Official Meeting Minutes - 6/4/2007

 

 

 

1.  whip in -

 

the whip in is looking to expand their offerings to include: casual lowkey neighborhood dining, athuntic vegetarian indian meals & daily specials with fresh-baked breads, beer and wine by the glass, live jass and indian classical non-amplified music.  38 person capacity, open 4pm to midnight, 7 days a week, music ending by 10. ample parking. no big screen tv sports bar atmosphere.  TABC requires them to get neighborhood approval before issuing the onsite alcohol permit versus the offsite one they have now.  they already have the zoning and other things required to do this project.  planning to be open around early september.  MOTION: to not oppose their plans so long as they abide by the details listed above. - PASSED

 

 

 

2.  SKIP - south kongress improvement project -

 

this project seems to be somewhat in a state of confusion but basically there were 4 million dollars of bond money approved to do it, 500k spent on the undulating deaf school wall and 2million on studies and fees - so the rest is looking to be spent before it's wasted on more studies.  they provided a matrix of possible improvements but little detail so we all agreed to have our rep (jean mather) show support primarily for all improvements related to safety and if there is money left over then for things like beautification.

 

 

 

3.  Jeff Kessel - report on payload pass and st eds drainage -

 

the development near payload pass is needing to retrofit the initial retention pond so the process is getting delayed but failure to do it would violate the agreement we have with them so hopefully that will pick up soon.  this property is kind of between walmart and ruta maya.

 

 

 

as for st eds... they haven't given a clearly stated position on their development that is causing frequent flooding of homes in sherwood oaks. their recent silence and past actions would indicate that they aren't planning on doing what is necessary to fix the issue in which case the city will have to spend tax dollars to retrofit the drainage system that runs through the neighborhood to allow for more runoff capacity.  while this does potentially solve the flooding it will create more problems downstream in stacey park as flashflood waters will increase erosion and cost the city/taxpayers even more money trying to deal with it at that point.  the solution seems to be for SRCC members and interested parties to email and call st eds faculty, students and board members so they know where we stand.  i called the main number 512-449-8400 to get to the school paper but they're out till september so i found another person listed as a public relations associate and asked her to email me any contact info she thought would be important.  she has only emailed me the following information:

 

"Here's an update to the conversation we had yesterday.

 

I met with the Facilities people including the Vice President this morning. We discussed:

 

Every construction site has been examined

 

Talked to contractor about areas that need improvement

 

Will inspect areas on a weekly basis

 

Will add item – storm water management – to agenda for their regular construction meetings

 

Thanks again for the call.

 

-Marcie

 

Marcie Lasseigne

Public Relations Associate

St. Edward's University

3001 S. Congress Ave.

Austin, TX 78704-6489

512-428-1225"

 

if anyone else would like to dig up some numbers/emails then share them, that would be great.  also, maybe a call to a local paper to see if they think the story is newsworthy.

 

 

 

4.  222/300 riverside -

 

richard suttle has failed to get back to us with any of the requested information about this development on the shores of town lake so without additional data we took a vote, MOTION: to oppose any variances to city waterfront overlay and compatability standards -

PASSED

 

 

 

5.  july 4th -

 

the parade is scheduled for 10:30am starting at st eds/eastside on to the pavilion at stacey park, wrapping up around 3pm. attending are, local politicians, travis high marching band, singers and more.  there will be soco merchant food nibbles but this is a BYOEverything event to keep costs low.  a silent auction will take place and we'll be honoring our public servants.  the parade permit is approved.  volunteers are needed.

 

 

 

6.  EROC -

 

the 1406-1506 parker land zoning case - has been postponed to june 21st and the developer is to present a new proposal by June 11 for neighborhood consideration.  please email the city to show support for maintaining the existing SF-3 zoning.  the issue at hand deals with 4 adjacent tracts of land that the developer wants to tear down and construct 20+ apartments on instead of going with the existing duplex limitation.

 

 

 

Acton trail - Since it was clear that the Pard staff was unwilling to insist that Star/Riverside connect to the Acton lakeside trail, the neighbors agreed to put it in the 35' Riverside buffer next to the sidewalk to allow Acton to fulfil the terms of the restrictive covenant.  Acton will also dedicate to the City a recreational easement within the 100' setback from Town Lake and we asked Pard to insist that Star/Riverside connect to either option.

 

 

 

time insurance at riverside/i-35, SE corner of I-35 & Riverside: 

Neighborhood requests emails to Mayor & City Council opposing these rezonings.  Although the hearing was held in January, 2nd & 3rd readings have not been held and the I-35 tracts are under a contract of sale.

 

 

 

VMU-- The EROC NP Contact Team (includes the eastern part of SRCC) voted June 2 to opt out of the VMU overlay district

 

 

 

7.  other business -

 

some neighbors are moving ahead with a plan to require parking permits on academy/congress to ravine in hopes of reducing parking overflow issues caused by doc's.  Neighbors would purchase residential parking permits and all other vehicles would be ticketed.  MOTION:  to support residential parking permits at this

location - APPROVED

 

 

garret

SRCC co-secretary