Oakmont Heights Neighborhood

OAKMONT HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS

Number 06-02
November 24, 2006

Annual Neighborhood Meeting Set for Thursday, November 30

The annual meeting of the Oakmont Heights Neighborhood Association will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 30, in the Bryker Woods Elementary School auditorium, 3309 Kerbey Lane.

The neighborhood association will review the status of issues affecting our neighborhood, especially the potential impact of new development in our area, and set goals and priorities for 2007. Brett Denton with Ardent Residential, which plans to demolish the Bull Creek and Kingswood apartments on Bull Creek Rd. and build a new, larger complex, will present preliminary design plans for the project. 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 . Please attend if you can.

Association Dues Set at $3.00 for 2007

Annual neighborhood association dues for 2007 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.
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 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.

Potential New Development and Our Neighborhood

Oakmont Heights and other Central Austin neighborhoods increasingly are faced with new development that threatens to alter the single-family residential character of our area. As population growth, urban sprawl, and traffic gridlock make living in the central city more attractive, we can expect to see more residential and commercial projects nearby.
Several significant development changes could occur near our neighborhood in the near or distant future. Ardent Residential plans to demolish the older apartment complexes north of our neighborhood and built a new facility with greater height and density, which will affect traffic on Bull Creek Rd. The state property on the other side of Bull Creek Rd. has increasing value and someday could be sold to private developers (no definite plans yet). If freight traffic is shifted from the Union Pacific line along Loop 1/MoPac Blvd. and a proposed Austin-San Antonio commuter line is developed, a possible new train station located at W. 35th St. could lead to "transit-oriented development" along that traffic corridor and even the possible conversion to private use of the southern portion of TxDOT's Camp Hubbard facility along Jackson Ave.

Bull Creek Apartments.

Ardent Residential has purchased the site of the existing two-story, 140-unit Bull Creek apartments, built in 1968, and plans to demolish the apartments and build a maximum 250-unit complex. In August, the Austin City Council approved a zoning change that will allow three- and four-story buildings at the site. While Ardent Residential has consulted with area residents about their plans, the Oakmont Heights Neighborhood Association sought strict development limits on the property to ensure that any possible future owner could not take advantage of the looser development limitations. The new zoning restrictions will allow access to the property and its parking garage only from Bull Creek Rd., not from W. 44th, which is a residential street. The building height can be no greater than 60 ft. The setback from the city right-of-way must be at least 25 ft. (rather than 15 ft.). No more than 250 units can be built on the site. (For additional background on this project, see the new neighborhood association web site at http://www.main.org/oakmont
Ardent is seeking to purchase the adjacent two-story 32-unit Kingswood Apartments and wants to incorporate that site in its overall project. (Ardent also wants to buy Georgetown Square, the third apartment complex on Bull Creek Rd., but still is in negotiations on that site.) Ardent currently is seeking a zoning change that would allow a four-story structure and as many as 75 units at the Kingswood site.
Brett Denton with Ardent Residential will appear at our annual neighborhood association meeting on Thursday, November 30, to discuss the preliminary site plan for the Bull Creek and Kingswood properties and the re-zoning proposal for Kingswood.

McMansion restrictions.

The Austin city council earlier this year approved new restrictions on construction of huge, out-of-scale residences in Central Austin. As property values have increased, developers and homeowners have sought to tear down and rebuild or drastically remodel existing residences to add significantly more square footage. Many have done this responsibly, taking into consideration their immediate neighbors and the character of the overall area, while others have acted irresponsibly, building massive structures that loom over their neighbors and are disproportionately large.
Earlier this year, the Austin City Council set new restrictions on the size and design of replacement and remodeled homes. Basically, the square footage of a new or substantially revised house cannot exceed 2,500 sq. ft. or 40 percent of the lot size. Various other specifications also apply, such as height limitations and minimum setback distances from adjacent lots. Those seeking to exceed the limits and build a bigger house must seek a specific waiver from the city council, which will allow nearby residents to have a say.
Some obtained building permits before the permanent McMansion ordinance took effect, so a few disproportionately large houses that got in under the wire may still be built in our area. Since it affects land use, the ordinance cannot be applied retroactively.
Our neighborhood association can have an impact by reviewing closely any requests to seek a waiver from the McMansion ordinance. Another option would be to establish a neighborhood monitoring committee to help ensure strict compliance with all city requirements once a building permit is issued.

Vertical Mixed Use (VMU).

Since the city's general policy is to encourage greater population density in the central city, and the McMansion restrictions somewhat contradict that policy, the city council recently approved another ordinance promoting vertical mixed use (VMU) structures along designated high-traffic corridors such as W. 35th St. and Burnet Rd. VMU structures are meant to be pedestrian-friendly, with commercial space on the ground floor and residences on the upper floors. (For example, see the new buildings at the Triangle (W. 45th St./Lamar Blvd./Guadalupe St.)
To encourage development of higher-density VMU structures along the high-traffic corridors, the city is loosening development restrictions for the properties located on the corridors. However, neighborhoods adjacent to the corridors will have the option in the next few weeks of deciding whether to "opt out" of the looser, VMU-promoting standards for all or portions of the properties along the corridors. Since Oakmont Heights includes the portion of W. 35th St. between Jackson Ave. and Jefferson Blvd., our neighborhood association can expect to have a say in whether to opt out of the VMU standards for that segment of the corridor. One major factor will be the potential impact on W. 36th St. and Oakmont Blvd. parking, which already is adversely affected by some of the existing businesses on W. 35th St.

