SRCC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
TUESDAY, October 4, 2022 @ 7:00 PM
Zoom Teleconference
MINUTES
Only members may vote. As an officer, you should be a member. Please confirm by emailing membership@srccatx.org.
The chair called the meeting to order at 7:02
1. 7:00 Executive Meeting Welcome
Presenter throughout unless otherwise noted: Noah Balch, SRCC Vice President (5 min)
2. 7:05 Membership report & voting
Reminder that members must remain in good standing by paying their dues to participate in SRCC business and actions, such as voting and making motions. (5 min)
3. 7:10 September 2022 Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Approve minutes. (5 min)
Remaining meeting dates in 2022: GM Oct 18; GM Nov 15; EC Dec 6
Motion by Noah Balch/Mary Friedman to approve. No comments or updates were noted and minutes were approved as posted.
It was noted that there is no Executive Committee meeting scheduled for November due to conflict with Election Day, and no General Membership meeting in December due to potential conflict with the holidays.
4. 7:15 Treasurer’s Report
All reports available upon request to the Treasurer: treasurer@srccatx.org
Presenter: Will Andrews, Treasurer (5 min)
The report was presented. Income is dues and interest, a handful of expenses similar to last meeting, net positive for the year.
5. 7:20 Standing Committee updates re: events/goals/issues
Presenters: Committee Chairs, including 1) Planning and Zoning; 2) Historic Preservation; 3) Finance; 4) Mobility; 5) Public Safety; 6) Parks and Environment; 7) Schools; and 8) Communications (10 min)
- Planning and Zoning. See later items. The AfroTech, Turkey Trot, and Ballet Austin items listed below are mostly just street closures.
- Historic Preservation. For the first month in a long time there are no demolitions in Travis Heights. There are a couple that have been postponed by the applicants. The committee is trying to make it more challenging for demolitions that are inappropriate, and are spending a lot of time at the Historic Landmark Commission.
- Finance. Nothing to report.
- Mobility. CapMetro is reconfiguring their plans for Project Connect; there is a virtual meeting Oct 10th on anti-displacement 5:30pm – 7:30pm, register at the Project Connect website. South Congress PTMD – the City is no longer trying to push this forward by the end of the year; they are hopeful to have things going by SXSW. The City has proposed Eastside Dr as the eastmost boundary, though Travis Heights Blvd may be better. Noticing parking at Kenwood and Riverside due to the bus stop; once the train gets put in place, it may be helpful to have the boundary extended to Riverside. There was a question about trailers parking near Little Stacy Park – would the PTMD affect these vehicles? Seems likely if that is a metered area, then it will have an impact. It was suggested that there be an SRCC working group to help educate people and dispel misinformation about the impact of the PTMD. It is expected that once the maps come out, then there will likely be a fair amount of attention.
- Public Safety. Via neighborhood watch driving, it has been noted that much of the vehicles parking on the street doesn’t go much past Little Stacy Park (in consideration of the PTMD). There was a question about crowds of people at the pavilion near the bus stop near Live Oak next to Vinaigrette, drinking and getting rowdy. It was suggested that if something like this is occurring and you have concerns, please call 311 and report it (or use the 311 app on your phone).
- Parks and Environment. There will be a park cleanup between Big Stacy Pool and Little Stacy Playground held this Saturday, October 8, 9am. If you cannot attend, we may make this a recurring activity on the second Saturday of the month as part of the Keep Austin Beautiful “Love Where You Live” campaign. SRCC has learned that there is an individual who has “adopted” this segment of Blunn Creek and hopes to coordinate with this person for future events.
- Schools. Nothing to report.
- Communications. Working on an updated list of area coordinators and block captains.
6. 7:30 Additional Updates from Representatives and Coordinators
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; and 17) Ad-hoc Land Development Code Revision (10 min)
- Norwood – see later item.
- GSRC NPCT – nothing to report.
- EROC NPCT – nothing to report.
- ANC – see later item.
- SCC. Nothing to report.
- SCW. The Statesman PUD went to Council last week for the second reading, but it was pushed out to Oct 13.
- St Ed’s. For homecoming, St. Ed’s will have a fireworks display on Oct 28th, lasting for 10 minutes. In the past SRCC residents have expressed concern about the disruption and effects on people and pets, as well as potential for fire.
- S. Central Affordable CDC – Nothing to report.
- Ad-hoc Land Development Code Revision – Currently on hold awaiting legal issues.
NEW BUSINESS
7. 7:40 Planning and Zoning Updates
- 406 & 428 E. Alpine rezoning C14-2022-0101 — [VOTE EXPECTED]. Recommend approval with caveat that the CO is amended for additional creek protection over and above the 50’ buffer. Consider the range of development under zoning, and/or that the developer must consult with SRCC during the site plan stage.
