SRCC GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING (www.srccatx.org)
Tuesday, October 19, 2021 7:00 PM
Zoom Meeting via
The Internet
MINUTES
To be sure you get a vote, become a member. You can join or renew online www.srccatx.org. Not sure if you are current? Email membership@srccatx.org and we’ll let you know.
CALL TO ORDER/COMMITTEE REPORTS/APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. 7:00 Meeting procedures, Zoom tools, etiquette, welcome newcomers. Verification of quorum. Reminder: state your name when presenting or seconding a motion. If an acronym is stated during the meeting and you don’t know what it means, please see acronyms at the end of the agenda.
Presenter throughout: Cynthia Milne, SRCC President, unless otherwise noted. (8 min)
The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:00
2. 7:08 Membership and voting. Pay multiple years in advance and get a discount. Single membership: 1-yr $20; 2-yr $35; 3-yr $50 / Family membership: 1-yr $35; 2-yr $65; 3-yr $95 NOTE: In order to vote or make motions, dues must be paid a month in advance, with the exception that if a former member’s dues have lapsed no more than 2 years, they may renew no less than 2 days prior to the online meeting and be eligible to vote. Contact membership@srccatx.org to renew. (2 min)
3. 7:10 Treasurer’s Report. All reports available upon request to the Treasurer @ treasurer@srccatx.org
Presenter: Will Andrews, Treasurer (5 min)
Sam Martin gave the treasurer’s report. Since last month we had a little bit of membership dues come in, with no expenses.
4. 7:15 Reports of Committee Chairs
1) Planning and Zoning; 2) Historic Preservation; 3) Finance; 4) Mobility; 5) Public Safety; 6) Parks and Environment; 7) Schools; 8) Communications (15 min TOTAL)
- Planning and Zoning: Nothing new to report – see later item.
- Historic Preservation: Nothing to report
- Finance: Committee will meet in 2 days, to work up the forecast for next year, to present to the EC at the Dec 7 meeting.
- Mobility: Nothing to report – see later item.
- Public Safety: Nothing to report
- Parks and Environment: There has been progress on the Little Stacy hike and bike trail, and they are working on drainage. A member mentioned that the mulch on the Little Stacy hike and bike trail was very coarse and was very difficult to walk on.
Nov 6th is It’s My Park Day, and in SRCC this will be celebrated at Harper’s Branch Creek Greenbelt and at Blunn Creek Nature Preserve; signup is required and links are below. For the Harper’s Branch event, meet at the City of Austin Housing Authority building – orientation and breakfast tacos, bring masks and gloves, doing a creek cleanup. Links for the two events: https://www.givepulse.org/event/251623-Harpers-Branch-Creek-Greenbelt-First-Cleanup
Blunn Fun – It’s My Park Day – Fall | GivePulse
- Schools: There are not a lot of events happening at the schools. There is excitement around getting younger kids vaccinated and that should result in more events. Travis High School has a drive through event on Sat Oct 23 “Boo the Flu and Covid Too” which gives free flu and Covid vaccinations. No reservations required. There will also be community information and goodies available.
- Communications: Nothing to report
Reports of Ad Hoc Committees & Representatives:
9) Norwood 10) GSRC NPCT 11) EROC NPCT; 12) ANC; 13) SCC; 14) South Central Waterfront; 15) St. Edward’s; 16) S. Central Affordable CDC; 17) Land Development Code Rewrite Ad Hoc committee (10 min)
- Norwood: Nothing to report
- GSRC NPCT: Nothing to report
- EROC NPCT: We will be inviting the EROC President to speak at a future SRCC meeting.
- ANC: ANC met on September 22. There was discussion about the November ballot items including the pros and cons of Prop A, as well as some about Prop B. ANC officer nominations were held; will extend the current officers’ terms. There was a presentation on Council redistricting, including a final proposed map. That map shows District 9 going south to Oltorf, but Sherwood Oaks and other SRCC areas south of Oltorf are now shown in District 3. SRCC Areas 6 & 7 are now shown in District 9 (they are currently in D9, but previously proposed maps showed them in D3).
