Keep Austin building.

That’s what leaders in Central Texas’ residential and commercial construction industries say they will urge local officials to do, after the city of Austin and Travis County issued shelter-in-place orders amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

The orders are being interpreted as banning most construction, except in limited situations where the construction involves certain "essential and critical facilities" and services.

Builders are pushing back, saying the impact to the commercial and residential industries will be devastating if only a few projects are allowed to proceed. Leaders of the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin and the Austin chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America are calling or writing city and county officials asking that the orders be amended to allow building projects of all types to proceed.

Austin’s order says the city will not cite a construction business or operator for a violation before midnight on Friday, "if they can demonstrate work on the site was undertaken to close down the project as safely and quickly as possible."

The building exceptions outlined in the city’s order include: construction of affordable housing and social services projects; construction that supports essential business and government functions; and construction that is essential to health and safety during the worldwide coronavirus-triggered public health emergency. Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt has asked that any business not essential to health and safety during this time to cease operations.

Construction industry leaders say the language in the local orders is confusing. In contrast, they say, orders in Williamson County as well as in other major Texas cities including Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, clearly spell out that residential and commercial construction for all types of projects is allowed to continue.

Those cities have provided "100% clarity" in their orders, but the Travis County and city of Austin directives "raise more questions than answers," said Phil Thoden, president and CEO of the Austin chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America.

"The word for today is confusion, all in capital letters," Thoden said Wednesday. "That is what is permeating every building professional." Builders in Williamson County and other Texas metros "are building, not pulling their hair out trying to figure out what they can and can’t build," he said.

In an update to clients in the Austin-area building industry, construction firm Allensworth & Porter said the city has failed to give proper guidance on the issue and generated confusion.

"The city’s confusing and inconsistent messaging does a disservice to the design and construction industry and its diverse stakeholders," the firm said. "Owners, builders, designers, subcontractors, suppliers, trades and laborers all depend on and deserve clearer legal directives and ’guidance’ than what the city of Austin has provided, especially in times of uncertainty. Other cities and counties in Texas and elsewhere have succeeded in this regard, and the Austin design and construction industry deserves no less."

Thoden said the economic fallout from construction work stoppages has already begun, and "the pain is real" for the estimated 100,000 people who work in the local building industry. He said he is drafting a letter to local officials, expressing concerns "about the lack of clarity and sharing real life consequences" that have resulted since the order was issued.

Other cities, he said, have adopted approaches that have allowed construction to continue but still "balance public health with the economic reality of people needing a paycheck.

"We don’t understand why Austin has chosen a different path," Thoden said.

In recent years, Austin has typically had about 60,000 to 65,000 construction workers generating $6.5 billion to $7 billion in annual gross product, said Ray Perryman, a Waco economist.

"A relatively short shutdown will likely mean that things are just deferred a bit, but a more extended one will have more substantial effects," Perryman said.

Joe Fowler, president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin, said he realizes the orders are for the safety of construction crews. For jurisdictions that still allow residential construction, such as the city of Lakeway, builders must ensure that 10 or fewer people are on job sites at all times, and the six feet of distance is maintained, Fowler said.

"We feel like our trades and our (subcontractors) can work safely and distance them themselves on job sites," Fowler said.

In terms of job safety on an affordable housing site versus a regular housing construction site, "there’s not a difference in the way they work on those sites," Fowler said. "A job site for affordable housing is not any different than another job site."

"We’re trying to communicate with Travis County and (Austin Mayor Steve Adler) to see if there’s any way we can get (the orders) redefined and get our folks back to work. Right now, we're getting very little communication back. That’s part of the frustration. We don’t have any answers. It’s just something we’re going to have to continue to work through."

Thoden said if there is a construction stoppage, "where are workers going to go? They’ll go to other cities where it’s allowed and they may never come back to Austin."