- AfroTech Conference 2022 —Nov. 13-17, 8AM-9PM, will utilize the entire Convention Center and surrounding venues. Trinity Street between Cesar Chavez and 4th Streets will be closed to regular traffic Nov 12-17, 24 hours/day. For questions, comments or event updates, call 311 to ask about Permit # 2022-119304 RW. Additional information at Austin Center for Events, 512-974-1000 and transportationspecialevents@austintexas.gov.
- 2022 ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot — Nov. 24, 8:45AM-12PM, 32nd annual fundraiser for Caritas of Austin. Information about street closures around Long Center and the route between 4AM-12PM from Luke Allelo 512-386-7966, Austin Office of Special Events 512-974-9799, or transportationspecialevents@austintexas.gov.
- Ballet Austin Nutcracker School Shows — Dec. 7-8, 8AM-2PM, Riverside Drive will be closed to thru traffic between Lee Barton to S. 1st Streets. For more information, Steven Myers 512-476-9151 x125, stevemyers@balletaustin.org, Austin Center for Events 512-974-1000, and transportationspecialevents@austintexas.gov.
Presenter: Sarah Campbell, SRCC Planning & Zoning (15 min)
Alpine rezoning – the NPCT wouldn’t meet until Sunday, so we will delay the vote. The applicant is asking for rezoning to allow MU to be added to the property’s existing zoning in this mostly industrial area, to presumably add housing, though they aren’t committed to actually building it. There are some creek issues and we would probably want additional creek protections beyond the City requirements.
8. 7:55 ANC and PUD Updates
Contentious resolution passed that merits discussion and team is working on a new resolution re: PUDs.
Presenter: Betty Weed, SRCC Communications Chair (10 min)
The ANC General Membership meeting was Sept 28. Mostly discussion from the City about what services different City departments provide. There were 2 resolutions. One was voted on that was about parking and bike lanes; Council was proposing stricter rules about fining cars in the bike lanes. Some neighborhoods have service people getting fined because they have to park there. It was even suggested that there be a bounty to report someone. The resolution calls for a simple way for a resident to contact 311 and get approval for blocking the bike lane with a single vehicle so that they won’t get ticketed within a narrow window of time. It got contentious, but the resolution did pass. The other resolution was about PUDs – Zilker came up with a PUD resolution that affects them. Looking for other NAs to join in and write up a city-wide PUD plan.
9. 8:05 City Council Candidate Forum
October 11, 2022 at Texas School for the Deaf.
Presenter: Noah Balch, SRCC Vice President (5 min)
A member had attended the Bouldin Creek Neighborhood Association meeting at the Texas School for the Deaf, which was held in the same space that is intended for the candidate forum. It was pretty small and there were some space concerns about being able to fit in all the candidates and participants, though it was a nice space. The forum is scheduled for 6:30 – 8:30, for D9 candidates. Not sure if there will be a Zoom link.
10. 8:10 Norwood House
Challenging development environment puts plans on hold. Norwood Park Foundation to explain.
Presenter: Wolf Sittler, Norwood Park Foundation Advisor (10 min)
SRCC has been involved with the Norwood House since the early 1980s. The City and State designated the property as historic. The Norwood Park Foundation was created in 2011. There have been a lot of negotiations with PARD about the requirements to get the project going, and they were ultimately successful. The Norwood Park Foundation was able to get the requirements met for a private/public partnership. In 2018 nearly $3M in public funds were devoted to the project. The permitting has been done, and the project is “shovel ready”. With the increase in construction costs and overall contracting climate, the board of the Foundation decided that they are not ideally suited to take it to the next stage (which requires a bigger organization and a lot of fundraising). They are talking with the Trail Conservancy and Austin Parks Foundation to see if they are interested in taking over the project. APF is meeting later this month to discuss this option.
11. 8:20 GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
Sun Oct 30 10- noon. Kaboom anniversary celebration. Coffee and Tacos at Little Stacy.
It was noted that there were some inaccuracies on the website. Noah asked that any corrections that need to be made to the website be sent to him via email.
There was a question about our co-sponsorship at the D9 forum, and if we could utilize their tech setup and see if we could host a Zoom stream.
Adjourned at 8:07pm
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 next General Membership meeting is October 18, 2022.
The next SRCC Executive Committee meeting is November 15, 2022.
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.
ZOOM REGISTRATION LINK FOR THIS MEETING: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvc–tqTosHdY74pMBlhvT1yfK5eqCC0OT
