Allandale Neighborhood Association Sues the City of Austin

PRESS RELEASE: For Immediate Release

Allandale Neighborhood Association Sues the City of Austin

July 3, 2007, Austin, TX -- The Allandale Neighborhood Association (ANA) today filed suit against the City of Austin (COA) asking for a declaratory judgment to determine whether the City of Austin violated its own ordinances in conjunction with the approval of the site plans for redevelopment of Northcross Mall. The Allandale Neighborhood Association Executive Committee met in an open public forum on June 27, 2007 and voted unanimously to instruct its attorneys, Blazier, Christensen, Bigelow & Virr, PC, to file a lawsuit.

The site plan for the Northcross Mall will include a Wal-Mart Super Discount Center, which was at the time of filing in January, 2006, the largest retail center under one roof in Austin, Texas. This site plan and a second one filed in December, 2006, were approved on an administrative basis, preventing citizen and affected neighborhoods input into the process and preventing the opportunity for a public hearing to voice concerns. Moreover, the process allowed the applicant to continually change the site plan at will, carrying forward multiple site plans simultaneously, thereby making discovery of proposed size, uses, and location difficult and effectively eliminating opposition.

The City of Austin dismissed neighborhood concerns about the project, including a professional engineering report paid for by Allandale Neighborhood Association that questioned the accuracy and completeness of the traffic impact analysis. The City of Austin set deadlines for neighborhoods to file terms for the project then failed to implement them; it obviated its responsibility to do a thorough analysis of traffic impacts on the neighborhoods; and, through its own processes, left the neighborhoods unable to apply for relief through any other means than legal recourse.

Open government and processes are core elements of a representative democracy. The Allandale Neighborhood Association believes that the loss of public scrutiny prevented a complete discussion before its own representative body of the impacts of this project on nearby homeowners and small businesses.

In order to reestablish the responsibility of elected representative to its citizenry and the staff accountable to that elected representation, the Allandale Neighborhood Association seeks to remedy these failures of due process in a court of law and have the City recognize its duty to protect the health safety and welfare of all of its citizens.

The Allandale Neighborhood Association was organized in October 1973 as the largest neighborhood group in Austin. It serves over 3000 homes in central Austin bound by Anderson Lane, Burnet Road, Hancock Drive, 45th Street and MoPac.

  # # #

Contact: Allan McMurtry, Chair, Northcross Committee, Allandale Neighborhood Association
[512 670-6166 cell]