Family Fun Night
March 27, 2013
5:30pm-7:00pm in the Cafeteria

 Presented by:
Lanier High School
Boys & Girls Club

 Join us for an evening of family competition!

• Family Dance Contest
• Lots of other games
• Food and
lots of fun!!!

Neighborhoods go through natural population cycles, as kids grow up, parents retire and downsize, and new families move in. But SN suggests that new development that skews away from the needs of families can artificially speed up those cycles and destroy the balance. In the immediate future, they'd like to see better sidewalks, bike lanes, and park space along busy streets like Burnet. Longer term, they'd like to see the city encourage a mix of development they call "sustainable" and "family-friendly."

"We're not opposing density, we're just trying to shape it in a different way," says Steven Zettner, the group's co-founder and president. "We need to implement density in such a way that it will work for different kinds of people, and we will still have a strong sense of community."

Read more:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2013-03-22/neighborhood-watch/

Dear members:

This email pertains to a section of city code that may sound arcane. But after reading this, you'll see why "Project Duration" matters.
 
Right now, if you want to build something, you have to get it done in 3 years if you are in the Barton Springs Aquifer zone and in 5 years elsewhere in the city.
This time limit to build is called Project Duration. If nothing is being built
and no effort is being made to develop a project, your permits expire.This
provision forces developers to comply with the latest building codes and
ordinances, which naturally improve over time. Exceptions to these time limits
are made when project delays cannot be avoided. The current process
works.

The League of Women Voters of the Austin Area has long supported a
standardized, streamlined, and understandable development process. Removing the Project Duration provision in city code would create a wide variation in how projects are developed (since they would be complying with the code from the year they were proposed), and would permit projects to proceed that are wildly out of compliance with current city code that was developed with public input.

How might this matter? Since the wildfires of two years ago, new
fire safety provisions have been implemented to minimize the chance of another wildfire taking out a neighborhood. Code revisions protect the environment and offer other protections to residents. Removing the Project Duration provision is simply a ploy to avoid compliance with city code that was created by panels of citizens, developers, city staffers and council members.

Why the sudden impetus to make such a drastic change? Three months ago, the Texas Attorney General issued a hasty, non-binding opinion that questions this particular provision. This opinion has no legal standing -- there have been no court challenges to Austin's Project Duration provision -- but it incited a state
representative to threaten to file a bill to override our city's code. It
appears our City Council sees a threat from the State Legislature as an
"emergency" that must be acted upon now.

But there is no emergency. If existing code needs to be changed, there is already a plan for an advisory task force to modernize Austin's Land Development Code. A change of this magnitude should come from a group of Austinites working within city structures, not from some outsider with no loyalty to Austin.

If this provision is repealed in haste, old development projects that are out of compliance with existing code could be built as they were proposed decades ago. No one knows how many of these old, dead projects are lying around, but it could be hundreds.

What to do? Call City Council members and urge a "NO" vote on Item 22 for the March 21 agenda. And while you're at it, please call your state representative and tell them you oppose the State Legislature meddling in city politics.

Our concern about this matter is shared by neighborhood and environmental groups throughout Austin.

One other issue of importance: when you're speaking to City Council members, please also ask to pass Item 41, which directs "the City
Manager to prepare a comparative report evaluating the performance of both Texas and national public utilities that are governed in whole or in part by an
independent board, both individually and with respect to Austin Energy's
performance and policy goals." In case you weren't aware, Council is seriously
considering turning over AE's governance to an independent, unelected board.
They should at least look at other utilities before making such a sweeping
change to the utility that WE own.

Thank you.

Stewart
Snider,
Copresident

Improving Austin Streams: Walnut Creek, Waller Creek, Taylor Slough South and Spicewood Tributary of Shoal Creek

The Coordination Committee has launched workgroups to
start developing detailed proposals to incorporate into an implementation plan
for meeting water quality standards for bacteria in these four Austin streams. 
 
The four work groups are listed below with the dates of their
initial meetings, all of which are open to the public.  If you are
interested in becoming more involved in any of these workgroup efforts, please
let me know through an email note.
 
Confirmed Work Group meeting
location information and future Work Group and Coordination Committee meeting
dates will be posted on the Improving Austin Streams web site at: http://www.utexas.edu/law/centers/cppdr/services/tmdl.ph

Monday, Mar. 25, 11 am -1 pm
Stormwater Treatment
12th floor, One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Rd.
 
