OAKMONT HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS
Number 04-01
November 8, 2004
Annual Neighborhood Meeting Set for Tuesday, November 16
The annual meeting of the Oakmont Heights Neighborhood Association will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 16, in Harris Bell Hall on the third floor of Westminster Manor, 4100 Jackson Ave. (Access the elevator through the nursing section at the rear of the north side of the building or take the main lobby elevator to the third floor and follow the signs.)
At the annual meeting, the neighborhood association will set goals and priorities for 2005. We also will elect officers and fill at-large positions on the Executive Committee, the association's governing board, for next year. If you have the time and interest to serve, please contact association president Tom Whatley at 323-5051 or at tom.whatley@earthlink.net . The meeting should be relatively brief, so please attend if you can.
Association Dues Set at $3.00 for 2005
Annual neighborhood association dues for 2005 are $3.00 per household. Dues payments cover association expenses such as publishing this newsletter, plus a small reserve for emergencies. Payment of dues allows you to participate and vote at neighborhood association meetings, although everyone is welcome to attend.
Your neighborhood association needs your support to keep our neighborhood informed about issues of concern, such as ensuring that local property development and zoning proposals are compatible with a single-family residential neighborhood. Regardless of whether you are able to attend meetings or help with association activities, your dues payment will allow your neighborhood association to remain active and to maintain and improve the quality of life we enjoy here in Oakmont Heights. Please take a moment to complete the attached form and return your dues payment today.
Sound Barrier Plans for MoPac
Mayor Will Wynn has announced that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will begin the process of building sound walls along MoPac Blvd. (Loop 1) between Town Lake and Hwy. 183. Speaking at the October 19 meeting of the MoPac Neighborhood Associations Coalition (MoNAC), of which the Oakmont Heights Neighborhood Association is an active member, Mayor Wynn stated that getting the noise wall project underway will rectify a "25-year broken promise" to deal with MoPac noise and how it affects Central Austin neighborhoods. In the first phase, TxDOT will take acoustical readings to determine the best location for the barriers, their height, possible noise absorption materials, and other factors. TxDOT may erect test panels for the barriers as early as next spring.
MoPac noise, both from vehicle traffic and the Union Pacific railroad freight line, has been an issue for adjacent neighborhoods ever since MoPac was first built in the 1970s. The city of Austin made an agreement with TxDOT that it would be responsible for building any noise barriers in the MoPac right-of-way and erected wooden fences that have proven ineffective in blocking noise. (Our neighborhood does not even have wooden fences along the section of MoPac adjacent to TxDOT's Camp Hubbard campus. Previous commitments by TxDOT to create noise barriers in this section have never been kept.) Another impediment to building sound walls has been federal law, which prevents spending federal highway money on noise barriers except as part of an extensive renovation project.
Earlier this year, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), which decides how most local highway dollars are to be allocated, approved a controversial new spending plan for area highway construction that relies heavily on toll roads. To help ease local opposition to the plan, Mayor Wynn, County Commissioner Karen Sontleitner, and others convinced CAMPO to approve an amendment to the plan requiring that all toll revenues collected in the MoPac (Loop 1) corridor be used solely within the corridor. It specified that construction of sound walls to benefit the residences adjacent to MoPac be eligible for funding from the toll revenue and directed TxDOT to begin analyzing existing noise levels and test alternative noise wall designs to determine their impact on the neighborhoods.
Mayor Wynn asked MoNAC to coordinate input from local residents who would be affected by the noise walls. Ensuring that the barriers will not be safety hazards and that noise will not simply bounce off the walls and project further into the neighborhoods will be among the considerations in deciding how to erect the barriers.
Commissioner Sontleitner stressed that the sound walls also will define the right-of-way for any future MoPac expansion, making it even less likely that previous plans, thwarted by neighborhood opposition, to remove existing homes for lane expansion ever would be revived. However, the same group of officials that offered the noise barrier amendment to the CAMPO plan now wants to eliminate its most contentious feature - tolling the MoPac overpass at William Cannon Dr. - and eventually add a new toll lane on MoPac north of Town Lake, possibly by narrowing and reconfiguring the existing three lanes to add a fourth. This has led some skeptics to call the noise barrier plan a "Trojan Horse" intended to soften opposition by Central Austin neighborhoods to further expansion of MoPac. A high priority for our neighborhood will be to oppose strongly any revival of earlier plans by TxDOT to build elevated ramps for access to and from any new MoPac lanes.
