In attendance: Joe Reynolds, Dan Jones, Brent Sjolseth,
Paulette Kern, Allan McMurtry, Michael Bomba, Katie Hansen, Cathy Yang, Tom
Linehan, Laura Slaughter and Donna Beth McCormick.
Reading of the minutes by Paulette Kern from July 5th. Allan McMurtry makes a motion that the
minutes are approved for the 5th. Michael Bomba seconds. Passes
Reading of the minutes from July 25 th. Katie Hansen motions to approve the
minutes. Allan McMurtry seconds. Minutes approved.
Northcross Lawsuit
update: The City of Austin requested that the lawsuits for RG4N
and ANA be combined. The attorney for
RG4N and attorneys from the City of Austin
have come to an agreement of terms and stipulation of facts. The ANA also sent a list of facts that we
felt were critical to the suit. The agreement on both sides as to terms and
stipulations would eliminate discovery and reduce legal costs for
everyone. The City of Austin does want a deposition. Allan McMurty will be the witness for
ANA. The City of Austin is challenging the standing of the ANA
in the case. The ANA needs to establish
our boundaries and interests and Allan McMurtry is not only experiences in
depositions, but can attest to the long history of the ANA in this particular
site. Deposition will take place in mid
September and deadline for any changes is 30 days later. Mid November. is the scheduled start date for
trial.
VMU application
update: Tom Linehan has checked with the Neighborhood Planning committee
and there was not any update on the status of our application Tom will try to find out where our VMU
application stands as the original 45 days have passed.
Zoning committee
update: Paulette Kern. The Antique
mall redevelopment at North Loop and Burnet is
currently slated for construction. The
potential developer has obtained permits, however he would like to apply for a
significant increase in density to be approved for the site. Neighbors were against any increase in
density over what had already been approved. Concerns center around the lack of available ROW to add a turning lane
to Burnet Road
(the only access point to this development). Neighbors are concerned that a substantial increase in density will
backup Burnet Road.
This concern has been communicated to the new developer, who still wants to
increase the density and has not indicated that he is willing to come down in
the number of units he desires. Several
members of the ANA EC expressed that an interest in trying to work further with
this developer to see if a compromise can be made that would appeal to the
neighbors, yet enable a profitable venture for the developer. This particular developer has had a positive
working relationship with other neighborhoods and we will explore the potential
for future discussions.
Treasure’s report: 20,500
in bank account.
The Newsletter is operating at a loss currently. It is highly dependent on advertising
revenues. However, we are still honoring
add rates from before and once the new ad rate kicks in, it is expected that
the revenue will improve.
White Rock Flooding project. George Oswald manager of watershed engineering department came and gave
a presentation on the bond-funded flooding mitigation project at White Rock.
The 5 member team was here from the department of public
works.
The bond election: 95 million dollars allocated for drainage
improvement. White Rock is the rated as
the 3rd worst flooding area in the city and 8.3 million has been set
aside for our area.
The city has had 44 complaints between 1991 and 2003.
The problems are as follows:
Pipes are undersized
Channel culverts are undersized.
Inlets do not catch equal amounts of water.
Insufficient number of inlets
Channel Erosion, obstructions, Channel layout (90 degree
bends)
They looked into putting a detention pond upstream but this
was not financially feasible.
They intend to put in a culvert that would collect water at
White Rock and collect to Shoal Creek.
They intend to take the project in two phases. First,take
care of immediate problem. Putting in a 3 X 6 box culvert under white rock.
Neighbors expressed concerns that this would be insufficient to handle the current
waterflow.
Second phase is looking at possibly putting another drainage
system up at oak drive.
Construction will start in January 2008 and last 5
months. Completion sometime in
September.
This will cost 1.5 million. It is unclear whether the remaining 8.3 million set aside for our
neighborhood will be used here.
Stephanie Lott will coordinate the answering of questions
for interested residents.
Tom Linehan suggested that they contact neighbors who live
adjacent to the drainage ditch.
Jeff Russell from NSC association wants Allandale support
bike lanes being built on Steck
Avenue. This would take from Steck from 4 lanes to 2 lanes plus bike lane and
turning lane. This plan had initial
approval, however recently public works said that Steck is a minor arterial and
can’t have less than 4 lanes. In order
to re-stripe, road must be re-classified. The bicycle advisory council is putting forth a motion to re-classify
Steck so that it can have a bike lane. Jeff would like us to say that the ANA supports bicycle lanes on Steck Ave.
Paulette Kern expressed concerns about the reduction in
traffic capacity. The board asked for more information. Jeff will get this and come back to the
board.
Mayor Bruce Todd and Fred Clement from Covenant Presbyterian
Church came to speak about their new construction.
Covenant has been permitted to raise Children’s Hall by the
Mpac off-ramp in October and put up a 4-story structure (1 in the
basement).
Covenant wanted to come and update us about construction
plans and to ask for our support for a staging area in Memorial Park
Cemetery. Accessibility from mopac is
very tight and the church has asked for a license to occupy a 50-foot strip of
land in the cemetery to allow very limited use of that staging area for 12
months. The church will spend 50K in
improvements in the cemetery in exchange for this use. The proposal has passed all legal
hurdles. In absence of the staging
area, Covenant fears that construction equipment would take up available
parking and might push cars back into the neighborhood on peak Sundays. The church is asking for our support in the
form of a letter.
Laura Slaughter makes a motion that that we support it. Laura withdrawals the motion.
Allan McMurtry makes a substitute motion that the ANA
endorse the proposal for a 50-foot common staging area in memorial park for a
term of 12 months beginning at _____ with a privacy fence. Staging will be through Church property. During any funeral service the contractor
will be respectful of the burial services. ANA also endorses the construction of the new 58k square foot building
on the west end of the property.
Katie Hansen seconds and it passes.
Fundraising Committee
update: Laura Slaughter. The Masquerade ball will be held the end of
October. The committee is currently
working on the silent auction. Russle’s
will do the beverages and the food. Mary Jean will be the music chair. Laura is looking for items for the silent
auction.
The committee also needs help to get flyers out and sell
tickets.
Matt Curtis from Capitol Metro came to introduce himself as
the new representative for our area.
Tom Linehan adjourns the meeting at 8:30.