- SCC: There was discussion about upcoming elections; early voting has started. There is a Vision Zilker meeting about the future of Zilker Park, where citizens have been asked to provide feedback on the future of park improvements. Zilker Neighborhood Association together with Save Our Springs has put together a detailed proposal for the “re-wilding” of Zilker (for areas outside of the Great Lawn). There was a lot of discussion on Prop B, which is a proposed land swap. There is a 9-acre plot of land owned by PARD (including maintenance vehicle shop and buildings) adjacent to the Oracle complex on Lakeshore Drive near Pleasant Valley. Oracle would like the land and are proposing to pay for the purchase of 48 acres on the Colorado River to donate to PARD (north shore, just East of 183, near an old raceway). PARD has wanted this land (which is surrounded by parkland, which has been interrupted by the raceway). Oracle would pay to build the new maintenance area, and would renew the maintenance area on the other side of the lake near Fiesta Gardens. There is some concern about this land not being used for affordable housing in the EROC area, especially after Oracle demolished a lot of affordable housing in order to build their campus. The City has stated that they still need somewhere to have the maintenance shop, and would not be able to convert the existing land to park. Neither of the Council Members for the EROC area mentioned this proposed ballot item to the EROC NPCT. A large portion of the existing site is parkland, and EROC was hoping to get a community center in this area; there has been very little community and park areas in EROC. The land that the City will be getting is estimated to be worth more than the land that they are giving up.
- South Central Waterfront: Nothing to report – see later item
- St. Edward’s: Nothing to report
- S. Central Affordable CDC: Nothing to report
- Land Development Code Rewrite Ad Hoc committee: Nothing to report – see later item
5. 7:40 Approve minutes from the September 21, 2021 monthly general meeting (available at www.srccatx.org). Reminder: Schedule for General Membership meetings: 3rd Tuesday of the month, 7:00pm -8:30pm. Location: teleconference during 2021 (eventually will return to Good Shepherd on the Hill). (5 min)
Remaining meeting dates in 2021: GM Nov 16; EC Dec 7
There were no comments or changes, minutes were approved as posted.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
None.
NEW BUSINESS
6. 7:45 PUD Application 305 S. Congress Ave.
A link to the September 16, 2019 SRCC Resolution is here. Richard Suttle will tell us whether any of the concerns/objections set forth in the SRCC Resolution have been eliminated or accommodated.
For information about the South Central Waterfront Plan and the PUD Amendment, please see the Parks and Recreation Board, 9/28 meeting, specifically items B 1-4.
http://austintexas.gov/cityclerk/boards_commissions/meetings/39_1.htm
For more details on the South Central Waterfront Plan, see the Environmental Commission 10/6 meeting. Click on the “Backups” links for 20211006-003a: 305 S Congress PUD C814-89-0003.02.
http://austintexas.gov/cityclerk/boards_commissions/meetings/28_1.htm
Presenter: Tom Groce, South Central Waterfront Advisory Board Representative;
Guest: Richard T. Suttle, Armbrust & Brown PLLC (20 min)
Summary from Tom Groce: Richard Suttle asked to make a presentation to our NA about the project. SRCC has a 2019 resolution that was linked to above. Last night there was a SCWAB meeting with presentations on this project. The Planning Department asked that the project be allowed to move forward, and the SCWAB voted for it to move forward as well, with some requirements (several are similar to the conditions listed in the 2019 SRCC letter). Some concerns were expressed over bike paths, and a wider road.
Presentation from Richard Suttle: He is the trustee for this site, the former Statesman property. There were some assumptions made when the plan was adopted, including that the plan didn’t recognize property lines, and assumed that multiple sites would be developed at the same time. The realignment of the adjacent properties has squeezed the site’s areas. There are concerns about the new regulating plan not yet being completed. It was claimed that even though the site was 18 acres, the public amenities and components required by the overall SCW plan reduce the area available for development to 7 acres. This results in much taller structures in order to make the project profit goals. They are also proposing to use underground parking instead of the above-ground parking envisioned in the plan.
It is anticipated that there is about 8.12 acres of open space including parkland, plazas, and public space.
Affordable housing – the 2016 Vision Framework Plan that was approved by the City designated this site to carry 4% of on-site units as affordable (80% MFI for rental or purchase). It was stated that most of the public benefit on this site was in the form of public land, as opposed to affordable housing.
Citizen uses – the public realm spaces will be open to the public and dedicated to the City, similar to the lands up and down Lady Bird Lake, with public easements. Developer wants to have a seat at the table for what uses are going to be implemented on the property.
Bats – have been working with Bats Conservation International to identify ways to not impact the bats.
Traffic – The Traffic Impact Analysis has been reviewed by the City, and they have cleared most of their comments.
There are concerns about climate resilience due to additional heights. The majority of the existing site is paved; there will be more land dedicated to open space than there is now. Tried to focus on light and air between buildings to allow airflow; much of this is related to below ground parking. There is a focus on best practices and sustainable design.
Q: Concern about the width of the pedestrian trail, relative to the width of the trail now. A: Trail is currently in a 12’ – 15’ easement, though some expands outside of that area. They are proposing a 15’ easement for the trail. There was a request that the trail be wider; right now the trail gets very crowded, especially when people are watching the bats.
Q: What are the buildings sheathed in, and what will be the effect of reflection from the sun.
A: The buildings are not yet designed. There is a consideration to minimize solar axis in order to minimize heating requirements for the tenants, as well as bird safety.
