Monday, June 5, 2006, 7 p.m.
First English Lutheran Church
3001 Whitis (Whitis and 30th Street)
Agenda

• Power Point Presentation by Dick Peterson:
“Rainwater Harvesting for Land Irrigation”
• NUNA Objectives for 2007-2008
Member input
• CANPAC Update
• McMansion Task Force Report
• NPT Update
• Parks Report
• Other Business

Dick Peterson is an Environmental Program Coordinator with the Austin Energy Green Building Program and consults with builders, designers and homeowners on rainwater harvesting, irrigation, and landscaping, as well as general building topics. He is responsible for over 500 single-family residential ratings per year, related to S.M.A.R.T. (Sustainable, Moderate income, Accessible, Reasonably priced, and Transit oriented) Housing. He joined the Green Building Program in 2000, after 5 years as Program Coordinator for rainwater harvesting, irrigation and Xeriscape programs with Austin’s Water Conservation Program. His interest and experience in affordable rainwater harvesting has led to numerous presentations and workshops for national and international audiences.

On April 15, the Saturday before Easter, a handful of NUNA neighbors met at the bench in Hemphill Park for a continuing discussion about Hemphill Park. There was much concern about the maintenance of this park which seems to be nonexistent. The general consensus was to reconvene at a later date when various City staff could also attend to answer questions. The City staff from PARD, Watershed Protection, Street and Bridge would like for the neighborhood to format their questions ahead of time, in case any in-depth research is needed. This later date for the meeting has not yet been determined due to scheduling conflicts.

The North University Neighborhood Association (NUNA) neighborhood newsletter, the NUNA NEWS, is available for downloading and viewing on-line. The June - July 2006 newsletter is in Adobe PDF format.

View it - download it here.

The NUNA NEWS is distributed six times per year (February, April, June, August, October, December) with a circulation of approximately 750 households in the North University area (boundaries at Guadalupe St., 38th St., Duval St., and 27th St.).

Our General Membership Meetings will be held at the First English Lutheran Church, whereas, the Steering Committee meetings will be held at the AGE building on Cedar Street, unless indicated otherwise. The following neighborhood meeting schedule* for the remainder of 2006 was approved
on February 6:

Monday, June 5 - General Membership Meeting
Monday July 3 - Steering Committee Meeting
Monday, August 1 - National Night Out General Membership Meeting in Hemphill Park
Monday, September 11 - Steering Committee Meeting (skips Labor Day)
Monday October 2 - General Membership Meeting
Monday, November 6 - Steering Committee Meeting
Monday, December 4 - General Membership Meeting

* This schedule may be subject to change, with advance notification, in the event of a conflict with neighborhood business.

Recent topics discussed or announced:

• Call for volunteers...
• What happened to the 3600 block?
• Watch for red truck...
• FOUND: Large White Dog with light blue eyes...
• Article in the Statesman Re Parking near UT...
• Can anyone share the name of a business that provides maintenance for...
• lily pools...
• A car stolen and cars broken into...
• A final, final charrette scheduled for Sparky Park...
• FOUND: Older German Shepherd near Restaurant; Look @Photo...
• LOST: Dog - Female Yellow Labrador Retriever - Look at Photo...

The Central Austin Neighborhoods Planning Area Committee (CANPAC) continues to work to improve the new neighborhood plan that was adopted almost two years ago. It is vital that the group continue because, even though there is a new plan in place that covers zoning and land use categories, there is much more to the plan in terms of its overall impact on our neighborhoods. There has been no attention given by the City of Austin to the implications for the general quality of life of the area resulting from the plan to add 5000-7000 more residents to the campus area.

It became very clear shortly after the plan was completed that there needed to be additional work done to provide a more adequate infrastructure for the area than is currently in place. The term “Infrastructure” refers to and includes more police presence in the area, development of some form of education by the University of Texas for their student body about being good neighbors while living in the surrounding neighborhoods, and better understanding in the City of Austin of the requirements for building inspections and code enforcement in the area, since it is being redeveloped at a very rapid pace.

It is necessary at this crucial time to begin development of an active partnership among the neighborhoods, the University of Texas, and the City of Austin. To date, there have been several meetings that have occurred between the CANPAC group and the City Manager’s staff, between the Austin Police Department and a number of CANPAC members, and between the Police Chief of the UT Police and the CANPAC group. It is a beginning for developing the infrastructure that will protect our quality of life as the population in the UT neighborhoods increases dramatically.

