Dear Neighbors,

Please join us for our next general membership meeting on July 28th, 2008 at our new location, San Jose Church at 6:45 pm. We will get updates on traffic calming and parks projects as well as more information on a neighborhood plan amendment request for 706 W. Oltorf from high density single family to mixed used office. While this property is in the Bouldin Creek Neighborhood, any decision will have a huge precedent setting impact on our section of Oltorf.

As many of you may know, Trammell Crow Residential has decided not to pursue a 180 unit apartment complex on the Mercury Hall site.  Brent Stewart of Trammell Crow had this to say: “We explored various site plan options trying to solve density and traffic problems while also trying to save protected trees on the site. At the end of the day, we ended up with so few units that it made the deal infeasible from a cost standpoint - not to mention a financing standpoint given the small size of the deal and the current financial market turmoil.”  Thank you to the GENA executive committee and to Nick Mollberg for all their hard work and PR efforts on behalf of the neighborhood association and the 30+ protected trees on the Mercury Hall site!

On the neighborhood planning front, the city has decided to postpone the neighborhood planning process for the Combined South Lamar Neighborhood Planning area due to an impasse on the definition of consensus and who may bring a plan to city council at the end of the planning process. Many of the neighborhoods plan team participants are hopeful the process will be reinvigorated after the May City Council elections. At our last general membership meeting the neighborhood association voted unanimously to approve this motion: We, the Galindo Elementary Neighborhood Association General Membership, on this day, March 24, 2008, resolve to urge the City of Austin to work with the neighborhoods of the South Lamar Combined Neighborhood Plan in order to settle the questions of consensus, contact team and stakeholder disclosure, among other issues, so that the Neighborhood Planning process can be restarted as soon as possible.

The Salvation Army/Momark Restrictive Covenant and Zoning Ordinance may be found on the GENA website in the Archive section and also in the files section of the Galindo Neighborhood Yahoo group.

Hope to see you all at our next meeting on July 28th, 2008 at the San Jose Church Parish Hall.

Patty Sprinkle

GENA President, 326-2868
patty@arcaneworld.com