NSCNA Blog Archive

The following information was received from the President, Austin Neighborhood Council (ANC) concerning City Council Hearings for Short Term Rentals and the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan, and is published for your information and possible action:
This week there are two very important public meetings at City Hall. On Tuesday, May 22, 2012, at 6:00pm, the Planning Commission will vote on a draft ordinance on short-term rentals (STRs). On Thursday, May 24, 2012, at 6:00pm, the City Council will hold a public hearing on the Imagine Austin comprehensive plan. (IACP: Agenda Item # 135.) The City Council also has scheduled a public hearing on the STR ordinance on Thursday, May 24th; it is not certain what time City Council will consider the STR ordinance. (STRs: Agenda Item # 140.) These topics are of great importance to the membership of the Austin Neighborhoods Council (ANC). The ANC encourages you to attend these meetings, sign-in, and support neighborhoods. You don’t necessarily have to speak, but if you are staying for the duration of the meetings you may donate time to designated speakers. To allow members to attend these meetings, ANC has canceled its regular monthly meeting that would have been held on Wednesday, May 23, 2012.
As you know, the ANC membership spent several months developing and debating a position statement on STRs. In November, 2011, the ANC membership adopted a policy resolution on STRs (see the full resolution on the ANC website: www.ancweb.org). In short, the ANC resolution asks the City to allow homesteaded STRs that are owner occupied but continue the prohibition on commercial (non-homesteaded) STRs. In other words, there would be no issue with homeowners renting out their homesteaded homes occasionally on a short-term basis but there would be a ban on using a house in a residentially zoned area that is not your homestead as a short-term rental. Please attend the Planning Commission meeting and let the Commissioners know that commercial STRs are wrong in our neighborhoods. Simply write “No commercial STRs in residential neighborhoods” on the sign-in card. Noting your opinion is important whether you elect to speak. By completing a sign-in card, you have the option of donating your time to a designated speaker as long as you are there when the designated speaker is called to speak.

As you know, the ANC membership spent several months participating in the development of the Imagine Austin comprehensive plan. Last month in a straw poll of the ANC membership there was an almost unanimous agreement that work remains on the comprehensive plan from the neighborhood perspective. The ANC Executive Committee has identified five key topics that must be fixed before City Council adopts Imagine Austin: the growth concept map, the priority program to revise the Land Development Code, the role of neighborhood planning and neighborhood plans, support of locally owned neighborhood businesses, and the overall tone of the plan to ensure inclusion of all communities that live in Austin. In short, ANC wants to preserve what is unique about Austin which is our neighborhoods. Please attend the City Council meeting and let the Council Members know that what attracts people and businesses to Austin are the strong neighborhoods that give Austin character and identity as much as anything else. Sign in as opposed to Imagine Austin to signify that work remains. Noting your opinion is important whether you elect to speak. By signing in, you have the option of donating your time to a designated speaker as long as you are there when the designated speaker is called to speak.

What: Public Hearing for the MoPac Improvement Project.
When: Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 6:00 PM.
Where: O’Henry Middle School
Cafeteria, 2610 West 10th Street, Austin

The following information was sent by Email May 21 from August W.Harris III, President, MoNAC:

Please see Lynda Rife’s email below. The next critical hearing for the MoPac Improvement Project is Wednesday evening at 6:00PM at O.Henry. This will be for the benefit of the Federal Highway Administration. The MoPac Neighborhoods Association Coalition or MoNAC supports the Preferred Alternative that is being recommended as it meets the goals and objectives first established by MoNAC. Please attend and voice your support.

MoNAC’s three overriding objectives were the installation of sound walls, the prohibition of elevated lanes and no taking of additional private property for right-of-way. These essentially all were achieved through the Preferred Alternative. As noted before, some got sound walls who didn’t want them and others didn’t get sound walls who really did want them. But for the most part, the adjacent neighborhoods will be getting sound walls. That determination was made during a very lengthy public process. Except for one flyover to connect to 5th Street, there are no elevated lanes included in the Preferred Alternative. Lastly, barring some unexpected engineering complication regarding the placement of the footings for a portion of the sound wall, there will be no additional taking of right of way from private property owners. Each neighborhood has its own unique concerns. The Preferred Alternative answers many of them, perhaps most, but certainly not all and that is recognized.

