Neighbors,

Just wanted to share with you the latest information regarding the proposed Austin Oaks PUD development.  

After the community meeting back in August the four neighborhoods who will be most affected by this development banded together after taking surveys from their perspective membership and formed the NW Austin Neighborhood Alliance.  This consists of the Balcones Civic Association (BCA), Northwest Austin Civic Association (NWACA), Allandale Neighborhood Association (ANA) and North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Association (NSCNA).  Our neighborhoods are the four corners of the intersection at Mopac and Spicewood Springs / Anderson.  Each neighborhood surveyed their membership and responses were overwhelmingly 'NO' on the proposed Austin Oaks PUD development.  Our newly formed alliance set a letter stating our position to the Zoning Committee, Environmental Board, Mayor and City Council. (see attached).  You spoke out and said you did not want a zoning change that would bring thousands of more vehicle trips, more kids to already overcrowded schools and you did not want towering 17 story buildings and you desired to keep the current zoning.

The BCA as well as our partners in the NW Austin Neighborhood Alliance were approached again by the developer to inform us of a new plan for the development.  We met last week anxious to hear what the new proposal would be hoping to hear about development under current zoning.  The new Austin Oaks PUD development proposal was mostly the same with minimal changes to the three big problems of traffic, schools and height.  What changed is they have reduced the number of apartments from roughly 600 to 300 and in its place leave that as green space with a park type area similar to what is at the Triangle Development at 45th / Lamar / Guadalupe. They also want to set up a 'trust' where .02% of the property taxes go to a fund if you will for improvements in our area. This trust is a slippery slope with all kinds of questions.  And they did reduce the height of the towering buildings by one floor.  Also of note, the COA mandates certain requirements with these type of developments.  For example they have to spend $1 million dollars for traffic abatement.  Problem with that is $1 million dollars doesn't build a new bridge over Mopac there at that intersection nor widen roads and add lanes.  They also have to set aside money for parkland space, they identify Doss school playground as the location where they would spend this money.  Not sure why that is, again there are slippery slopes here and a lot of questions.  None more important however than why can't they develop that property under current zoning.

This 'new proposal' still asks for zoning change to PUD which still allows the towering buildings although they reduced the tallest by one floor.  The 'new proposal' still sends kids to the already overcrowded schools in our area.  The 'new proposal' only reduces vehicle trips by a couple thousand, still hovering around 18 thousand trips daily.

I do not see this as seriously addressing our neighborhood concerns but need YOUR input and opinions.  If your position has changed let me know so I can fully represent our neighborhood. There is a possibility of another community meeting at some point and I have attached all the documentation we received at the meeting last week for your review.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. 

Join BCA today!

I received notice this morning that the Austin Oaks PUD will be on ZAP's agenda for 12/16. At that time the case will receive an indefinite postponement vote. This only means the case is delayed not withdrawn.

Dear Neighbors,

NWACA wishes to assure you that we continue to proceed exactly as communicated to our community regarding this matter:

To date, we have:

1.  Conducted a Community Forum on the Austin Oaks (AO) PUD.

2.  Conducted a survey to get the community's input on the AO PUD application.

3.  Passed a NWACA resolution in opposition to the AO PUD, consistent with the survey results.

4.  Communicated our resolution in opposition to the city staff and discussed our concerns with City staff.

5.  Communicated NWACA's opposition to the AO PUD to the AO owner and the Drenner Group.

The Drenner Group asked for a meeting on November 17th with the leaders of the four neighborhood associations that border the Austin Oaks property to provide an initial response to the concerns raised by NWACA.  In that meeting, the Drenner Group outlined various concepts and provided various documents, some related to the existing application and some relating to their possible subsequent proposal.  NWACA heard the comments and:

1.  Made clear that any proposal would have to be in writing, and preferably provide a consolidated comparison with the original application.

2.  Made clear that NWACA was only listening to their comments and that any proposal would have to be taken back to the NWACA board and distributed to the community for community deliberation and input.

3.  Any proposal would have to again be discussed in an open Community Forum.

Today we received a one page consolidated comparison of the original application and the proposed revisions.  We are posting it here (Austin Oaks PUD Evolution.doc). We have asked if there are additional documents that would further detail or outline their proposal, and are awaiting a response.  We will also provide to you any additional documents they send us.  In the meantime, we are also posting copies of all of the documents that were provided by the Drenner Group at that meeting, some of which were explained to relate only to the original PUD application.

At this time, the NWACA Board:

1.  Requests your feedback to this revised proposal concept.

2.  Requests that all conversation remain respectful.

3.  Will coordinate another Community Forum on the new proposal.

4.  Will receive your feedback and develop a follow on survey to create a data supported response.

5.  Will discuss all of the foregoing as a Board and develop the appropriate response. 

Despite misinformation to the contrary, there is no negotiation process taking place.  As representatives of NWACA, we are gathering and disseminating the information provided to us by the Drenner Group about changes they are proposing to make to their PUD Application.  We will then gather the membership's feedback to this proposal and provide that to the Drenner Group in response.

As a reminder, back in September the neighborhood expressed the following preferences IF Austin Oaks is indeed redeveloped, under current zoning restrictions or as a PUD. These results were based on 683 total responses to the survey (also attached, in case your email program can’t display the chart below.

Please send any comments to us at [email protected]

As we work on this, we appreciate the ongoing support of our NWACA members.  If you haven’t yet joined, or you haven’t renewed yet in 2014, please do so. You can either complete and send the attached membership form, or go to this link on our web site  Join NWACA!!!!

Thank you very much for your support.

NWACA Board

[Note: in case your email program does not supply the file attachments, this message and the attachments are also posted on our web site: www.nwaca.org ]

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Posted by: "nwacaweb" <[email protected]