SRCC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
TUESDAY, April 4, 2023 @ 7:00 PM
MINUTES
Only members may vote. As an officer, you should be a member. Please confirm by emailing membership@srccatx.org. And please register 24 hours in advance.
1. 7:00 SRCC Welcomes Members and Guests
Verification of quorum. Reminder: please state your name when presenting or seconding a motion.
Presenter throughout unless otherwise noted: Wendy Price Todd, SRCC President (5 min)
The chair called the meeting to order at 7:01 pm.
2. 7:05 Membership report & voting
Members must pay dues to participate in SRCC business and actions, such as voting and making motions. Try the subscription option for automatic annual renewals. (5 min)
Reminder that even executive committee members need to pay dues, so please be proactive.
3. 7:10 Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Approve minutes. (5 min)
Motion by Dan Fredine/Will Andrews to approve the minutes as posted. There were no comments or corrections, minutes were approved as posted.
Upcoming meeting dates: GM Apr 18, May 16, Jun 20, Aug 15, Sept 19, Oct 17, Nov 21
EC May 2, Jun 6, Aug 1, Sept 5, Oct 3, Dec 5
4. 7:15 Treasurer’s Report
All reports available upon request: treasurer@srccatx.org
Presenter: Will Andrews, Treasurer (5 min)
Little activity in March, just a little bit of interest. SRCC is cash flow positive for the year.
5. 7:20 Standing Committee updates re: events/goals/issues
Presented by Committee Chairs: 1) Planning & Zoning; 2) Historic Preservation; 3) Finance; 4) Mobility; 5) Public Safety; 6) Parks & Environment; 7) Schools; and 8) Communications (10 min)
- Planning & Zoning. On April 18th the developer for the Live Oak and S Congress project will be at the SRCC meeting so that we can ask them questions, and we will have a resolution for the Penn Field rezoning. We are aware of no new cases.
- Historic Preservation. There was a lot of shake up at the most recent HLC meeting. The Chair was unexpectedly dismissed, and 2 commissioners were let go. The SRCC Historic Preservation Committee has a meeting scheduled with Council Member Quadri’s office to try and keep the current commissioner on the board & educate them about demolitions within SRCC.
Tomorrow night the HLC has 2 applications for new construction at 503 Terrace & 1611 Drake.
Preservation Austin has their annual preservation tour in 2 weeks, and 2 of the houses on the tour are in Travis Heights, and one of the houses (309 Park Lane) will be the location of the VIP party.
Some of the members are working with the Bouldin Neighborhood Association to advise them with trying to make some small local historic districts. - Finance. Nothing to report.
- Mobility. S Congress PTMD – the signs are up for the parking survey (which was also shared on the listserve). There have been more than 500 responses, but would like more employee responses.
Cap Metro – it would be worth looking at Nathan Bernier’s KUT piece on the proposed changes to the light rail plan.
There was some concern about idling buses on St. Ed’s drive. There was a question about PTMD possibly addressing this. - Public Safety. Nothing specific, other than still looking for more people to patrol. Most recent crimes have been property (and often auto) crimes.
- Parks and Environment. Had a Blunn Creek Nature Preserve work day on April 1st – removing invasives and trimming. Will be back at it May 6th.
- Schools. Not much to report about local schools. The AISD superintendent search has been put on hold, and TEA wants to put in a conservatorship over the special education program in the district. There is a fundraiser for Travis High seniors.
- Communications. The newsletter has been postponed slightly (probably will be out in May), to come out after the SRCC annual election.
6. 7:30 Additional Updates from Representatives and Coordinators
9) GSRC NPCT; 10) EROC; 11) NPCT; 12) ANC; 13) SCC; 14) South Central Waterfront; 15) St. Ed’s; 16) S. Central Affordable CDC (10 min)
- GRSC NPCT. Nothing to report.
- EROC NPCT. Nothing to report.
- NPCT. Nothing to report.
- ANC. Nothing to report. Will hold the 50th anniversary dinner soon.
- SCC. Nothing to report.
- South Central Waterfront. There was an online survey and discussion about prioritizing parkland amenities for 305 S Congress. Will repost to the listserve; the language was somewhat confusing as the amenities are required by the project, but it almost sounds like they are being proposed as enhancements.
A representative will be at the SRCC May 16th meeting to talk about 311/315 S Congress (which is inside S Central Waterfront), and Woodward (SAYCHEM plant). - St. Ed’s. Nothing to report.
- S Central Affordable CDC. Nothing to report.
BUSINESS AGENDA ITEMS
7. 7:40 Vision Zero Texas
Project of Farm&City, 501(c)(3) “dedicated to changing Texas public policy to create safer and more sustainable cities in Texas.” Advocating for Safe Neighborhood Streets bills: HB 1277/SB 1663 in TX Leg. Empowering local communities to control their own speed limits.
