Request for Neighborhood Input Regarding Negotiations for Parkland/Trails

The president of the Crestview Neighborhood Association, Jonathan Locklin, is requesting input on the items listed below. The intention is for those residents who want to reply to e-mail him at jslpublic@gmail.com or send a letter to our post office box (CNA, P.O. Box 9595, Austin, TX 78766). The response format would be open text/paragraph. We would review the opinions in the executive committee meetings as they come in.

1) Would you consider increased density in the Crestview Station development area* in exchange for parkland and/or other neighborhood amenities? Currently the Crestview Station area is approved to have 1,400 residential Units.

2) Would you consider multifamily development on 6909 Ryan Drive in exchange for parkland and/or other neighborhood amenities? Currently the 6909 Ryan Drive property is owned by Austin Energy. The city is very adamant about developing this property, because it is adjacent to CAPMETRO's rail station platform.

3) Whether or not item 2 is supported, would you consider supporting a pedestrian and bicycle trail from Ryan Drive through the 6909 property to CAPMETRO's rail platform on the East side of the rail track and/or to a rail platform on the west side of the rail track. Currently CAPMETRO is not planning a platform on the west side of the rail track.

4) Would you consider supporting a pedestrian and bicycle trail on the Crestview Station development area* that would be adjacent to CAPMETRO's rail track on the eastern side (Crestview Station property) from Lamar Blvd to Morrow St.?

5) Would you consider new parkland for Crestview to be placed along Morrow St. between Lamar Blvd and the North Area Optimist Club. If you do not support this, where and how would you place parkland for Crestview.?

* The boundaries for the Crestview Station development area are Lamar Blvd. on the East, CAPMETRO's rail track on the West, and Morrow St. on the North.

Note that all negotiations will be made with the Crestview Executive Committee and Crestview Residents. This is just a call for opinion.

Executive Committee Meeting 7-July-2008

The meeting will be called to order between 7:15 to 7:30 depending upon if we have any public input. The meeting will be held at St Louis Church at 7601 Burnet Rd, Austin, 78757 in the Library. Please see map at bottom of the agenda for a map and red circle around where the Executive Committee will meet.

Preliminary Agenda:

1) Heidi Goebel (Land Use Committee) will present information about a variance request from a resident on Justin Lane. We will vote on the action taken. [15 minutes]

2) Who will attend the following meetings. [5 minutes]
a) VMU meetings with Brewster McCracken at the One Texas Center building on Barton Springs
b) Wednesday, July 9th at 6:30 p.m. at the Palmer Events Center, Meeting Rooms 1, 2 and 3
c) Others?
3) Eddie will present information from a affordable housing meeting he went to on Tuesday (last week). We need volunteers to follow up on this. [10 to 15 minutes]

4) Allan McMurtry, Paulette Kern, Anne Young, and Steven Zettner will discuss their experiences with Allandale's VMU application as it went through Planning Commission and City Council. [1 hour]
a) Lessons learned at the Planning Commission where the Allandale VMU application was reviewed [30 minutes].
b) What has been happening at the weekly VMU meetings hosted by Brewster McCracken [30 minutes]?
-- What is ICR? How is VMU going to be handled as is backs up to residential? What are developers saying about Austin's VMU process?
--- Time permitting ---

5) Jonathan will present information about how the meeting of all six neighborhood officers went. [10 minutes]

6) Hang Town Grill wants to give the neighborhood free food to come by their establishment that they are opening soon. What do you think about this? More information to come. [10 minutes]

Bios for Those Seeking Officer Positions in the Crestview Neighborhood Association

The Bios for those seeking officer positions in the Crestview Neighborhood Association are now available with the following link

Bios for those seeking officer positions in the Crestview Neighborhood Association

If you intend to run for one of the 9 officer positions, please get your Bio into me no later than Sunday 11-May-2008 at my email address jslpublic@gmail.com.

Elections for the Crestview Neighborhood Association

Crestview Neighborhood Association meeting will be on 12-May-2008 at 7:00 pm in Wozniak Hall (The Parish Activity Center) at the St. Louis Catholic Church on Burnet Road and St. Joseph (Morrow).

