W.A.N.G. NEWSLETTER APRIL 2023 !
PO Box 5722, Austin, TX 78763-5722
MONTHLY NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING
Monday, Apr 17, 2023, 06:00 PM
Howson Branch, Austin Public Library, Exposition Boulevard, Austin, TX, USA
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president's message
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by Holly Reed
President
Dear Neighbors,
PLEASE SUPPORT HB 2867 TO EXTEND THE SAVE HISTORIC MUNY DISTRICT!
The Save Historic Muny District was created by the 86th Texas Legislature as a mechanism for neighborhood participation in the long-term solution for Lions Municipal Golf Course (“Muny”). The primary charge of the District is to preserve 141-acres of green space in Central Austin that includes Muny, widely recognized as the first public golf course in the South to become voluntarily integrated and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
House Bill 2867 (HB 2867) by Representative Howard will be heard in committee this week. Please register and comment online IN SUPPORT of HB 2867 before Wednesday April 19th 2023.
https://comments.house.texas.gov/home?c=c210
Thank you!
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State Bills in Legislature Could Greatly Impact Neighborhoods
The Texas Legislature has bills in this session that can greatly impact life in neighborhood communities. These include:
S.B. 1787 Bettencourt Companion H.B. 3921 Goldman
- - Applies to counties with over 300,000 see map
- - Municipality cannot require
- § Lot to be over 1,400 square feet, wider than 20 feet or deeper than 60 feet
- § Density of dwelling cannot be less than 31.1 unit
- § Front setback of greater than 10 feet
- § More than 30% permeable cover
- § Fewer than 3 full stories
S.B. 491 Hughes Hefner Companion HB 2198 Hefner,
- For cities with a population of more than 725,000(this includes Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston)
- Municipality cannot limit building height on property more than 50 feet from triggering lot (home) (compatibility)
H.B. 2665 Gates
- - A municipality or county may not adopt or enforce a local law that
- § the use of a property as a short term rental
- § or regulates the duration or frequency
- § or number of occupants
H.B. 2367 Lozano
- - A political subdivision may not adopt or enforce an ordinance cannot
- § Prohibit or limit the use of a property as a residential amenity rental
S.B. 1412 Hughes Companion HB 2789 by Holland
- Accessory Dwelling Unit Bill
- - Municipality cannot Prevent the building of an accessory dwelling unit
- § Which can only be limited in size by being smaller than the main unit and can never be required to be smaller than 1,000 square feet.
- § If lot is over 10,000 square feet 2 accessory swelling units can be built
- § Accessory dwelling units are not limited by impervious cover limits
H.B. 3135 Stucky
- Governing body must review land use regulations and shall repeal or amend a regulation that interferes with the production of new housing or development related to existing housing.
H.B. 4637 Sherman resurrection of HB1514 Holland
- Valid Petition against rezoning to force a supermajority vote upped from 20% to 50%
HB 1526 Harris
- This bill makes it much more difficult for a city to get parkland from large developments,
- Follow the links to the Bill History section the bills can be read under the “text subheading”.
What can you do to protest these bills?
Write to your local legislator and (send an email to Senator Eckhardt). Write to the chairman and members of the committees.
All of the Senate bills go to the Senate Local Government Committee and all of the house bills go the House Land and Resource Committee.
The member of the Senate Local Affairs Committee are:
Chair Bettencourt: Paul.bettencourt@Senate.texas.gov / Phone: (512) 463-0107
Vice-Chair Springer: Drew.springer@senate.texas.gov / Phone: (512) 463-0130
Sen. Eckhardt: Sarah.eckhardt@senate.texas.gov / Phone: (512) 463-0114
Sen Gutierrez: Roland.gutierrez@senate.texas.gov / Phone: (512) 463-0119
Sen. Hall: Bob.hall@senate.texas.gov / Phone: (512) 463-0102
Sen. Nichols: Robert.nichols@senate.texas.gov / Phone: (512) 463-0103
Sen. Parker: Tan.parker@senate.texas.gov / Phone: (512) 463-0112
Sen Paxton: Angela.paxton@@senate.texas.gov / Phone: (512) 463-0108
Sen. West: Royce.west@senate.texas.gov / Phone: (512) 463-0123
The members of the House Land and Resource Committee are:
Chair DeWayne Burns Dewayne.Burns@house.texas.gov 512-463-0538
Vice Chair Glenn Rogers glenn.rogers@house.texas.gov 512-463-0656
Rep. Cecil Bell Cecil.Bell@house.texas.gov 512 463-065
Rep. Keith Bell keith.bell@house.texas.gov 512-463-0458
Rep. Brad Buckley brad.buckley@house.texas.gov 512-463-0684
Rep. Evelina "Lina" Ortega lina.ortega@house.texas.gov 512-463-0638
Rep. Ron Reynolds ron.reynolds@house.texas.gov 512-463-0494
Rep. Mike Schofield mike.schofield@house.texas.gov 512-463-0528
Rep. Carl O. Sherman, Sr. carl.sherman@house.texas.gov 512-463-0953
You can also SUBMIT A HOUSE PUBLIC COMMENT FORM.
