The Allandale Reporter

Planning Commission's Vote on North Loop VMU District

submitted by Tom Linehan

Allandale came up short at Tuesday night’s Planning Commission meeting when they took up our Vertical Mixed Use (VMU) recommendations for the North Loop property. Allandale’s VMU application is not scheduled to go before the Planning Commission until late March however, due to staff error, the North Loop tract was included in Rosedale’s borders for VMU consideration.

Allandale was represented by Paulette Kern, Zoning and Planning Chair, Allan McMurtry, VP Allandale Neighborhood Association, and Steven Zettner, co-chair of the Allandale VMU Committee. Others in attendance from Allandale included Anne Young, Kerry Kimbrough and myself.

It's My Park Day Site Contact Needed

submitted by Linnea Anderson

It’s My Park Day will be April 12th, 2008. Allandale was one of the first neighborhoods to participate in It’s My Park Day, and the tradition continues this year.

We need volunteers to act as site contacts on the day of the event. The site contact is the central location for the volunteers at each clean up, they sign in volunteers, hand out t-shirts, and distribute snacks and water. They do need to be at least 18 years old, and available on April 12th from 9:00-11:30 am.  They do not need to trim brush, pick up trash etc.

The site contact is really an ambassador for Allandale, it is a great way to meet neighbors. If interested contact me: Linnea Anderson

Please help me in encouraging participation. These events build awareness of our parks and their value to our community

Volunteers can sigh up online: http://www.austinparks.org/itsmypark.html

Early Voting

Early voting started today, February 19th and goes through February 29th. The closest location for Allandale residents to take advantage of early voting is the Ben Hur Shriners Hall at 7811 Rockwood Lane across from Sun Harvest. For more information about early voting, visit the County Clerk's web site.

MEN'S CLOTHING NEEDED FOR THE HOMELESS

The Fig Leaf Store (see attached brochure), located at University United Methodist Church, provides used and new clothing to homeless and underprivileged people.  The store is open Saturday mornings and serves about 100 men, women and children every week.  However, often the number of men guests alone is around 100, and the store struggles to provide clothing for these men.  Men's pants are especially needed.  If you have clothing you'd like to donate (particularly men's clothing but all donations are welcome), you can drop it off on the porch of your Allandale neighbor, Emily Roe.  Her address is 5703 Susie Ct., located off of Louise Ln. - near Northland Dr. and Mopac.  Donations may also be taken to the church M-F 7:30-5:30 p.m. and Sun. 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m.  The church is located at 25th St. and Guadalupe.  For more information or if pick-up is needed, contact Emily Roe at 799-8866 / emilyroe@earthlink.net.  Thank you for your time and support!

VMU Project Proposed for Village Shopping Center

The Village Shopping Center on Anderson Lane, home to Body Business and the Alamo Drafthouse, is being redeveloped into a large vertical mixed use project by its new owners, Capitol City Partners. The developers, led by Joe Lamy, bought the 12-acre center in October 2007. They have been in discussion with the North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Association about the planned development for the past few months. The center is currently zoned commercial and will require a rezoning to vertical-mixed use before the project can go forward. It will go before the Planning Commission in two weeks. The proposed project would include shopping, residential, and office uses. The Alamo Draft House would remain as an anchor tenant.

You will find an article about the proposed development in the latest edition of the Austin Business Journal, "Village Shopping Center to be redeveloped as larger mixed-use project." According to the article, the center would go from 145,000 sq feet to 600,000 sq feet. You can also find a writeup about the project on the North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Association's website.

Today's Marathon

submitted by
Tom Linehan

I got up this morning grabbed the camera and proceeded to the Far West bridge where I took these two photos of the leader of the AT&T marathon running up Great Northern. He was so far ahead of the next group of three runners at this point in the race that I thought he's the sure winner. This was at mile 16. Turns out he wasn't the winner. Wesley Ochoro #6, finished 5th overall. The winner was Jacob Frey from Pennsylvania who completed the race in 2:20:38. Wesley finished a little more than 3 minutes later with a time of 2:24:06.

Wesley Ochoro is from Kenya. He and another runner in today's race from Kenya are written up in today's Austin American-Statesman, "Kenyan's run in marathon's for survival", by Kirk Bohls.  It's an interesting story. Allandale turned out to support the runners. There were people at the corner of White Rock and Shoal Creek to support them as they turned on to White Rock heading to Great Northern and a number of people including 2 bagpipe players along Great Northern. And what a great day for the event.

People running through the neighborhood

This Sunday is the AT&T Marathon and Allandale is part of the 26.2 mile course. Get out your lawn chairs, pick a spot along the route,  cheer them on! The race starts at Congress and Cesar Chavez at 6:55 a.m. on Sunday. You can expect to start seeing runners coming through Allandale at Shoal Creek and White Rock (mile 15) between 8:15 and 8:30. They will go west on White Rock to Great Northern and up Great Northern. The finish line is on Congress between seventh and eighth street.

