20 years — incredible housing, land use, and transportation problems," the pair said in the piece placed online by the Austin American-Statesman on May 5, 2013.

A million people on the way?

That figure holds up only if one considers projected population changes from San Marcos to Georgetown to Bastrop, in other words the five counties encircling the capital city, which is otherwise expected to have more than 330,000 additional residents by 2035.

See our take on Leffingwell's claim, including a hyperlinked analysis by Spelman, to the right.

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Mayor warns of 1 million people “coming to town”