The Allandale Reporter

A Good Day in the Neighborhood

By all accounts, yesterday's Celebrate Allandale picnic was a success! The rain held off until it was over making for a very comfortable day in the park. It was just a relaxing afternoon spent with neighbors.

People enjoyed a nice selection of food from Blue Star Cafeteria,  Dog Almighty, Phoenecia Bakery and Sarah's Mediteranean Grill.  We appreciate their contributions. Also, thanks to Amy's Ice Cream who was scooping out the ice cream. Cold water was supplied by Johnson Properties.

Celebrate Allandale Picnic!

Come Celebrate Allandale and help raise funds to fight the proposed Northcross Redevelopment that calls for a 200,000 plus sq. ft. Supercenter at Northcross Mall.

Mark your calendar for the first-annual Celebrate Allandale fundraiser, picnic, and concert. It’s March 25, from 1-6 p.m., at Beverly Sheffield Northwest District Park.

Come hear Austin musicians The Mockingbirds (www.sonicbids.com/themockingbirds), Dale Watson (www.dalewatson.com), Leeann Atherton (www.leeannatherton.com), and The Weary Boys (www.wearyboys.com).

ANA March General Meeting

Please join us for our Allandale Neighborhood Association March General Meeting on Wednesday, 3/28, at the Ralph Yarborough Library on Hancock Drive beginning at 6 p.m.

1. Reading and approval of minutes

2. Treasurer’s report

3. Update on Northcross redevelopment project

Minutes from 3.8.07 Special Meeting

Draft Minutes to be considered for approval at the regular March General Meeting.

Allandale Neighorhood Association Special Meeting of the Executive Committee 3/8/07 at St. John's Methodist Church.

Attending: Allan McMurtry, Joe Reynolds, Tom Linehan, Michael Bomba, Cathy Yang, Katie Hansen, Paulette Kern, Dan Jones.

As this is a special meeting, the minutes of the February executive committee meeting were not submitted for approval. These minutes will be considered at the regularly scheduled March General  meeting.

VMU coffee meeting coming to a home near you!

Want to know more about Vertical Mixed Use development on Burnet and
Anderson? Come join fellow neighbors at a home near you for an
informal discussion.

Here's the complete schedule. Just sign up for the meeting that's
most convenient for you.

Coyote Info - Shoal Creek

Texas Wildlife Services has investigated reports of coyotes attacking dogs in the Shoal Creek area between Northland   Dr. on the north, and 35th   Street on the south. It has become apparent that the coyotes are subsisting primarily on pet food, in addition to small wildlife and housecats. Please do not intentionally or unintentionally feed coyotes by placing pet food outdoors.

Plans for the Farmers Market

Travis County is selling the 2.3 acre property on Burnet Road that is now Farmer's Market. It will be  holding a public hearing at the Brentwood Elementary school cafeteria, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm on Wednesday, March 21. Four developers will show their redevelopment concepts to the neighbors, and the County is asking for neighborhood input on who they select to sell the property to. Contruction is planned for mid-2008. Brentwood Elementary, 6700 Arroyo Seco, (map).

Vertical Mixed Use Is Coming to Burnet

Apartments, condos and offices can get built on top of ground-floor commercial.

Do we have a say in what happens? How high can they build? Will there be more or less noise, traffic, and crime? How about parking? Property taxes? What will it look like? Will they build sidewalks and plant trees? Is it pedestrian and bicycle friendly? Will it encourage developer incursions into the surrounding residential neighborhood? What kinds of businesses will this attract? Will existing businesses be helped or hurt? Will this make the used car lots go away? Will it be more apartments or condos? Can we make this better?

Allandale Neighborhood Association is organizing coffee parties throughout the neighborhood from 3/17 to 4/10 to gather feedback for recommendations to the city.

If you would be willing to host a coffee for your neighbors where ANA volunteers can speak, please contact Kerry Kimbrough by Sunday, March 18: kkimbrough@acm.org or 565-8495

Family From Rhode Island Moving to Allandale

What follows is an email that came in via the website. Thought I would share it with you.