NUNA members who are part of CANPAC are: Mary Ingle, Rick Iverson, and Mary Gay Maxwell, the Coordinator of the group. The neighborhoods that are included in CANPAC are: NUNA, Heritage, Shoal Crest, West University, Hancock, Eastwoods, and University Area Partners. The boundaries of the area represented are: MLK on the South, Lamar on the West, 38th St. to Duval, Duval to 45th St. to I 35 on the North, and I 35 to Dean Keeton, Dean Keeton to Guadalupe to MLK on the East. The blocks east of Guadalupe to University Blvd. between 21st St. and MLK are also in the plan area except for the new UT hotel that is under construction at MLK.

The Austin City Council appointed a 26-member task force on February 27, 2006, to begin work on developing building regulations for single-family zoned properties. This action was in response to the increasing concerns of long term residents in established central city neighborhoods over the “McMansion” phenomenon that is occurring in older neighborhoods. “McMansions” are very large homes (3000-5000 square feet) which are currently being built next door to more modestly sized bungalows and traditional homes. The result is an overpowering of existing housing and an encroachment on the privacy of current residents.

The new regulations will apply to SF-3, SF-2, and SF-4A zoned properties. The task force has met at least once a week for 3 hours at a time to work on developing a consensus among the representatives of diverse communities in Austin. There have been many meetings of subcommittees on topics such as :

1) FAR/Setbacks/Heights of buildings on SF lots;
2) Impervious Cover, Drainage and Building Cover; and
3) Interpretation, Enforcement, and Policy.

Occupancy, Use, and Parking was originally designated as a topic for review, but as the task force began to work on the recommendations for regulations of massing and scale of buildings on single-family lots, it became clear that the work associated with that was extensive and required the attention of most of the task force members. Another aspect of the occupancy issue is that it relates directly to the “McDorm” phenomenon that is taking place in our neighborhoods around UT as well as Rosedale, Brykerwoods, North Loop, Chestnut and the Blackland areas in near east Austin, and in Highland Hills in northwest Austin. Because this is such a complicated topic, the recommendation of the task force regarding occupancy and use will be to reconvene a task force to work in depth on occupancy limits in single-family zoned areas.

The FAR/ Setback/ Height recommendations along with relevant Enforcement and Interpretation topics will be submitted to the City Council for review on June 8, 2006. At that time, there will be a number of other recommendations made, such as:

1) The proposal that Occupancy be brought up again in the near future as a task force item; and,
2) Recommendations that there be additional funds in the budget for increasing staff in the permitting, building inspection and code enforcement areas because of the need for more staff to manage and enforce single family building regulations.

The goal is to have permanent regulations adopted by Council prior to the expiration of the Interim Single Family Regulations ordinance that is currently in force.

North University Neighborhood Planning Team Adopts Bylaws
by Scott Morris

The North University Neighborhood Planning Team was formed as the follow-up group to the neighborhood planning process. This committee is in charge of land use matters for NUNA, and it has been meeting for about 14 months. Since a number of processes and procedures have been implemented informally over the last few months, there was a need to formalize the procedures. These procedures were recently documented so that the committee's work could continue to be consistently and fairly applied in future land use cases.

Here are some highlights:

• The purposes outlined in the bylaws are to implement and serve as an educational resource for the NUNA NCCD (Neighborhood Conservation Combining District) and Central Austin Combined Neighborhood Plan (CACNP), and to review and make recommendations concerning land use.

• Any area resident with a paid NUNA membership is eligible and encouraged to become an NPT Member.

• Members of the NPT share a commitment of doing business in the open, and the Bylaws reflect this. Before any land use recommendation is initiated, NUNA members and leadership will receive e-mail announcements of the agenda item, and owners and residents within 300' of a subject property will receive notice.

• A robust conflict of interest section maintains integrity of the process.

• Three officers, the chair, vice char, and secretary, serve one-year terms.

The North University Neighborhood Planning Team meets on the second Wednesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. in the AGE Building located at 3710 Cedar St. Meetings are open and public, and all are welcome to attend. Membership is open to all area residents with a paid NUNA membership and with an interest in the subject of land use. If you would like to join, please contact Scott Morris at smorris@nuna-austin.org or 371-7961.

North University Neighborhood Planning Team Adopts Bylaws

Read the Bylaws. It is in Adobe PDF format and approximately 94 KB in size.

View it - download it here.