SRCC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
TUESDAY, December 6, 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.
Meeting called to order at 7:05pm.
1. 7:00 Executive Meeting Welcome
Presenter throughout unless otherwise noted: Wendy Price Todd, SRCC President (5 min)
2. 7:05 Membership report & voting
Members must pay dues to participate in SRCC business and actions, such as voting and making motions. Please subscribe to SRCC for automatic annual renewals! Please volunteer to distribute newsletters. (5 min)
3. 7:10 October 2022 Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Approve minutes. (5 min)
No Remaining meeting dates in 2022 (Discuss 2023 Dates)
Motion: (Mary Friedman/Mark Thompson). No additions or corrections – minutes were approved as posted.
4. 7:15 Treasurer’s Report
All reports available upon request: treasurer@srccatx.org
Presenter: Will Andrews, Treasurer (5 min)
No expenses in November, a little bit of income from dues.
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. Austin Statesman PUD approved last week by Council. Didn’t get much in the way of concessions. There was some discussion about providing off-site affordable housing, but instead the developer will provide about $22M to the City’s affordable housing fund. The TIRZ was passed and will be funded by the City. There was a question about access to the lakefront area, which will be provided, though all access from Congress will require going through the development and taking stairs or an elevator.
- Historic Preservation. Properties are up for demo at 512 E Monroe, 1513 & 1517 Newning (both have been proposed), 409 E Monroe, and 1804 Brackenridge.
- Finance. The Finance Committee met last weeknd and approved a draft budget. See later item.
- Mobility. Project Connect – looks like Spring 2023 there will be new plans. The South Congress PTMD has preliminary maps, but no real changes.
- Public Safety. Still patrolling via neighborhood watch and looking for others to patrol. Uptick in crime in December. There were incidents this morning about someone running through peoples’ backyard. There was a traffic fatality on the sidewalk at Riverside.
- Parks & Environment. First Saturday of every month is a park cleanup day at Blunn Creek Nature Preserve. The Kaboom celebration took place at Little Stacy Park and about 30 people turned out.
- Schools. No update
- Communications. No update
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. Ed’s; 16) S. Central Affordable CDC (10 min)
- Norwood. No update.
- GSRC NPCT. Week before Thanksgiving the NPCT met with the SACHEM reps (immediately to the west of Home Depot). The family that owns the business is moving it. They plan to clean up the site, rezone it, and sell it. They are anticipating residential development. They are trying to remove the light industrial zoning. They are fine with waiting for an in-cycle change to the FLUM. They plan to talk to the neighbors and get back to the NPCT. Expect to have a vote for SRCC to support the NPCT position in February once it is decided upon.
- EROC NPCT. No update.
- ANC. No update.
- SCC. No update.
- South Central Waterfront. No update.
- St Ed’s. Noah will meet with St. Ed’s to coordinate.
- S. Central Affordable CDC. They will be meeting next week.
BUSINESS
7. 7:40 Historic Preservation Matter Concerning 407/409 Monroe
Preservation versus the owner’s desire to demolish the house at this address. Possible vote on SRCC assistance if EC decides to pursue a preservation path. Demo request currently scheduled to go before Landmark Commission Dec 14; SRCC does not meet again before then. [VOTE EXPECTED]
Presenters: Sarah Campbell, SRCC Chair Planning & Zoning and Wendy Price Todd, SRCC President; Susan Armstrong Fisher, Dani Rasmussen, or Clifton Ladd of SRCC Historic Preservation (10 min)
There is a concern that adequate notification of the demolition was not provided.
409 E Monroe is at Monroe and Newning. The house was built in 1906 and is a contributing structure to the historic district. At present the windows and doors are open or missing, and they are not making any effort to protect the structure. This will be on the Dec 14th Historic Landmark Commission (HLC) agenda. It was suggested that we try to meet with the owner prior to the 14th. Also, we can have people show up to the HLC (in person or via phone) to speak and object and/or ask for a postponement. It should be stated that the notification was not adequate and the information provided was insufficient.
407 E Monroe (formerly the garage apartment) was demolished, and the design for the new house was objected to by the staff. Some minor changes were made and staff granted the demo permit.
SRCC has objected to the demo permits for these as well as the previously noted houses in the Historic Preservation Committee update.
Motion (Sarah Campbell, Mary Friedman): SRCC to support the Historic Preservation committee in objecting to the demolition of the house at 409 E Monroe, and state concerns about lack of notification. For 11, against 0, abstain 0; motion passes.
8. 7:50 3601 South Congress
Portion of Penn Field that applicant wants to match with zoning of other parcels; general discussion re: SRCC’s position on code compliance to achieve affordable units, management of increased entitlements, environmental mitigation.
Presenter: Wendy Price Todd, SRCC President (10 min)
There is a project proposed on a portion of the Penn Field development, and the zoning throughout Penn Field is not consistent. A REIT is purchasing the entire Penn Field and would like the zoning consistent across all of it. SRCC P&Z is considering meeting with the developer in 2023. It seems likely that they want to build apartments, and it may require a FLUM change and NPCT approval.
9. 8:00 Finance Committee
Discuss proposed 2023 SRCC finance forecast and vote on budget.
Presenter: Will Andrews, SRCC Treasurer (15 min) [VOTE EXPECTED]
The 2023 forecast was shared and the anticipated dues income, meeting expenses, dues, fees, etc. were discussed. Other costs were contributions to the PTA organizations at each of the 3 schools, newsletter printing, and anticipated costs related to the website. There is money to redesign the SRCC meeting signs, as well as purchase of a banner. Some times in the past SRCC provided charitable contributions (for Capital Area Food Bank), and this was included in the forecast as well. The overall forecast is at a small deficit, though there are sufficient funds in the SRCC account.
There was a suggestion to expand our online and social media presence, and reduce or eliminate the expenses related to the newsletter. There was discussion about reducing costs by going back to black and white newsletters.
Motion (Mary Friedman/Ruth Casares): to adopt the 2023 budget as presented. 10 support, 1 oppose, 1 abstain; motion passes.
Discussion: Would like to keep the money in the newsletter right now. Considering reducing the newsletter budget and using some of that for website development. Concern that the existing website tools are outdated; may be worth having additional volunteers to work on the website.
10. 8:15 GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ballet Austin Nutcracker School Shows — Dec. 7-8, 8AM-2PM, Riverside Drive will be closed; Austin Center for Events 512-974-1000, and transportationspecialevents@austintexas.gov
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 in 2023.
The next SRCC Executive Committee meeting is in 2023.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:20pm
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/tZIuce6sqD4uGNGiSsXQqRG1slKqPu85XiYP