Q: Suggestion that SRCC P&Z could meet with the developer to review their presentations (they were not able to present at this meeting due to limited time).
A: It was agreed that this would be beneficial.
The City was working on some tools (TIRZ, economic development entity. etc.) a few years ago. There has not been much progress on this. This will be discussed at next week’s Council meeting.
See the draft resolution from the South Central Waterfront Advisory Board regarding this development, including proposed conditions on development:
https://www.srccatx.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/3d-SCWAB-rec-Statesman-PUD-FINAL-DRAFT-22OCT.pdf
7. 8:05 Windsor Park Neighborhood Association Climate Initiative
Martin Luecke will talk about the challenges and responses to climate change on private, group, and government levels.
Presenter: Martin Luecke, WPNA Climate Committee Chair (5 min)
The WPNA Climate Committee has been around since 2019, when the NA made a Climate Change Resolution, which they have presented to elected officials. They would like to encourage SRCC to develop a climate resolution. There is a copy of the resolution on the Windsor Park website. By creating and disseminating such a resolution, this helps to influence policy at governmental entities, especially if multiple community groups speak up and align their efforts.
The WPNA climate change resolution can be found at:
http://www.windsorpark.info/climate-crisis-committee/
email: windsorparkclimatecommitte@gmail.com
8. 8:10 CapMetro Blue Line: The Blue Line is an 8.2 mile light rail line connecting the Airport to Republic Square. It will cross Lady Bird Lake on a new dedicated transit bridge. Read more about the Blue Line here:
Presenter: Mark Thompson , Mobility Committee Chair (10 min)
The Blue Line comes from downtown, and will cross Lady Bird Lake via a bridge with room for both pedestrian and bike lanes. There is a stop at the south shore near Thom’s Market on Riverside. It will head East on Riverside to Blunn Creek (and will enter Riverside Dr via a traffic signal). There will be some right-of-way impacts along Riverside (on the North side of Riverside). There is a steep grade approaching Travis Heights Blvd, and this will need to be reduced for the train (the road on either side of the train will remain at the current grade). There will be a stop at THB (this may block off portions of the Norwood House due to a retaining wall), though there is no parking proposed. There will be a new traffic signal at Summit. There will be a stop at Lakeshore, and then Faro. There was a question if the bridge would affect the view of the lake, and it is unclear at present. There were concerns about the ability for the bats to navigate the bridge. There were questions about how pedestrian and bike traffic will cross the tracks, especially where the retaining wall will be as it climbs Riverside near Travis Heights Blvd; current plan removes the Alameda pedestrian-hybrid beacon, but Cap metro is talking with COA regarding a replacement. There are many detailed drawings on the Cap Metro Blue Line Virtual Open House website.
9. 8:20 Land Development Code: An update on the legal challenge to the City’s proposed revision to the Code.
Presenter: Paula Kothmann, Land Development Code Committee Chair (5 min)
Cynthia Milne spoke in place of Paula Kothmann, who was not in attendance. There was a legal challenge to the implementation of the Land Development Code changes (related to the City not following the proper process), and a ruling was made against the City; since then not much has happened. The City has appealed the decision and oral arguments in the city’s appeal will occur on Nov. 17.
10. 8:25 GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
The August 2021 SRCC Newsletter is now available on the SRCC website. We hope you enjoy it! Please send your submissions and ideas for the next newsletter to the Editor at rucasar@swbell.net.
SRCC currently has the following volunteer position open: SRCC Vice President: A replacement for the current VP is needed by December 31, 2021.
SRCC has restarted the NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH program, and is looking for participants. Anyone interested should contact Tom Groce, SRCC Public Safety Chair at tgroce71@gmail.com to get involved!
Do you have questions about using the Neighborhood ListServ? This link will take you to information about subscribing, unsubscribing, posting a message, and more. https://groups.io/g/SouthRiverAustin
The chair adjourned the meeting at 8:36
The next SRCC Executive Committee meeting is December 7, 2021. The next General Membership meeting is Tuesday, November 16, 2021.
Frequently used acronyms: ACF: Austin Community Fund; ANC: Austin Neighborhood Council (https://www.atxanc.org/); BoA: Board of Adjustment; SF: Single Family zoning category; EROC: East Riverside/Oltorf Combined Contact Team; FLUM: Future Land Use Map; GSRC NPCT: Greater South River City Neighborhood Planning Contact Team; NCCD: Neighborhood Conservation Combining District; NHPA: National Historic Preservation Act; PC: Planning Commission; PUD: Planned Unit Development; SCC: South Central Coalition of NAs; ZAP: Zoning and Platting
Agenda Prepared by Megan Spencer, vicepresident@srccatx.org
Agenda subject to change. Please check www.srccatx.org for most updated version.