We all have north/south corridors – Hartford, Jefferson, Harris, Exposition, Pecos, Balcones, Shoal Creek, Mt. Bonnell and on and on – that are being used as MoPac bypasses by increasing numbers of cars looking for alternative routes. While the Preferred Alternative doesn’t remove those cars from our neighborhood streets, the express lanes may encourage some drivers to remain on MoPac and perhaps give the impression to others that traffic is moving. The MoPac Improvement Project, after all, is about mobility.

Bike/ped enhancements are certainly part of a multimodal transportation solution as is mass transit. It is required that funding be allocated for such projects. To that end, we support a bike/ped shared use path in the MoPac corridor from Parmer to 2222 but not from 2222 south to the Johnson Creek trailhead at Enfield for a host of reasons, not the least of which is the narrow width of that part of the corridor coupled with all of the on and off ramps. We also support east/west bike/ped enhancements at certain MoPac crossings. I have been reminded that many bicycle advocates want to see the MoPac Improvement Project completed with or without this shared use path the length of the corridor. Furthermore, I have been assured by folks involved in the Project that their desire to have this continuous bike/ped route should not interfere with the project going forward.

I think of your friends and neighbors who have worked for years and years with several TxDOT régimes and through a few governmental cultural shifts to fight for these protections for our neighborhoods. MoPac or Loop 1 for those who haven’t been around long enough to remember the blue livery of Missouri Pacific trains running through the corridor has gone from a very pleasant drive to a parking lot in 20 years. When it opened, it carried 39,000 cars a day. Now it carries 180,000 cars a day as Austin has continued to grow and as MoPac has been extended. Were it not for those who fought so hard and worked tirelessly for years on this issue, we might have a far less desirable outcome. MoNAC’s objectives are within sight. Please join us in supporting the Preferred Alternative for the MoPac Improvement Project.

August W. Harris III
President
MoNAC

________________________________________
From: Lynda Rife [mailto:lrife@rifeline.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 9:30 AM
Cc: Mario Espinoza ; ‘Joseph Carrizales’; Jon Geiselbrecht; Cathy Kratz; Steve Pustelnyk
Subject: MoPAC Improvement Project May 23rd

Friends

Thank you for your time, ideas, suggestions and guidance during the last several years as we have gone through the environmental study for the MoPAC Improvement Project.

The final public process will take place May 23rd. From 6:00 pm to 6:30 pm there will be an open house to review the materials. At 6:30, there will be a short presentation regarding the whole study. Then a traditional public hearing will begin where public comment is taken both in written form and at the mike. Anyone can speak for up to 3 minutes. You can begin to sign up at 6:00 pm to speak. Whether you support the project, want to make changes to this project or are worried what others may do to change the project, it is your time to tell the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) what you want.

There has been a little confusion because the public hearing for FHWA is coming between the Capitol Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) financing plans for MoPAC. The plan is that the Mobility Authority will borrow the money from CAMPO to build the improvements and then pay back the region with interest using the toll funding. This will allow the project to begin being built quicker and allow the interest to stay in the region. The funding can then be used to build other regional projects. If you would like to comment on this plan, please see link below.
CAMPO and its regional partners met several times and determined that the MoPAC Improvement Project is the only project that meets the criteria outlined by TxDOT. Therefore, the CAMPO Transportation Policy Board is considering a request to add $130 million to the MoPAC Improvement Project and $6.583 million to develop transportation projects to prepare the region for future funding opportunities. CAMPO is seeking public comment through an online comment form, community meetings, and a public hearing, listed below:
Online comment form
Thank you again and I look forward to seeing you on May 23rd. If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call at 344-9195.

Lynda
On Behalf of the MoPAC Improvement Project

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Addditional information about the MoPac Improvement Project is available at www.mopacexpress.com

With the increased awareness of identity theft, it is more important than ever to carefully dispose of personal records such as credit card statements and checking account records. ARMA, the Financial Fitness of Greater Austin and Austin Resource Recovery Department are sponsoring a free “Shred Day.” Mark you calendar for Saturday, May 19, 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Austin High School parking lot. Households can bring up five boxes of paper records for shredding. Box size should not be larger than 24” X 24”. Mobile shredding trucks will be on site to shred all materials. Please make sure your records are paper only (no hard plastics, no plastic bags, electronic media or three-ring binders) and are not wet or moldy. In lieu of a fee – monetary donations will be accepted for the Capital Area Food Bank.

Last year, the event shredded over 83,500 pounds of material and collected 302 pounds of food and over $7,100 for the Capital Area Food Bank. All of the shredded material and cardboard boxes were recycled.