Tuesday, Mar. 26
3 pm -5 pm, Public Land Management
PARD Annex, Shoal Creek Conference Room, 919 W. 28 1/2th Stree
 
Wednesday, Mar 27, 1pm -3 pm
 Wastewater Infrastructure, Location to be confirmed

Wednesday, Mar. 28
3 pm-5pm, Resident Activities
Location to be confirmed

 http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/cppdr/
 

NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS, ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERS, CITY ADVOCATES, GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS AND LOCAL
LEADERS TO HOLD A PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY TO OPPOSE THE REPEAL OF PROJECT DURATION ORDINANCES

Diverse group to call  upon all citizens to unite in support of project duration ordinances. Repealing such ordinances could bring hundreds of dead projects back to life under less restrictive ordinances and threaten Austin’s environmental protections.

 AUSTIN, Texas — Mar. 20, 2013 — 

A joint press  conference will be held today at 12 PM at Austin City Hall to oppose pending action by city council to repeal  the “Project Duration” provisions of Austin’s Land Development Code. 

In
Austin, if you want
to build something, you have to get it done in 3 years if you are in the
Drinking Water
Protection Zone or
within 5 years for a
project in the Desired Development Zone.
This time limit to build is called the “Project Duration.”

The City Council is scheduling a hasty repeal the Project Duration provisions of our Land Development Code this Thursday, March 21, 2013, to address a supposed “public emergency.” 

The “Project Duration” provisions of Austin’s Land Development Code
have been in effect without any legal challenge since 1999.

The groups convening the press conference are urging the public to understand the potential devastating impacts on Austin’s future if  “Project
Duration” is repealed. 

A complete repeal of the Project Duration provisions could result in development that will not have to comply with improved parkland dedication requirements, the Heritage Tree Ordinance, the McMansion Ordinance, the Waterfront Overlay, and the Great Streets program, and many others. 

Such a repeal could affect the city’s ability to: control land uses next to schools;
protect the environment and the Edwards Aquifer; to preserve our views of the
lake, to provide for safe neighborhoods with compatible land uses; to control
density and traffic volumes; to plan affordable housing, and
more.
 
Repeal of the Project Duration provisions could also delay realization of the recently passed Imagine Austin Comprehensive plan for decades.

FROM
SOS ACTIVIST NEWS
 
TAKE ACTION NOW TO PRESERVE AUSTIN'S ABILITY TO
MANAGE GROWTH AND PROTECT NEIGHBORHOODS AND THE ENVIRONMENT 

It looks like Austin is poised to remove

yet another control on rampant development in our neighborhoods by removing

expiration dates from permits. The Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA), has

been pushing this ordinance very hard--to completely eliminate Austin's project
duration ordinances.

OVERVIEW:

When you file for
a
project permit with the city there is an expiration date. Say you want to
build
a retirement home in East Austin, you have to file a permit. This has
an
expiration date. If you don’t get the project off the ground by the
expiration
date, you have to refile the project. Let’s say you had a permit
in 1995 to
build a behemoth house, if the permit never expired, you could
build a house
that was exempt from the McMansion ordinance.


Potentially hundreds
of development projects are now expired due to the
operation of the project
duration ordinance. If the ordinance is abolished,
these projects will be
revived and will not have to be built in compliance
with existing law. That
means they will now be immune from current City
regulations. 
 
Item
22 on this Thursday, March 21st, Austin City Council agenda calls for a measure
pushed hard by the Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA), to completely eliminate
Austin's project duration ordinances. The elimination of project termination
measures will have a major impact on land use within Austin, an impact whose
entire scope and breadth is not even known at this moment.
 
We need
your help starting now through Thursday to avert this major attack on Austin's
ability to manage growth and protect neighborhoods and the environment. Please
plan to attend Thursday's council meeting, if at all possible. Arrive before
10:00 a.m. and plan to stay for as long as you are able.
 
Before
then call or email City Council and respectfully urge them to oppose the rush to
throw out City ordinances that expire development permits and projects after a
reasonable period of time
 
Urge them to refrain from any vote on
staff's request to repeal our project expiration ordinances without a full
accounting of exactly where, how many, and what kind of "zombie projects "would
be revived from being expired under current procedures.
 
