ANA Executive Committee Meeting 6-28-2006

 Many thanks to Wendy Wilson and her husband Peter Eckert for the design and printing of the Allandale t-shirt. A special thanks to Kathleen Vale O’Hara for the winning tagline – Allandale Hugged by Shoal Creek Loved by All. The t-shirts were a hot item before the meeting. They will be available for purchase at the Allandale 4^th of July Parade!

Prior to the Executive Committee Meeting was the initial meeting for the Allandale Neighborhood Planning process, which is set to begin at the end of the year.

A Yahoo group will be set up for the Allandale Neighborhood Planning participants. The next meeting is scheduled for July 26 2000 @ at 6 p.m. at the Yarborough Library in their large meeting room. An invitation will be extended to the Brentwood NA to come to our July meeting to discuss their experience with neighborhood planning process, which Brentwood completed in 2004. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to be a part of the process. The meetings will last no more than one hour. The Allandale Neighborhood Association (ANA) Exec. Comm. meets beginning at 7 p.m. in that same room.

Gretchen Vaden, President of the Allandale Neighborhood Association opened the Executive Committee Meeting.

Fred Cohagan, who lives on Northland   Drive, has a variance request being presented to the Board of Adjustments on July 10. He would like to connect their freestanding garage, which a previous owner converted to a living area, to their main home.  The garage/living area is currently considered an accessory building, which only requires a 5’ setback. Once attached to the main house the setback requirement becomes 10’. Fred has letters of support from the adjoining property owners in support of his variance request. Gerry Schwartz motioned to provide Fred with a letter of support from the Allandale Neighborhood Association, Pat Briggs & Susan Frank seconded the motion.

Monica Moore represented Drydock Seafood owner Gail Johnson, concerning Drydock’s pending late night permit request to extend their hours to 2am. Drydock is leasing the Romeo’s at 5800 Burnet   Rd. The question before Kathy Haught, the case manager with the City of Austin, is the setback. If approved, Drydock can apply for the late hours permit. If not approved then Drydock can’t apply for the late hours. One of the problems is that Allandale does not have a neighborhood plan in place restricting last hour permits. This will be addressed during the neighborhood planning process. Some of the major concerns by the neighbors include parking behind the building, lighting, and noise. Per Monica the owner is talking about posting the area behind the building as a tow away zone, and there will be no back entrance to the restaurant for patrons or employees. She also stated that she felt the owner would be willing to stipulate in the lease that there would be no live music in the restaurant, other than karaoke. Employee parking will be at the front of the parking lot along Burnet Rd. There is a front patio for smoking only. No one on the patio will be served with food or alcohol in keeping with TABC guidelines. HEB has a restriction in their lease stating there can’t be a cocktail lounge in the strip center. Over 51% of the sales at Drydock have to be from food. Drydock is designed for casual seafood dining with an opening date of November 1^st. Paul Nagy suggested that the owner meet with a few of the neighbors to bridge their differences. ANA board member Patrick Manley and neighbor Jane Ross will set up this meeting. The Allandale Executive Committee and Board have sent a letter to the city opposing the late hours. Depending on what Patrick and Jane bring back to the Allandale Neighborhood Association, the letter to the city can be amended or changed.

A potential zoning case is 6100 Bull Creek. Allan McMurty and several neighbors are looking into the request by the owner to move one lot line over to make two functional lots. Patrick Manley spoke with the owner – his plans are to build a 2100+ sq ft courtyard home on each of the two lots.

Another potential zoning case is 5513 Montview. This is a deep lot behind commercial property on Burnet Rd. The estate of the owner is requesting that the section of the lot close to Burnet Rd be changed from SF-2 to CS (commercial) zoning. Leaving the remaining section of the lot on Montview as SF-2.

Gerry Schwartz has been a great addition to the Allandale Neighborhood Association Executive Committee. Due to a very busy schedule she has decided to resign from the Executive Committee. In her place Gerry nominated Tom Linehan, Susan Frank and Kay Newell seconded the nomination – all voted in favor. Tom has spent the last year attending and participating in the Allandale Neighborhood Association meetings, and has developed and is single handedly running the great Allandale website – The Allandale Reporter http://www.allandalereporter.org We are sorry to see Gerry go, but delighted that Tom has joined the Executive Committee.

Gretchen spoke with Brewster McCracken concerning the ball moss in the oaks along Shoal Creek, and potentially receiving assistance from the cities larger tree-trimming contractors. The
city Park’s dept can only give one day this summer and two days this fall towards the project. This won’t be nearly enough to tackle this large project, which Leslie Christensen and Gloria Pennington have been working on for months. A&M is set to test a new spray for ball moss.

A special thanks goes to Joe & Carolyn Reynolds for setting up and running the great Allandale Fourth of July Parade. Joe still needs volunteers to help with the parade – please let him know what you can do to help make this a really great parade - joe-rey@texas.net

Cheryl Silver is setting up the Allandale Rescue Dogs section of the Allandale Fourth of July Parade – please let her know if you will like to participate with your rescue dog - csilver2@austin.rr.com