Neighborhood Planning Process.

Oakmont Heights, unlike some other Austin neighborhoods, has not yet gone through the neighborhood planning process. This process involves surveying all of the "stakeholders" in an area - homeowners, landlords, commercial property owners, apartment owners, etc. - to attempt to reach a consensus on future land use. Those seeking land use changes or zoning variances in areas with approved neighborhood plans face higher hurdles in obtaining city council approval. Some neighborhoods have welcomed the opportunity to lock-in future land use restrictions and guide development in their areas, while others have had difficulty reaching consensus and have felt pressure from developers and city staff to expand potential development options in their areas.
Oakmont Heights is located in a planning zone called "Rosedale" bounded by MoPac Blvd., W. 35th/38th St., Lamar Blvd., and Hancock Dr. The city was planning to include this zone and others along MoPac Blvd. in the next round of the neighborhood planning process. However, the largest neighborhoods in our area - Rosedale and Allandale - have decided that they do not want to participate in the process, at least for now. Because these neighborhoods represent a substantial portion of our area's residents, the city is likely to defer the planning process for our area until later. However, our neighborhood association still might want to consider taking some informal steps to prepare for the process by determining how our residents and other property owners feel about the scale and scope of potential future development in our area.

Westminster Manor Expansion.

Earlier this year, Westminster Manor, the retirement community at 4100 Jackson Ave., demolished the Gateway Church, for many years the site of the Agudas Achim synagogue, which it purchased several years ago. They plan to use this land eventually to expand their existing complex by building an underground parking garage, moving the nursing facility, and adding an intermediate assisted living facility. In 1999, our neighborhood association and Westminster Manor reached agreement on a zoning change to restrict use of the church property to residential services for the elderly in line with those already provided.
According to Joe Snyder, executive director of Westminster Manor, the expansion plans now are on a "slow track." Decisions about how to use the property are not likely until next year at the earliest, with any revised plans yet to come.

Other Neighborhood Developments

MoPac Expansion and Noise Walls.

TxDOT and their consultants at DMJM Harris are continuing a planning process that eventually may lead to two additional traffic lanes on Loop 1/MoPac Blvd. built within the existing right-of-way. The most likely option would be to add managed lanes that would be limited to high-occupancy vehicles or possibly require payment of a toll to use the extra lane. Federal funding guidelines limit building noise walls to either new or reconstructed highways, and TxDOT has committed to building noise walls along MoPac if they add new lanes.
In September, TxDOT and DMJM Harris held open houses to review MoPac expansion options. In October, TxDOT conducted noise education forums for local residents. The next phase will be preparing a draft environmental assessment of the project, which will allow another opportunity for public input. Once the draft assessment on the preferred option is completed, possibly next summer, there will be additional hearings. A decision on how to proceed is expected around this time next year. (See the TxDOT web site at http://www.MoPac1.org.) Also, Oakmont Heights is a long-time member of the MoPac Neighborhood Associations Coalition (MoNAC), which closely monitors MoPac developments, especially expansion and noise wall proposals and their potential impact on nearby residents.
After a long delay, TxDOT is expected early next year to construct demonstration noise walls at its Bull Creek Rd. campus. These demonstration walls are intended as examples of the type of height and materials that could be used for the noise walls, not to show how noise would be muted by the walls. The biggest issue for Oakmont Heights, since none of our residences are directly adjacent to MoPac, is whether TxDOT will decide to build noise walls next to its Camp Hubbard campus. In the past, TxDOT has claimed that its office buildings absorb part of the noise from MoPac traffic, which fails to account for the parking lots and other gaps between the buildings that allow the noise to come through.

Parking on W. 42nd St.

The residents of W. 42nd St. have tried to work with the doctors at the Meridian Plastic Surgery Center concerning staff and patient parking that is crowding their street. When the owners of the facility originally sought a "conditional use permit" from the city to convert use of the property at the intersection of Jackson Ave. and Bull Creek Rd. from a Masonic lodge to doctors' offices, they agreed that the existing parking lot would be sufficient for staff and patient parking. Now the city says that condition for the conditional use permit is unenforceable. The residents did persuade the city at least to erect no parking signs on the corners near Bull Creek Rd. to allow easier navigation in getting to and from the street. Another option for W. 42nd St. may be to seek resident-only parking permits, which other neighborhoods have used successfully.

Sidewalks.

Pedestrians in our area now have more options. Earlier this year, the city added long-sought sidewalks on the north side of W. 45th St. More recently, the city has added sidewalks along both sides of Shoal Creek Blvd. With a few small gaps, the sidewalks are completed from W. 38th St. to Allandale Rd. (2222) and eventually will stretch to Foster Ln. At the instigation of the Ridgelea neighborhood, the city also has committed to building a sidewalk along the north side of W. 38th St. between Shoal Creek Blvd. and the 26 Doors shopping center.

New Web Page and Email Alert System.

Thanks to our neighbor Carl Hehmsoth, we now have our own web page: http://www.main.org/Oakmont. We hope to use it as a resource for those wanting to know more about Oakmont Heights.
Also, neighborhood residents with email access should sign up for the neighborhood email alert system. Subscribe by sending an email to Oakmont-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. The email alert system allows the neighborhood association to provide news updates and neighbors to communicate with one another about issues of concern (special events, lost dogs or cats, consumer alerts, and other information).

This page last updated: Fri Mar 5 16:50:54 2010 16:50:41 2010
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