South River City Citizens (SRCC): minutes for meeting of general membership, October 7, 2013

South River City Citizens (SRCC): minutes for meeting of general membership, October 7, 2013 return to SRCC home page

MEETING OF THE GENERAL MEMBERSHIP OF SRCC
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 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. Reminder to state full name when presenting or seconding a motion.
Presenter throughout: Marc Davis, President, unless otherwise noted.
2. 7:20 Membership & voting announcements. New membership fee structure effective immediately. Pay multiple years in advance, 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 August 5, 2013, last regular monthly meeting
MOTION: Jean Mather / Marty Peck - to approve the minutes = PASSED
4. 7:28 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: Kim McPherson provided an update at TH elementary on its first year as an in-district charter. THE will be on the Travis Heights Art Walk and showcased at a home on Travis Heights. The in-district charter allows for more freedom with teaching and the faculty has used this freedom to include more physical movement in the curriculum and is always looking for volunteers and tutors. The school will be hosting a haunted house again this year. Check www.TravisHeightsElementary.com for more information.
4) Norwood: Last month an updated survey was acquired. Donated funds have allowed the effort to move forward on more fundraising and inspections.
8) Financial: The window for submitting proposals for spending down the Austin Community Fund balance has closed and the process for evaluating and preparing them to be presented to the general membership will begin. REMINDER: Finance committee presents capital project proposals to EC 10/21/2013; general membership to vote / approve proposals at November meeting 11/4/2013.
11) Quality of Life: A meeting with Home Slice took place to address some noise and trash issues that were identified by neighbors and patrons. The meeting resulted in an increase in trash collection frequency but the city is also planning to add more trash cans in the near future. Noise from the ACL festival was reported and affected neighbors are encouraged to call 311 and also the ACL hotline, both calls are needed in order to be the most effective. ACL hotline - (646) 432-0753

OLD BUSINESS
6. 7:45 Congress Avenue Baptist Church's request (C14-2013-0022) to up-zone to GR (with conditional overlay) to allow for commercial parking and the eventual construction of a parking garage on the back half of its lot
Presenters: Marc Davis, President, and Greg Jacobsen, member
This hearing, scheduled for 10/8, has now been postponed for two months because the South Congress Merchants Association has asked to be included in the discussion given its interest in increased parking. Since the last SRCC meeting, members of the Zoning committee and the neighboring residents have met with the applicant to discuss any possible way to allow for the church to be able to charge for parking on their current lot but not open the door to the possibility of a commercial parking garage. The proposals on the table were evaluated but deemed to be to risky to consider and they did not address the fundamental problem of commercial zoning creep and compatibility. After extensive discussion, the committee recommends that SRCC oppose the up-zoning for the following reasons:
--we supported upzoning on the western part of the lot--it is currently CS and and the neighborhood would love to see it there
--not appropriate on SF-3 property or bordering on SF-3
--Nickerson is SF-3 residential from one end to another
--this violates the neighborhood plan by allowing commercial creep and maintaining the residential nature of entire street
MOTION: Ken Anshutz / Marty Peck--to oppose the upzoning = PASSED
7. 8:00 517 E. Oltorf--Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus, Inc., request (C14-2013-0081) to upzone to GR (with conditional overlay) to increase its impervious cover limit and allow for additional construction
Presenters: Elloa Mathews and Marty Christman, members and Jim Bennett, Owner representative
The church is asking for a variance on impervious cover and an upzoning. Elloa, Marty, and David met with the church to discuss the issue. Current SF-2 zoning allows for 45% impervious cover but it has 83% and looks to increase to 85%. There is a retaining wall between this property and the District at SoCo where leakage has been observed. This property drains into sherwood lane and down to Blunn Creek without restriction, detention, or water quality. GR zoning on this property would allow for Bail Bonds, Exterminator, Pawn Shop, Hotel, Service Station, and others in the future if the church were to move. Current church zoning exempts it from paying property taxes on a property valued at a million dollars and also owns three of the duplexes across the street. To bring Sherwood Lane into compliance to allow for GR upzoning would require the street to be widened by six feet and estimates a traffic increase of 107%. The recommendation by the committee is to support the variance in exchange for water quality controls that do not currently exist versus changing the zoning or creating any restrictive covenants or otherwise.
MOTION: Marty Christman / Mary Lovell--to oppose an upzoning but to support the impervious cover variance in exchange for water quality and runoff controls = PASSED

NEW BUSINESS
8. 8:20 600 E. Riverside--Joe's Crabshack request for a Change of Use from Restaurant to Professional Office
Presenters: Jean Mather, Chair of Zoning Committee, and Michael Whalen, Owner representative
The buyer of the property is looking for a change of use permit from Restaurant to Office use. Current zoning is L (lake) and requires a conditional use in order to make the change. The Lake zoning and the fact that almost all of the property is in the floodplain means that the property is under a lot of restrictions. The applicant has plans to redevelop the property but knows there will be significant challenges--it is asking for the change of use as the first step before it spends too much money on designing the property. It is likely that it will need future variances due to all the restrictions so SRCC is focused primarily on height and general neighbor-impact issues with the change of use. A redeveloped property under the current restaurant use could go as high as 45’ but the applicant is proposing limiting the height of its office project to 37’.
MOTION: Eric Rengel / Cynthia Milne--to meet again with interested parties and the applicant to agree on a set of restrictions that would be acceptable enough to support the change of use to office. These recommendations would be then brought to the Executive Committee for a final vote = PASSED
9. 8:40 ICRC's Preliminary 10-One District Map splits up SRCC and divides 78704 neighborhood
Presenter: Marc Davis, President
The preliminary recommendation by the ICRC divides up the 78704 zip code and the SRCC. The executive committee has voted to oppose this map for several reasons. The EROC contact team does not believe the SRCC will retain areas 6 and 7 in any future maps based on current voting precincts.
MOTION: Carol Martin / Jean Mather--to oppose the current map as well as retain the entire SRCC neighborhood association along with the rest of 78704 = PASSED
10. 8:50 C20-2013-017--Amendments to the Land Development Code with respect to Drainage and Water Quality
Presenter: Jean Mather, Chair of Zoning Committee
This has already been voted on by City Council - no longer an issue that needs our input.
11. 9:00 Coyote Coexistence--a proposal to include a flyer in our next newsletter to educate our residents about coexisting with the coyotes in our neighborhood
Presenter: Francine Pilkington, member
Recently there was a coyote trapping effort by the city in the Blunn Creek Preserve and Stacey Park that resulted in coyotes being euthanized. Some neighbors have organized and worked to educate park and preserve users as well as to change the City’s policy.
MOTION: Jean Mather / Cynthia Milne--to include the coyote flyer in the next SRCC newsletter = PASSED

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Grace United Methodist Church will be having its annual pumpkin patch and is looking for volunteers to help unload the truck. Please show up at 4pm on Friday, refreshments will be provided.

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