Google Fiber: Councilwoman Laura Morrison and Google Fiber rep Gerardo Interiano made brief remarks about the planned entry of Google Fiber to Austin offering 1gb speeds up and back. Morrison advised that a network agreement with Google had been effected. It offers free access for 10 years to city hall and for up to 100 non-profits and public agencies which can apply on-line through September at https://fiber.google.com/cities/austin. A Council subcommittee will accept nominations and make recommendations to the full council for the free access. Google does not yet have an entry date or price point for neighborhoods, nor has it yet devised a reliable method/maps to poll neighborhoods for hook-up interest, altho you can go to their website (above) and leave comments. There will be a threshold number of users that must be reached before Google commits to any area. I assume a more formal process will eventually be announced.
Austin Affordability advocate, Bill Oakey, made a presentation on why our elected leaders are pricing most of us out of a livable city. Details can be found at: AustinAffordability.com and on Facebook at Facebook.com/austinaffordability. There are a lot of interesting statistics there, and over 40 reference citations.
Land Development Code/Neighborhood Plan rewrite/amendments are available for review on the ANC website.
Impact Fee Resolution (draft) is available for review at http://www.ancweb.org/docs/resolutions/Rollout_ImpactFeesResolution. Bill Nuckols, from ANC Sector 7 (ours), gave a good overview of the issue and advised that developers attempt to get the city (i.e. taxpayers) to partially subsidize the cost of infrastructure build-out (e.g. roads, sewers, etc.) to their projects, when the city should be holding them fully liable for such costs. The ANC resolution seeks that effect.
Aerial ads: A resolution was adopted by ANC asking the city to “regulate as strictly as possible” aerial ad fly-overs. The resolution is on the ANC website. The desire of a majority of ANC members is to prohibit aerial ads in the Austin air space. IÂ assume the billboard and print ad peddlers are behind this effort.
ANC 10-One subcommittee (Robert Thomas) discussed the ongoing effort to draw the 10 new district rep maps from which we will elect a new city council. The maps are due in December. Theoretically, gerrymandering for current council members is prohibited, and the ANC is asking to preserve neighborhood integrity to the maximum extent possible. Once preliminary maps are done there will be a 14 day review/comment period, followed by a 5 day second review. A super majority (9 of 14) commission reps is necessary to approve. ANC has designated a GIS intern, Jessica Weitzel, to assist in coordinating the development of new and accurate ANC sector and neighborhood maps. See more at www.austintexas.gov/department/10-One.
Westlake Neighborhood alliance rep, David Burch, made a presentation seeking ANC support to block the development of a mega-sports complex on River Hills Road, between Bee Cave Rd and Loop 360 over-looking and draining into Lake Austin. It is Eanes School District vacant property that is being leased to a developer for $50G/yr. See more at http://nottherightsite.com.
ANC is accepting nominations for new executive committee officers.
Austin Affordability Summit – Saturday, Sept. 7, 1-4 PM sponsored by www.liveablecity.org
