SRCC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
TUESDAY, August 1, 2023 @ 7:00 PM
Zoom Meeting
SRCC: See the future. Shape the future.
MINUTES
Only members may vote. As an officer, you should be a member. Please confirm by emailing membership@srccatx.org. And please register 24 hours in advance.
The meeting began at 7:01
1. 7:00 SRCC Welcomes Members and Guests
Verification of quorum. Reminder: please state your name when presenting or seconding a motion.
Presenter throughout unless otherwise noted: Noah Balch, SRCC President (5 min)
Quorum Present – 5 EC members present
2. 7:05 Membership report & voting
Members must pay dues to participate in SRCC business and actions, such as voting and making motions. Try the subscription option for automatic annual renewals. (5 min)
Mary Friedman expressed her gratitude for all the folks who have worked to get ready for the Hybrid Meetings.
3. 7:10 Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Approve minutes. (5 min)
EC Meeting Minutes of June 6th, 2023 were posted and approved unanimously
Upcoming meeting dates:
GENERAL MEETINGS: August 15, September 19, October 17, November 21
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS: September 5, October 3, December 5
4. 7:15 Treasurer’s Report
All reports available upon request: treasurer@srccatx.org
Presenter: Will Andrews, Treasurer (5 min)
Sam Martin checked in for Will – no updates or changes. Will will be back for the next meeting
5. 7:20 Standing Committee updates re: events/goals/issues
Presented by Committee Chairs: (10 min)
1) Planning & Zoning; later
2) Historic Preservation; none
3) Finance; later
4) Mobility; later
5) Public Safety;
Tom was unable to attend so Noah gave an update on Tom’s work… Crime statistics are not too bad, but many of the smaller offenses are on the rise. Street racing has become an issue. Criminal Trespass and Assault numbers are somewhat concerning. If you want more detail please reach out to Tom Groce as he has really done a great job looking into the specifics
6) Parks & Environment (Zilker Vision Plan Update); later
7) Schools- none
8) Communications – if you plan to submit an article, please let Ruth Caserez know by the end of August
6. 7:30 Additional Updates from Representatives and Coordinators
(10 min)
9) GSRC NPCT; none
10) EROC; none
11) NPCT; none
12) ANC; none
13) SCC; none
14) South Central Waterfront – still looking for a Representative since this is something that’s eminent for us. It’s very important as it offers us a direct contact to these projects, and we can provide training. Betty suggests that Anita might do a brief synopsis so that she can send some messaging out through our lists.
15) St. Ed’s; none
16) S. Central Affordable CDC; none
BUSINESS AGENDA ITEMS
7. 7:40 Mobility
Discuss Parking and Transportation Management District; Project Connect; and I-35.
Presenter: Mark Thompson, SRCC Mobility Chair (10 min)
Mark Thompson updated on the last PTMD meeting that finalized the guidelines and it looks good, pending review from some Legal eyes. Oversight will have 2 community members per neighborhood; we will need one more to attend meetings, more frequently initially but quarterly afterwards.
We will get money back from the paid parking, after expenses; revenue is divided into 51% to the Neighborhood and Business Associations and 49% goes to COA. The 51% will be distributed proportionally to spaces per neighborhood.
Carol Martin asks about the process for deciding on what the projects will be and wants to clarify whether that’s the COAs portion or our portions. Mark says that we will do our own proposals and submit them to the City’s Traffic Engineers. Exhibit C covers this and makes it clear. Each District has an Traffic Engineer assigned to them – ours is Lee Austin.
There will be a minimum 2-week Grace Period to ensure that local workers can get used to the system. The City doesn’t want to do the hang-tag as they are abused by AirBnB guests, so they will be phasing those out.
Russell Fraser asked if we have any projections on what amount of revenue of what we might receive from this… it could be multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars within the first years, ours will be more profitable than others due to our time sections and the fact that we won’t need the Solar Meter infrastructure.