CAMPO's long-term plans have long called for eventually adding new toll and/or high occupancy vehicles lanes to MoPac, including by expansion into the Union Pacific railroad right-of-way. Negotiations continue with U.P. to shift its freight line elsewhere, which would cost an estimated $500 million, and eventually convert the track along MoPac to a commuter rail line between Georgetown and San Antonio. This line could include a possible spur to the former Seaholm power-plant site as a station in downtown Austin, possibly connecting to the new Capital Metro commuter line from downtown to Leander approved by voters on November 2.
W. 45th St. Reconstruction Project to Begin
The city plans to begin its long-postponed reconstruction project on W. 45th St. starting early next year. This project will involve a total reconstruction from Airport Blvd. to just west of MoPac Blvd. where the street terminates at Camp Mabry. Of particular interest to our neighborhood will be the addition of a new sideway on the north side of the street from Highland Terrace to Burnet Rd., which should greatly improve safety for pedestrians walking along this busy thoroughfare. The project also will involve replacing water and sewer lines, reworking storm drains, and constructing new curbs and a new, smoother pavement.
The city postponed earlier plans for W. 45th St. until similar reconstruction projects on Enfield Rd. and Lamar Blvd. were complete. As with those projects, the street will not be entirely closed, but will be reduced to one lane both ways as the reconstruction work is completed in segments. The entire project will take an estimated 15 months, but the city plans to use the same incentives that allowed the Lamar Blvd. project to be greatly accelerated and completed well ahead of schedule.
Area Neighborhoods Continue to Battle High Density Housing
Central Austin continues to be plagued by developers seeking to undermine the single-family residential character of our neighborhoods. The latest variation, called a "super two," includes a main residence with a kitchen, living area, and four or more bedrooms and bathrooms, plus a garage apartment with an extra two bedrooms and bathrooms, all on the same lot. These structures are not technically duplexes because each of the two unconnected structures has a single entrance. Designed primarily as student housing, these structures add six or more residents per lot, along with their vehicles, adding to on-street parking and traffic problems. Nevertheless, neighborhood options to oppose their construction of these dual structures are very limited because they meet, although often just barely, the restrictions of SF-3 zoning, which covers most of the residential lots in our area.
Recent examples of these "super two" structures in our neighborhood are the those built on three adjacent lots on the north side of W. 42nd St. Westminster Manor previously had owned the three lots. When the neighborhood opposed the Manor's plans to change the zoning for the lots and expand its multi-person housing complex for the elderly into the neighborhood, it sold the lots to a developer, Lee Properties, known for building this type of multi-person structure. The new owner de-molished the single-family rental houses on the lots and quickly erected new dormitory-type housing. Unfortunately, these lots were unique in that they were not covered by deed restrictions that may inhibit construction of additional "super two" structures elsewhere in this section of our neighborhood, and the developer took full advantage of this loophole.
As these dual structures proliferated in single-family neighborhoods, the city council belatedly imposed a moratorium on additional construction until it could devise new regulations. The proposed new regulations restrict to four the total number of unrelated adult persons who can live in the larger structure and to two the unrelated adult occupancy of the garage apartment. It would set other restrictions such as height, size, street setbacks, and driveway requirements. However, the new rules do not apply to structures already built.
Sometimes developers go too far and create an opening for neighborhoods to fight back to preserve their single-family character. A recent example occurred in the Ridgelea neighborhood when the developers of new duplexes at 3818 and 3820 Ridgelea Dr., which back onto Bull Creek Rd., exceeded the city's impervious cover restrictions and requested an after-the-fact variance to correct their "mistake." The Ridgelea Neighborhood Association opposed the change and currently is in negotiations with the owner that may involve replatting the lots to alter their size and thereby lower the percentage of impervious cover involved.
Water Pressure Project Finally Completed
The Oakmont Heights Neighborhood Association finally saw the completion of one of its longstanding goals when the city completed its project to boost water pressure in the area from W. 39th St. south. Some have seen a significant improvement in their water pressure, while others have not noticed much change. In some cases, older pipes within houses or connections to the main line may affect pressure. Those who still suffer from low pressure should contact the city project manager, Patricia Wadsack, at 974-7199 or patricia.wadsack@ci.austin.tx.us. (Please send a copy of your email to neighborhood association president Tom Whatley at tom.whatley@earthlink.net )
Sign Up for Neighborhood Email Alert System
The Oakmont Heights neighborhood email alert system allows the
neighborhood association to provide news updates and neighbors to
communicate with one another on issues of concern. Neighborhood
residents with email access should sign up at
oakmont-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
This page last updated: Fri Mar 5 16:50:54 2010
16:50:41 2010
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