Mayor Lee
Leffingwell 512-974-2250 lee.leffingwell@austintexas.gov
 
Member
Sheryl Cole 512-974-2266 sheryl.cole@austintexas.gov
 
Member
Mike Martinez 512-974-2264 mike.martinez@austintexas.gov
 
Member
Chris Riley 512-974-2260 chris.riley@austintexas.gov
 
Member
Bill Spelman 512-974-2256 bill.spelman@austintexas.gov
 
Member
Kathie Tovo 512-974-2255 kathie.tovo@austintexas.gov
 
Member
Laura Morrison 512-974-2258 laura.morrison@austintexas.gov"
 
We
will be posting more information on this very soon, so please stay tuned. This
is an extremely important issue for protecting what we love most about Austin,
including Barton Springs.
 
The "project duration ordinance" is one
of only two methods the City has to limit the scope of Chapter 245, the state
statute that grandfathers development projects to the ordinances and law that
was in place at the time an original application for the project was filed.

 
Unknown hundreds of development projects that had been immune from
current City regulations are now expired due to the operation of the project
duration ordinance. If the ordinance is abolished, these projects will be
revived like zombies and will not have to be built out in compliance with
existing law.
 
What this means is that many if not all of these
hundreds of projects will never have to comply with the Heritage Tree Ordinance,
the McMansion ordinance, any new zoning classification, great streets
requirements, the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan, the latest water quality
protection measures, or any zoning measures including historic preservation
measures or Town Lake Corridor protections that affect lot coverage, building
sizes, and lot sizes, open space regulations, park dedication requirements, etc.

 
City staff is complaining that a legal opinion by Texas Attorney
General Greg Abbott requires the City to abandon its project duration ordinance.
This is not true on any level. Such opinions are only advisory. They are not
binding on anyone including the courts. Moreover, the city has already taken
steps to comply with state law where there is any conflict with the state
grandfathering statute (known as Chapter 245).
 
Wholesale
abandoning of our expiration ordinances is a drastic action that will cripple
our ability to manage growth and protect what is special about Austin. Doing so
without a full inventory of the number, location, and type of projects that
would be grandfathered back to old standards would be irresponsible. The City
has a "project-by-project" review process that has been successfully used to
consider grandfather claims under state law and adjust expiration dates where
there is hardship or other circumstances. This careful, case-by-case review
should continue. 
 

The city is looking for input both on special events and the permitting
process to put on these types of events. The Austin City Council passed a
resolution to investigate a new way of permitting special events. Make your
voice heard to shape special events and their permitting in Austin. SPEAK UP
AUSTIN!
 
Take the survey at
https://austintexas.granicusideas.com/surveys/special-events-in-austin

Sunday, March 17, 3 - 5:00 pm
St. David's South Medical Center
901
West Ben White Blvd.
Community Room, Free parking.
Take elevator to 5th floor.
Follow League signs.

Get answers to questions such as these:
1.How do Texas taxpayers
rank for the local and state tax burden compared to taxpayers in other
states?
2.What is the average increase in number of students in Texas public
schools from 2008- 2012? How has state funding kept pace with the increase in
number of students?
3.How does Texas compare with regard to the number of
residents 25 years and older with high school diplomas?
4.What is the
approximate operating expenditure per hour for Texas public school
students?
5.How does the ratio of teachers to non-teachers now compare with
the ratio of teachers to non-teachers in past decades?
6.How much would
school districts save by privatizing operational activities such as maintenance
and food service?
 LWVAA's own Gwen Santiago draws from her deep and
rich experience with public school funding to provide us with a sobering yet
entertaining and interactive approach to explain the whys and hows of the
current system of funding public education in Texas

Come with your questions. Get answers. Free and open to the
public.
 
For more information, Nancy Oelklaus, VP Program, nancyoelklaus@gmail.com

The third annual Sustainable Neighborhoods Spring tree-planting on Burnet Rd will take place on Saturday,  March 9, from 9 AM to noon. Please come
help out! 

They will organize in the parking lot at 6547 Burnet (just south of the
old Elsi’s location), form teams, and then fan out to several sites.
 
They are planting 27 trees from 1-gallon  containers. The work is pretty light, but pick-axes are  always in short supply if you can bring one.They are ideal for
clearing grass, after which hand-trowels are well suited to plant the
trees.

Once the tree is planted, they install a device  called a waterboxx to help irrigate the tree during its first  year.