Sam Martin asked if the implementation of South Congress with fees would temporarily push more parking into the neighborhood – the timing of the signage should be very short-term. There may be some issues with zoning and mapping, but that will be easily changed, so shouldn’t be a problem. Betty Weed asked about how hang-ties being phased out will affect residents. There will be a digital system in place where residents (and visitors) can utilize those.
Dan Fredine clarified that the revenue generated from this program is held in a kitty by the City and we give input, versus us controlling the funds.
8. 7:50 Planning & Zoning
Presenter: Anita Tschurr, SRCC Planning & Zoning Chair (15 min)
Updates regarding:
- Neighborhood Assistance Center
Anita has met the new Director and she has been very helpful. The Director can assist anyone who wants to access Zoning Requests and she is happy to help create more access.
There’s been a precedent set by the Statesman project where Firestone is now asking for higher development. Anita argues that it doesn’t make sense to continue to develop larger projects since we have such a high vacancy rate downtown currently.
- 2105 S. Congress preview proposal for GM meeting
Noah suggests we should put out an informative message so that the community can see the input and changes that we’ve participated in. Next meeting we will vote on approving the presentation that was provided for us. There haven’t been any updates from the Developers.
- Meeting with City Council Staff
It’s important to continue to engage even if we are not sure it’s making a difference at this point. Anita feels like it’s really worthwhile to work with the Staff and that they are receptive. Our neighborhood has the most and the highest requests for development – that’s why we are here.
9. 8:05 Parks & Environment
In May, Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department approved the Zilker Park Vision Plan. What is next? Austin City Council scheduled a final vote for the plan on August 31 at City Hall.
Presenters: Betty Weed, SRCC Communications Chair, David Todd, SRCC Parks and Environment (10 min)
Betty Weed reported that on May 22nd, the Park Board sent the Vision Plan to Council – August 31st is the first of 3 meetings to approve the Plan. Betty gave a recap of the current Plan. Apparently the narrowing of Barton Springs Road is NOT tied to this project and this will happen irrespective of the outcome of the Vision Plan. All control would be given to a private group of non and for-profit groups who each have a stake in the Plan. This seems to be a clear conflict of interest to the Park overall. For instance, the Miniature Train has no group backing it, so it’s been left off the plan completely. While this group will have oversight from the City, after 7 years they will have a lot of autonomy, and latitude to raise funds as they see fit.
Anita Tschurr clarified that the Train is a micro-example of what this plan does. It takes something that was struggling and so it was removed from P&R and given to a private entity who then bailed on it.
Betty Weed has asked Barbara McCarthur from ANC about item 126 which essentially reduces lot sizes and increases units. She will be speaking at the next meeting.
David Todd Suggested folks watch a documentary aired on August 2nd – can be found here:
Zilker, Inc: The Plan to Monetize a Natural Treasure
Ruth Casarez read a good article in last week’s Chronicle that did a good job outlining the upcoming Land Use changes. She suggests that we should all read it.
10. 8:15 GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
The meeting adjourned at 7:57
SRCC’s NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH program is always looking for more participants. Anyone interested should contact Tom Groce, SRCC Public Safety Chair at tgroce71@gmail.com.
This link will take you to information about subscribing, unsubscribing, and posting a message to the neighborhood ListServe: https://groups.io/g/SouthRiverAustin
The next General Membership meeting is August 15, 2023.
The next Executive Committee meeting is September 5, 2023.
Frequently used acronyms:
ACF: Austin Community Fund
ANC: Austin Neighborhood Council (https://www.atxanc.org/)
BoA: Board of Adjustment
CDC: Community Development Corporation
EROC: East Riverside/Oltorf Combined Contact Team
FLUM: Future Land Use Map
GSRC NPCT: Greater South River City Neighborhood Planning Contact Team
NCCD: Neighborhood Conservation Combining District
NHPA: National Historic Preservation Act
NPCT: Neighborhood Planning Contact Team
PC: Planning Commission
PUD: Planned Unit Development
SCC: South Central Coalition of neighborhood associations
SF: Single Family zoning category
ZAP: Zoning and Platting
Agenda Prepared by Noah Balch, vicepresident@srccatx.org Agenda subject to change. Please check www.srccatx.org for the most updated version.
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