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Attorney profile

Russell Kotara

Land-use attorney of record · 11 unique cases
20
Hearings
11
Cases
8
Concluded
87.5%
Approved of concluded
2016–2023
Active
0
Since 2024

The record, at case level

Of Russell Kotara’s 11 unique cases, 8 have concluded — reached a Planning Commission or ZAP decision — and 7 of those ended in approval at their final hearing: 87.5%.

Postponement is a clock, not a verdict: of the 2 concluded cases postponed at least once, 2 still ended in approval (100.0%).

Counted once per case, not once per hearing: a case postponed several times before approval would otherwise read as several losses and one win.

Hearings by year

Russell Kotara: hearings by year2016: 1, 2017: 4, 2018: 2, 2019: 0, 2020: 2, 2021: 3, 2022: 3, 2023: 5251’164’172’18’192’203’213’225’23

Outcome distribution

Russell Kotara: outcomesApproved: 12 (60%), Postponed: 2 (10%), Denied: 1 (5%), No decision: 5 (25%)60%10%25%Approved 12Postponed 2Denied 1No decision 5

Hearing timeline

Hearing dateOutcomeDistrictFirm
2023-10-10ApprovedD1LJA Engineering
2023-09-26ApprovedD1LJA Engineering
2023-09-05ApprovedD1LJA Engineering
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Firm

LJA Engineering

Where they practice

D1 4D3 2D7 1

Hearing-level rates, for comparison

Postponement rate vs the fieldRussell Kotara: 13%, Field median: 44%Russell Kotara13%Field median44%
Approval rate 80.0% — above the field (46.1%) by 33.9 pts.

At the hearing level every appearance counts, so a case postponed N times adds N postponements and one decision. Hearing-level approval-of-decided is 80.0% (vs the field’s 46.1%) and postponement is 13.3% — both far from the case-level figure above, for exactly that reason. Two stages, two denominators: these are commission-stage outcomes (approve vs. postpone/deny at the Planning Commission or ZAP hearing), not the City Council vote. Once a Commission-recommended case reaches Council it is approved in the high-90s%, so a low commission-stage approval rate reflects strategic postponement, not defeat.

Recent cases

C8-2022-0169C8-2019-0146.1AC8-2018-0165.4AC8-2018-0165.3AC8-2018-0165.2AC8-2018-0165.1AC8-2018-0132.0AC8-2017-0225.0A
Austin Development Watch · every figure traces to a certified record · hearing data through 2026-05-19 · Council outcomes through 2026-04-23 · gate-certified · generated 2026-07-29