My husband and I are moving to Austin in June, and I was in town this past weekend to do some very preliminary house hunting. Although I spent time all over the city, I was incredibly impressed by what I saw of Allandale. A friend had tipped me off that its is a great neighborhood, and during my visit it really looked like area residents take a great deal of pride in their community. From the looks of your website, my instincts were  correct. 

Hopefully we will be joining you soon.

Sincerely,

Mindy Weber

Providence, Rhode   Island

Open House Draws a Crowd

With all the discussion and intereste this development has generated, it's no surprise yesterday's open house at the Norris Conference Center drew a crowd. When I arrived at 7:15 there were people circulating around the tables Lincoln and Wal-Mart set up by topic: operations, community, design, traffic, Lincoln, etc. At the Traffic table, they had a screen simulating traffic flow around Northcross presumably showing what's anticipated once the project is completed. It reminded me of an ant farm. See for yourself. (click on link to download video file. ). Here's a link to the Statesman's coverage of the event: "Wal-mart holds open house to talk about Northcross supercenter," by Sarah Coppola. I also uploaded some pictures of the development they had on display in the Snapshot gallery to the right.

Are you pleased with the term sheet?

submitted by Tom Linehan

I posted a link to Wal-Mart/Lincoln's proposed Term Sheet on Saturday. The Term Sheet is in response to the issues Allandale and the other nearby neighborhoods and RG4N submitted to Lincoln and Wal-Mart through the City back in January.

The Term Sheet is consistent with what Lincoln and Wal-Mart told the representatives from the affected neighborhoods at the Wednesday, 2/21 meeting at Armbrust & Brown. It addresses a number of the issues we submitted, but did not get to the one that underlies all of the issues - the size of the supercenter. It's still a 200,000 plus square foot retail store. The above photo is what the 200,000 plus square foot Wal-Mart looks like on 620. 

Minutes from 2/28/07 Allandale Executive Committee

Meeting was called to order by Tom Linehan. Other EC members in attendance were Katie Hansen, Joe Reynolds, Allan Murtry, Michael Bomba, and Cathy Yang.

Allan made a motion to approve minutes from January 24th. Passed

Response from City on Request for TIA

On January 12th, a formal request for a new Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) was sent to the City of Austin by Bruce Bigelow, an attorney with the law firm of Blazier, Christensen, Bigelow & Virr, on behalf of the Allandale Neighborhood Association. On February 8th, the City responded with the following letter . The short version of the response is the TIA submitted by Lincon/Wal-Mart, according to  George Zapalac, Development Services  Manager with the Watershed Protection  and Development Review Department, complied with all City rules and regulations.

Northcross Term Sheet

All-

Enclosed please find a term sheet from Lincoln and Wal-Mart. In addition to the feedback we receive from neighbors at the open house on Monday, some of you indicated an interest in holding meetings with your individual neighborhood associations and providing feedback from those groups. We would like to have this feedback by Monday, March 26^th. The City will also continue to accept feedback provided directly.

One of the most commonly asked questions right now is how the City will capture these proposals in an agreement. Most of these proposals could be amended into the site plan for the project. A few, like restricting certain uses on the property, would be captured in a Restrictive Covenant. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Laura Huffman
Assistant City Manager

This Week's Wal-Mart Coverage

Here's a link to this week's Austin Chronicle coverage of the Northcross redevelopment project and their take on the Wednesday, February 21st meeting. In the article, "Developing Stories," Katherine Gregor reports that reactions to what was offered up by Lincoln Property and Wal-Mart amounted to crumbs. The City's role, according to talking with Assistant City Manager, Laura Huffman, is to make sure the developer's understands clearly the neighborhoods's concerns and that their response to those concerns is on point. She acknowledged they did not reduce the size of the superscenter but did address a number of the other concerns.

Wal-Mart/Lincoln Open House Monday

 Open House/Community Work Session

Marth 5^th, 2007

3:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Norris Conference Center

http://www.norriscenters.com/austin-maps.tmpl.htm

Red Oak Ballroom

Northcross Mall

2525 Anderson Lane

Come view the project’s progress and get questions answered. Wal-Mart

Representatives and architects will be present.

For more information: ncinfo@martinsalinas.com