Elections for 9 Executive Officer Positions are held every year at the May meeting. The 9 positions are as follows:

1) President
2) Vice President
3) Treasurer
4) Secretary
5) Editor
6) Place 1
7) Place 2
8) Place 3
9) Place 4

Please see the Crestview Neighborhood Association ByLaws ( look to your left or click here ) for more information about the responsibilities of these positions. So far 11 residents, 7 existing officers and 4 existing members of Crestview NA, will be running for the 9 officer positions. I will be posting their bios by next week.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Membership in the Crestview Neighborhood Association will be required to vote for officers. You must be a member of the Association 1 week prior to the election meeting. This means you must be a member on or before 4-May-2008. This is 13 days from the day this article was posted. Elections and voting will be run as detailed in the ByLaws.

If you are interested in running for an officer position in the Crestview Neighborhood Association and would like to post your Bio on the website, please email me, Jonathan Locklin, at jslpublic@gmail.com.

If you need a Crestview Neighborhood Association membership form, please email me, Jonathan Locklin, at jslpublic@gmail.com.

ACTION REQUEST

---

Submitted by Steve Kuehner

Background…

At the Planning Commission Meeting held this past Tuesday, 4/8, city staff presented the draft plan for the Crestview Station TOD. During the public comment portion of the meeting CNA concerns (opposition to the proposed street connection of the Crestview Station development to Justin Lane and lack of pedestrian/bicycle connectivity) were presented to the commission. Thanks go to the neighbors that attended and spoke.

At the meeting two alarming requests were made by Highland Neighborhood leadership.

1. They stated their support of connecting the Crestview Station development with Justin Lane via a new street that appears in the recommendations as East Wind Drive. East Wind would connect with Justin and Justin would be connected to Canion Street east of Lamar.
   
   
2. They requested the re-opening of westbound access at the Morrow/Lamar Blvd. intersection. The Planning Commission seemed unaware of the reasoning for this limitation of access to Morrow St. not to mention the years of effort by Crestview residents resulting in the no left turn onto Morrow from north bound Lamar and the no west bound access crossing from east of Lamar.

Some of you are new to Crestview and may not appreciate the added safety and quality of life provided by this attempt to deal with cut through traffic. Traffic counts for westbound cut through traffic were reduced significantly.

As a result of this recent request, the Planning Commission has asked city staff to review the possibilities of re-opening this intersection in the context of reviewing the affect of east/west traffic flow brought on by the Crestview Station TOD. Re-opening this intersection flies in the face of the effort by Crestview neighbors to address cut through traffic, in this case, the traffic on Morrow St. If this change comes to fruition it would swamp any traffic calming efforts currently in the development stage.

At the April 24th City Council Meeting city staff will present the TOD plan including recommendations to re-open the Morrow/Lamar intersection.

ACTION REQUESTED

Let the City Council hear your concerns.

Contact council members prior to April 24th Council Meeting.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/groupemail.htm

City of Austin
Name of Council Member
P.O. Box 1088
Austin, Texas 78767-8865

• Mayor Will Wynn
  Phone: (512) 974-2250
  
  
• Council Member Lee Leffingwell
  Phone: (512) 974-2260
  
  
• Council Member Mike Martinez
  Phone: (512) 974-2264
  
  
• Council Member Jennifer Kim
  Phone: (512) 974-2255
  
  
• Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley
  Phone: (512) 974-2258
  
  
• Council Member Brewster McCracken
  Phone: (512) 974-2256
  
  
• Council Member Sheryl Cole
  Phone: (512) 974-2266

Attend the City Council meeting on April 24th and sign up in opposition to demonstrate your support of CNA’s position.

Consider speaking at the City Council mtg. on April 24th. During the time set aside for public comment.

Points to consider when contacting council:

• The Crestview/Wooten Neighborhood plan addresses the desire to limit cut through traffic on Morrow St. and maintain the current intersection design.
  
  
• Traffic counts for westbound traffic on Morrow were considerably higher prior to the limitation of westbound traffic at Lamar Blvd.
  
  
• The money spent by the city to create a diverter at that intersection and add no left turn signage was money well spent.
  
  
• The city and state should work together to make access to Anderson Lane westbound at Lamar safer. This would result in the desired effect of traffic using Anderson Lane to head west, not neighborhood streets like Justin or Morrow.
  

Questions or concerns, contact:
Steve Kuehner, Vice President Crestview NA
459-9601