What SB 1787 means to neighborhoods.
Any residential lot in Austin can be subdivided into lots that can only by required to be 20 feet wide, 60 feet deep and 1400 square feet. The lots must allow 31 units per acre and 3 full stories. The setback from the street is only required to be 10 feet and the impervious cover can be 70%. Many cities have been testifying at the legislature.
One Texas city wrote about these concerns:
A twenty foot wide lot with 5 foot setback yields a 10 foot wide house, suitable for a “tiny home” but not family housing.
Police, fire and other city services are located and constructed base on existing distribution of housing, changing this can negatively impact a city’s ability to ensure basic needs are met.
Storm water systems are engineered for a certain land use densities and lot coverages. Ignoring this disregards the design and risks flooding of homes.
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ZILKER PARK VISION PLAN UPDATE
Zilker Park Vision Plan Update -- The draft Zilker Park Vision Plan is now available for review. By way of overview, a video summary of the draft plan is available here. The Zilker Metropolitan Park Vision Plan is a community-driven planning process to establish a guiding framework for the restoration and future development of Zilker Metropolitan Park, and it does a great job of "greening," integrating, and orienting the park visitor experience. The stated primary goal of the Vision Plan is to develop a visionary framework for the park and the draft vision plan includes: 1) the history of Zilker Park, 2) the purpose, guiding principles, vision and goals of the plan, 3) site analysis and need assessment, 4) community engagement, 5) the vision plan, and 6) implementation guidance.
Some of the notable plan highlights are listed below:
- · The Vision Plan includes five new bike/ped/nature bridges to provide active transportation access options into Zilker Park, thereby facilitating pedestrian access across Barton Creek where people currently are forced to walk across the slippery and wet creek. In addition, the proposed new bike/ped bridge across Lady Bird Lake will facilitate access to Zilker Park from the Butler Hike & Bike Trail.
- · The Vision Plan also includes an impressive and appealing nature/land bridge crossing over Barton Springs Road to provide a natural crossing experience that safely connects the park over Barton Springs Road.
- · The Vision Plan includes an extensive trail system with 6.9 miles of new trails in Zilker Park, providing a 55% increase in trails (19.5 miles) over what currently exists (12.6 miles).
- · The Vision Plan makes the park “greener” by adding 92 acres of new ecological uplift, including woodland and savanna. In addition, the Vision Plan makes the park more ecologically healthy by reducing impervious cover in the park by 9 acres and removing imperious cover from the drainage area of the pool and both sides of the creek and adding green stormwater infrastructure.
- · The Plan improves access within and to the park with an “all of the above” approach for parking, transit, trails, shuttles, and increased bike/ped connections.
- · The Vision Plan includes a robust and exciting transit plan that provides improved CapMetro service; internal circulators; improved walking, micro-mobility, and bike connections with wayfinding between internal and nearby transit assets; and external shuttle options.
- · The Vision Plan also removes the informal vehicle parking areas at the Butler Landfill and Polo Field area, converting 15 acres that were previously used as a landfill and temporary parking to be restored to woodland and meadow (this is the current ACL staging area).
- · The Vision Plan prevents increasingly common “informal” parking on the grass areas around Lou Neff Road by closing Lou Neff Road to vehicles.
- · The Vision Plan includes a centralized and consolidated phased parking solution in a more compact footprint of 1 to 3 buried or green garages to maintain, and not increase, the current total parking capacity while improving the overall ecological health of the park. In addition, the Plan recommends a “phased” approach to parking garage construction to assess demand before investing significant capital in parking capacity, and recommends that the number and size of any parking garages could be reduced IF external parking (with shuttles to the park), more frequent CapMetro bus service, and future Project Connect light rail stations come online.
- · The Vision Plan increases public education about environmental issues affecting Zilker Park and Barton Springs by providing a Welcome Center with centralized education exhibits and programming opportunities.
- · The Vision Plan promotes public health by supporting numerous recreational opportunities, including two boat rental locations, a disc golf course, numerous bike/pedestrian improvements, expansion of trails and access to the Barton Creek Greenbelt, swimming at Barton Springs Pool and Barton Creek, and outdoor recreation at a volleyball courts, a baseball field, rugby field, and on the Great Lawn.
- · The Vision Plan prevents increasingly common “informal” parking on the grass areas around Lou Neff Road by closing Lou Neff Road to vehicles.
- · The Vision Plan addresses numerous pedestrian safety priorities from the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan.