February Newsletter on Its Way

The February edition of Allandale Neighbor should be landing on your doorstep sometime this week. This one is a cover-to-cover read. Here are the issue highlights:

- Back From Iraq - An Interview with First Lieutenant Alex Hooper
- ANA President’s Letter
- Crime in Allandale—What the Numbers and the Neighbors are Telling Us
- Panhandling in Allandale—How to Help Stop it
- Upgrade of Great Northern Detention Pond in the Works
- 2008 Membership Goal
- McNairs Appliances now known as KIVA: Where Dreams Come True
- Old Red—The Allandale Fire Truck
and more...

As always, you can  download it here from the web site. Many thanks to the people who helped out with this edition from the writers to Cathy Savage the person responsible for the advertising  and layout of the newsletter. If you would like to help out with future editions of the newsletter - either you have suggestions for an article or you want to contribute to its production,  just send us an email at allandaleneighbor@gmail.com.

Home and Vehicle Security Seminar

submitted by Tom Linehan

There were three representatives from Allandale who attended APD's Home and Vehicle Security Seminar last Thursday at Hyde Park United Methodist Church, Donna Beth McCormick, Carolyn Reynolds and myself . The presentation was given by  officers serving the Central West Area Communities which includes Allandale. At the 1 1/2 hour seminar, the officers went over ways to prevent your home and vehicle from being burglarized. I took pictures of the slides with the points they covered and posted them here. While it's not as good as having been there, you will find some very helpful information in  the slides. APD also provided a number of related handouts that go into more detail which I will post to the web site this week.

The People's D.A. Candidate Debate

Cat Mountain Homeowners Association and Austin Neighborhoods Council are jointly sponsoring "The People's D.A. Candidate Debate" to give residents of Travis County an opportunity to get to know the four candidates in the running to replace 30-year veteran D.A., Ronnie Earle.

The District Attorney's job is to see that justice is done by providing the highest quality legal representation for the public and individual victims of crime.

Far West Detention Pond Project FAQs

Stephanie Lott, of COA Watershed Protection, provided an update to the information we have on the detention pond project.  (For complete details, see the previous posts.)

"Below is some information about the purpose of the project, graffiti and the recreational aspects of the site that you requested. We’ve seen a number of specific ideas and comments both on these issues and others that have the potential for enhancing the project. They need further research, and we are working with our engineers to see if any of them can be incorporated into the project to the extent that our budget allows and without conflicting with the flood control purpose of the project. (Pond Project FAQs continued)

ANA EC Meeting Minutes: January 24, 2008

Mary Jean Matus

Executive Committee members in attendance:  Tom Linehan, Joe Reynolds, Dan Jones, Donna Beth McCormick, Margie Gordon, Mary Jean Matus, George Roman.

The meeting was called to order at 6:45 pm.

Secretary Alan McMurtry was absent; the November 13, 2007 ANA EC meeting minutes were read by Tom Linehan. It was noted that the meeting minutes from October 25, 2007 had not yet been approved. In addition, Dan Jones noted that he had previously submitted corrections to the November meeting minutes and that they may not have been incorporated; he wished to investigate further. Donna Beth McCormick made a motion to defer approval for the October and November meeting minutes; it was seconded by Dan Jones. The motion passed.

Vote! on Great Northern/ Far West Detention Pond Options

Illustrations of the Great Northern / Far West Detention pond project available.  Download great_northern_options_1.pdf  to see illustrations of the project, as well as the options we can vote on.

Concrete Color (click on image for close-up view)
Spillway texture (click on image for close-up view)
Wall Texture (click on image for close-up view)

Post your preference as a comment on the gardening blog 0r send me a note offlist. Deadline for voting is February 12th.

Home and Vehicle Security Seminar

Come listen to tips from officers serving your Central West Area Communities on ways to prevent your home and vehicle from being burglarized.  Learn the three lines of defense, how to recognize suspicious activity, when and who to report it to.

Date: February 7, 2008
Time: 6:30 - 8:00
Location:
Hyde Park Methodist Church -
Fellowship Hall
4001 Speedway

Update on Detention Pond Project

Stephanie Lott with the City's Watershed Protection and Development Review Department and Jay Scanlon, an engineer with Freese and Nichols, met with approximately a dozen Allandale residents Monday night at the Northwest Recreation Center to go over the planned upgrade to the Far West/Great Northern detention pond. This is basically a flood control project to upgrade the pond to withstand a flooding event many times what occurred in the 1981 flood. The $2.5 million project will get underway this fall and take approximately 9 months to complete. Resident's concerns ranged from graffiti on the planned spillway to work hours during the project to fate of the cypress trees.  (continue reading Update on...)

Texas License Plate E-vote

Well if you find yourself spending more time in traffic you might as well have some input on the design of the license plate you're looking at ahead of you. Now you can. Cast your e-vote on of the 4 designs proposed for the new Texas license plate that will be coming out next year. Here's a link to the site where you can view the designs and cast your vote. Voting began at noon on Monday, Feb. 4 and ends at noon on Monday, Feb. 11.

Meeting on Far West Detention Pond Project Monday, Feb 4th

Reminder that there will be a public meeting at Northwest Recreation Center on February 4th at 7:00 p.m to go over this project. What follows is a link to the web site the Watershed Protection and Development Review Department set up regarding the project. Direct any questions to:

Stephanie Lott
Public Information Specialist Senior
City of Austin
Watershed Protection and Development Review Department
512-974-2799 (phone)
512-802-7456 (pager)
Stephanie.lott@ci.austin.tx.us