South River City Citizens (SRCC): minutes for meeting of general membership, June 3, 2013 return to SRCC home page



MEETING OF THE GENERAL MEMBERSHIP OF SRCC
MONDAY, JUNE 3, 2013
7:15 PM
GRACE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
205 East Monroe; Austin, Texas


MINUTES


CALL TO ORDER/APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. 7:15 Meeting procedures, etiquette, welcome newcomers. When making a motion or seconding a motion, please state your full name to be included in the minutes.
Presenter throughout: Marc Davis, President, unless otherwise noted.
Please be sure to say your full name when presenting or seconding a motion.
2. 7:20 Membership & voting announcements. New membership fee structure effective immediately. If you pay multiple years in advance, you will get a discount.

Single membership: 1-yr $20; 2-yr $35; 3-yr $50
Family membership: 1-yr $35; 2-yr $65; 3-yr $95

3. 7:25 Approve minutes from May 6, 2013, last regular monthly meeting
MOTION: Michael Mayo / Wolf Silter--to approve the minutes = PASSED
4. 7:28 Treasurer's Report, May 2013 Account reconciliation, Profit & Loss, and Balance
reports available upon request from treasurer
Presenter: Nancy Byrd, Treasurer
5. 7:35 Committee Chairs' reports--
1) Parks, Schools, Environment: School lets out in a couple days so be aware of the influx of underaged activity.
2) Planning & Zoning: no update
3) Transportation & Public Safety: Raymond provided an update about the Neighborhood Watch effort. Logged patrols are up to 33 from 24 last month. These numbers are the same as where we were a year ago so we are looking to increase participation as it is the #1 way we know reduces crime.
4) Norwood: The Norwood House is at the corner of Riverside and I-35 and teetering on completing an agreement with the city that would kick-start the renovations. You can follow this effort at Norwood Park Foundation
5) Historic District: no update
8) Financial: no update
9) Reps to ANC Austin Neighborhoods Council: Chief Acevedo was on hand at the ANC meeting to make a plea for support for the new budget request to the city which will allow them to increase the number of officers in the APD. There was a discussion about Form Based Codes – a draft code has been completed and is undergoing an internal staff review. We are unsure how they would be applied but the next step will be community roundtables which should help . There is a growing i ssue of “stealth dorms” in the Northfield Neighborhood and there is a draft resolution on this from ANC. The 10-1 city council plan is moving forward – the first 8 designees have been randomly drawn. 5 more plus 2 students remain to be drawn.
10) Communication: no update
11) Quality of Life: This committee is new to the SRCC and created to keep tabs on issues affecting us. The current issues at the top of the list are trash and noise. A successful effort was made to have the trash left behind by the food trailer park picked up by the owner of the property. A meeting has been scheduled with Rob Lippincott to discuss noise issues.

