Minutes
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Rosewood Neighborhood Contact Team Monthly Meeting
Thursday, September 20, 2007 6:15 p.m.
Conley Guerrero Senior Activity Center

Present
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Ryah Christensen, Judith Clarkson, Michael Emery, Marie Fischer, Louis
Herrera, Dusty McCormick, Deborah Norris, Langston Pennick, Jane
Rivera, Gilbert Rivera, Lonnie Stern, and Carl Webb (new member!).
Also, representing Mt Zion Church, were Tom Hatch, Willie Leonard,
Dorothy Spearman, and Emory Washington. And representing APD, were
Officers William Beck and Sheldon Salisbury.

Old Business
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Minutes unanimously approved.

Chair's Report
Code Enforcements have succeeded in several areas that residents
brought to the attention of APD, particularly Nile street and Oak
Springs.

Harvey Development
Chairwoman Jane updated the group on the status of the 12th and
Hargrave development. Developer Jason Reese stated he has nearly
completed cleaning and prepping his site, as well as clearing a path
for the city to access and clean up trash in the woods between his
development and Pandora street. He said investment interest in his
project is good and that construction will start soon. (Note: As a
Homewood Heights resident, I, Ryah, must add that the woods do not
appear any cleaner, nor has the city been back there in the past
couple weeks.)

7 properties on Manor Road's north side (just out of RNCT planning
area) are trying to change zoning from MF3-NP to GR-MU-CO-NP. Maybe 
we should look into this?

Mt Zion
Mt. Zion Church needs a variance to build a 78' steeple (including
cross on top) as part of their renovation plans. They reminded us that
this is a design that we have already approved (albeit, the height was
not specifically mentioned in the original drawing). Architect Tom
Hatch gave a brief slide show illustrating that other churches in the
area are of similar height. They feel they need that height to
aesthetically balance the church's horizontal sprawl. Ryah asked for
an update concerning the cleanup/possible purchase of the woods
between the condos and the neighborhood that developer Jason Reese
promised to help facilitate. Homewood Heights residents are interested
in keeping those woods free of future development to protect the
privacy of the neighborhood. Ms. Glascow did not know the status of
that endeavor.

When asked, as an aside, whether their overall development plans
included renovating/using the seemingly vacant houses surrounded by
razor wire on 13th Street, Mr. Washington said there are no current
plans to develop them. However, one of the houses may be moved to a
vacant lot also owned by Mt Zion. Apparently the church actually uses
those houses.

After the presentation, brief discussion ensued on the difference
between Redeemer's height request (which we overwhelmingly opposed)
and Mt Zion's request. One noted difference: Redeemer asked for 80' in
addition to being on top of a hill much higher than the surrounding
neighborhood. Theirs also applied to the whole sanctuary. Mt Zion is
at street level, and the height only applies to a steeple which
includes a 15' cross.

Because this is a project we have already overviewed and approved, we
were able to vote immediately (rather than wait one month). Support
for Mt Zion's variance passed with 8 Yes: 0 No : 3 abstentions (one
non-voting member). Those abstaining noted both the arbitrary nature
of determining the steeple height, and the church's reluctance to make
plans for the 13th street houses as reasons for withholding full
support.

BYOB Ordinance Update
Officer Beck passed out the new BYOB ordinance which effectively holds
BYOB's to the same regulations as any other night club (i.e. they have
to close at 2 a.m. and better regulate their patron's drinking). When
asked, he said that he knew of no other BYOBs besides Chesters that
closed after this ordinance passed. However, he also couldn't name any
other B YOB establishments within Austin's city limits. Could this be
the end of the Juke Joint?

Beck and Salisbury also reminded us to only call 911 in dire
emergencies. For everything else dial 311.

Miscellaneous
It's time for a good old fashion neighborhood Neighbor Round Up.
Jane is looking for volunteers to canvas their streets and get in
touch with old members who have stopped coming, and help invite new
members to come to the meetings. RNCT has over 70 members, over 2/3 of
which do not regularly attend meetings.

Discussion on how to increase membership brought up several ideas:
phone trees (for those not on e mail), pamphlets outlining RNCT
agendas that could go out with smaller neighborhood meeting fliers, or
simply knocking on people's doors. Agreement was made that each
current attendee is to attempt to bring another next month.

*Meeting adjourned*