Presenters: Jay Crossley of Farm&City (10 min)
Vision Zero Texas is being developed, which is advocating for an approach to reduce traffic fatalities. The 2021 data shows that speeding was the #1 contributing factor to traffic fatalities (at 35%, with drunk driving at 25%). There has been a larger focus on increasing speed instead of safety. There are ways to modify roadways to allow these safety issues into faster roadways. TXDoT has changed its key philosophy on speed to design the roads for a safe speed, which matches the speed limit. Most of the people who die in Texas on the streets are inside cars. State laws don’t allow for cities to have speed limits below 25MPH, though some cities have been able to get that changed locally. The bill going before the legislature will allow this to get lowered by all cities.
A graphic was shared that showed the likelihood of a pedestrian surviving a crash at 20, 30 and 40mph.
You can go here to support the 2023 Safe Neighborhood Streets bill:
https://forms.gle/VGXDgGJEvU1HBTf36
Wider lanes have been found to be more dangerous – more narrow lanes make drivers feel uncomfortable and thus slow down. Roundabouts and parked cars also help to make the road speeds slow down, as do art and the plastic kids holding the flags.
There were discussions about bringing this forward to the general membership in order to take a position.
8. 7:50 TXDOT and I-35
Local input for I-35 design plans.
Presenters: Mark Thompson, SRCC Mobility Chair, Yorgos Economos; TXDOT’s Frances Jordan, Tommy Abrego, Nic Barbera (10 min)
Updated plans were shared for the 3 crossings of I-35. Several team members were in attendance. Mike Lee with Jacobs Engineering (general engineering), William Chung – with Jacobs Engineering in Dallas on aesthetics. Julian Summers – WSD design manager for lady bird lake. Tony Estes – working with Jacobs working on the ???.
It was mentioned that the Executive Committee voted to support City Council’s positions on the I-35 plans.
Would like input during the next couple weeks on the aesthetics of the design options. Design ideas were shared for Riverside, Woodland, and Oltorf crossings. There was also a question about the crossing at Woodward and its ability to support bicycle traffic.
The SE corner of East Riverside at the service road is owned by TXDoT. Some of that corner will be converted to a shared pedestrian/bike area, with a staircase to about 12 feet below the current level, to go under the highway.
There was a question about the Riverside Drive SPUI, and how a tunnel going under the Riverside crossing could make people feel uncomfortable to walk in at night. There are concerns from pedestrians and bicyclists about being at the same level as road traffic, as well as concerns about safety; they are looking at options. It was suggested that maybe putting pedestrians above the road level would be more comfortable.
There were other general concerns about the comfort, safety, and convenience of the Riverside SPUI crossing, especially when considering trying to get to a Project Connect light rail station on the other side of the highway (at Norwood Park).
There was interest in lowering the speed of the frontage road to 35 miles per hour.
There was a question about the lighting at Riverside (both daytime and nighttime), as well as at the North Bank of Lady Bird Lake. Pedestrian lighting is also included in the proposal.
There were also questions about the ability of the walls to reduce sounds for the neighborhoods, as well as how the homeless populations will affect the pedestrian and bicycle spaces.
9. 8:00 Historic Committee (Presenting for Discussion only no vote until General Meeting)
- Request that the SRCC officially support 2101 Travis Heights Blvd in applying for Historic Landmark Designation
- Write a letter of support to demonstrate ‘Community Value’
Presenter: Susan Armstrong Fisher, SRCC Historic Preservation Committee (10 min)
The committee is asking SRCC to support the coming historic landmark designation application for 2101 Travis Heights Blvd. The owner will be applying for this status, probably in May. It is one of the remaining Tudor Revival style homes in the neighborhood, and has some notable history attached to it. The Historic Landmark Commission has asked to see more community support for applications, and the SRCC committee is asking the membership to support the application.
10. 8:10 GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
SRCC’s NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH program is always looking for more participants. Anyone interested should contact Tom Groce, SRCC Public Safety Chair at tgroce71@gmail.com.
This link will take you to information about subscribing, unsubscribing, and posting a message to the neighborhood ListServe: https://groups.io/g/SouthRiverAustin
The next General Membership meeting is April 18, 2023.
The next Executive Committee meeting is May 2, 2023.
Frequently used acronyms:
ACF: Austin Community Fund
ANC: Austin Neighborhood Council (https://www.atxanc.org/)
BoA: Board of Adjustment
CDC: Community Development Corporation
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
NPCT: Neighborhood Planning Contact Team
PC: Planning Commission
PUD: Planned Unit Development
SCC: South Central Coalition of neighborhood associations
SF: Single Family zoning category
ZAP: Zoning and Platting
Agenda Prepared by Noah Balch, vicepresident@srccatx.org Agenda subject to change. Please check www.srccatx.org for the most updated version.
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