NEW BUSINESS
6. 7:45 ANC's proposed changes to Sector 9 & 10 and its effect on SRCC
Presenters: Toni House and Gayle Goff members
The ANC has large sectors dividing up the city with representatives and are looking to make changes to relieve the pressure placed on some reps with very large areas. The new sectors break SRCC at I-35 and we are currently talking with them to keep the eastern portion of SRCC included in sector 7 with the rest of the SRCC.
7. 7:50 Presentation from APD on Crime Prevention in the Neighborhood
Presenters: Commander Gage, Assistant Chief Robinson, Ofc. Barboza Austin Police Department
Officer Robinson introduced herself, Officer Gage and Officer Barboza before starting a short recording of Chief Acavedo explaining his rationale for adding more officers to the force.A handout was also provided. 257 additional officers have been requested.Over 700 officers would be needed if we were to expand to meet the national average of 2 officers per 1,000 citizens. Our officers have only 15% downtime with the national average being 20-50%.The effect is that officers on duty have less time to spend responding to emergencies and patrolling neighborhoods. With 150 people a day moving to Austin, the APD is hoping to expand to meet the needs of all citizens. City Council is voting on this issue soon and the APD would like for us to email or call the city with your opinions. Neighbors voiced concerns over city waivers being given to events that take up police resources.
MOTION: Kent Anschutz / Jean Mather--for SRCC to write a letter to the city asking them to assess fees from special events and corporate expansion and allocate them to APD rather than giving them waivers = PASSED
8. 8:10 Reagan Signs Request for Up-zoning the property at Woodland and I-35
Presenters: Nikelle Meade, Representing Reagan Signs, Paul Linehan, Land Strategies
Reagan is asking for support to build a four story commercial storage business. The newest site plan preserves many of the trees on the property and has access from I-35 south and Woodland. The developer provided architectural renderings of the site plan. Efforts were made to lessen the impact on the neighboring residential properties – lighting would be shielded and timed, dumpster access would be kept close to I-35, and a plan to plant understory trees along the back of the property would help create more of a buffer between the building and the neighborhood. Service would be limited from 6am-10pm and estimated traffic is 300 trips per day which is much less than an office or retail. Woodland access would be prohibited during non-business hours and exit onto Woodland allowed only towards I-35 to keep traffic from heading into the neighborhood.
They are looking to change from GR (general retail) zoning to CS (commercial services) with Conditional Overlay that limits all other CS uses so that only the convenient storage facility would be allowed. Attorney, Nikelle Meade, answered questions about the zoning restrictions and the enforceability of them. She offered that, in addition to the conditional overlay, a restrictive covenant would also be written between the property and the neighborhood that would further ensure that future owners would have to abide by the restrictions. They also agreed to cover the legal costs of putting this agreement together.
Our neighborhood contact, Pat Roeder, updated us on the history of the lot and Reagan’s prior attempts to re-zone and develop the lot. SRCC and the direct neighbors have never opposed any uses legally allowed under the current GR zoning and would welcome any proposed development that adhered to the GR zoning restrictions. Pat feels the CS zoning, even when limited to commercial storage, is not appropriate and it opens the door for other uses to be expanded over time (despite the CO and restrictive covenant) and that the proposed building might never be constructed before they ask for more. Many members who were familiar with zoning and development issues agreed with this concern and expressed that this “zoning creep” is a legitimate phenomenon. There was discussion about the fact that CS zoning is the second most aggressive zoning behind industrial and allows for all sorts of uses that the City Code already describes as “incompatible with residentially zoned property."
MOTION: Pat Roeder / Robert Reeves--for the SRCC to oppose the change from GR to CS
Friendly Amendment: Theresa Griffin--for the following reasons, to preserve the quality of the life for single family properties adjacent to the proposed development and in accordance with the city of Austin Neighborhood Planning principles = PASSED
9. 8:30 Congress Avenue Baptist Church Request for Up-zoning the back half of its property facing Nickerson
Presenters: Ron Thrower, Representing CABC, Terry Franz, GSRCC NPCT
A handout was provided showing the portions of the CABC property that the up-zoning would apply to – the back half of the property that faces Nickerson. CABC has “civic use” of the property which allows them any use of the property as long as it is in support of church activity. But, once they start using the property for non-church activities, like renting parking spaces to nearby restaurants, they must adhere to the underlying zoning for the property which, for this back portion of the lot, is still SF-3. The request was for GR zoning to allow for the current commercial off-street parking and off-site accessory parking taking place there now. They would also agree to a Conditional Overlay that would restrict the GR uses of this portion of the lot to only these two parking-related uses as well as school usage since they had also also been approached by an elementary educational facility who would like to operate out of the building that currently exists on this portion of the property.
CABC is also considering the option of amending the NCCD (neighborhood combining conservation district – established in 1986) to allow for this use, Neighbors questioned the timing and true necessity of the change and asked about limiting the parking to surface-only versus possibly building a parking garage. The only “deadline” the church is currently concerned with is to have this resolved in time for the potential school to move in before school starts in September. With the new questions, Ron will come back at the August meeting to make their final proposal once they know more about their options. No action was requested or taken.
10. 8:50 SRCC Yard Signs - recommendation for improvement
Presenter: Elloa Matthews, Area Coordinator for Area 5
Elloa was not present.
11: 9:00 SRCC Sponsorship of the Travis Heights Art Trail
Presenter: Sarah Campbell, member
Sponsorship levels are $125 to be mentioned in the documentation and we have done this in the past. $250 gives us a business card sized mention.
MOTION: Brian Talenti / Russell Frazier--to support the Travis Heights Art Trail at the $250 level = PASSED

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
No announcements were made.







Agenda Prepared by Marc Davis
656-2841 - cell



 

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