- · The Vision Plan support numerous cultural opportunities that have a long history at Zilker with a relocated Zilker Hillside Theater and with additional parking to support the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden + Museum, Austin Nature and Science Center, and Zilker Botanical Garden.
At this time, WANG has yet to endorse a plan for Zilker Park, and is neither supporting nor opposing the Zilker Park Vision Plan. The plan is being reviewed by City Boards and Commissions, and has already been approved by the Pedestrian Advisory Council and Bicycle Advisory Council, and the Urban Transportation Commission. The Environmental Commission recommended adoption of the Zilker Park Vision Plan with certain conditions.
Additional board/commission meeting dates are listed on the city’s Vision Plan web page (https://www.austintexas.gov/ZilkerVision). Later this year, the plan will come before the Austin City Council for approval. We encourage neighbors who use Zilker Park to review the plan and send input to Boards and Commissions, and to the Mayor and City Council Members.
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MOBILITY PROJECTS IN DISTRICT 10
Dear Neighbors,
In this newsletter, I would like to share some updates on transportation and mobility projects around District 10. In 2016, Austinites approved a Mobility Bond that dedicated $101 million to Regional Mobility Projects designed to address traffic congestion and enhance safety. These projects are focused on major roadways and their intersections in Northwest Austin, and my updates include:
Spicewood Springs Road - Loop 360 to Mesa
Loop 360 at Westlake/Cedar
Loop 360 & the Courtyard Project
More Loop 360 News
620 and 2222 Regional Mobility Project
Other 620 Updates
183 North Updates
Redbud Trail Bridge
CLICK LINK BELOW TO VIEW THE REST OF THE DISTRICT 10 NEWSLETTER
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SAVE MUNY UPDATE: April 2023
Lions Municipal Golf Course and its long history of integration, featured on Spectrum News:
THE MUNY CONSERVANCY RAISES MORE THAN $1 MILLION AT THE SECOND ANNUAL IMAGINE MUNY EVENT!
Performances by Asleep at the Wheel, Lyle Lovett, Charley Crockett, and Jack Ingram Headlined the Special Evening Benefitting the Save Muny effort to Preserve, Protect and Promote all 141-Acres and 18 Holes of Lions Municipal Golf Course
The Muny Conservancy announced that its second annual fundraising event, Imagine Muny II, hosted a sold-out crowd at the ACL Live at the Moody Theater on Sunday, February 19, 2023. The event delighted guests with Muny programming, a spirited live auction, incredible live music and raised more than $1 million dollars for the Muny Conservancy. The fundraiser featured Austin’s own Asleep at the Wheel front man and Muny Conservancy supporter Ray Benson, Lyle Lovett, Charley Crockett, and Jack Ingram. It was a magical night of music and fellowship with the Austin community showing up to celebrate Lions Municipal Golf Course and raise funds to protect and preserve Muny.
Muny Conservancy co-chairs Ben Crenshaw and Scotty Sayers kicked the evening off by hosting a 'green carpet' media avail alongside Muny Board Members Gigi Edwards Bryant and Angela Akins Garcia (joined by PGA Golfer husband and Muny supporter, Sergio Garcia), as well as Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson. Notable gala guests included Mayor Kirk Watson, Representative Sheryl Cole, Council Member Alison Alter, celebrity Luke Wilson, PGA Tour pro Mark Brooks, sports commentator Verne Lundquist, former TCU head football coach and Texas special assistant Gary Patterson, and Save Muny supporter and champion of 50+ years, Mary Arnold.
Last year’s first-ever Imagine Muny Gala featured Lukas Nelson and Eric Church and was The Muny Conservancy’s largest fundraiser to-date, successfully raising $800,000, as well as creating immense awareness for this important cause that has spanned the decades.
The reasons for saving Muny are many – the preservation of the historic 99-year-old golf course, saving a 141-acre green space that is a wildlife sanctuary sitting on a water recharge zone with hundreds of heritage oak and pecan trees, and most importantly, celebrating the civil rights history that took place on the property, making Muny the first racially integrated public golf course in the southern United States.
About The Muny Conservancy
The Muny Conservancy was created in 2019 to help preserve and restore one of Austin’s iconic recreational green spaces, Lions Municipal Golf Course. Their mission is to help make sure all 141-acres are saved for future generations to enjoy, with affordable golf, public accessibility, the civil rights history of the site and promotion of the game in mind. The wildlife, heritage oaks and 18-holes of golf have been an important part of our city’s parkland since 1924. Learn more by visiting themunyconservancy.com and by following @savemuny on Instagram & Facebook. The Muny Conservancy is a 501c-3 and funds raised by individuals and foundations will serve to purchase the land from the University of Texas and to fund renovations and the addition of public amenities to the property. #savemuny
Imagine Muny
For almost a century, Lions Municipal Golf Course has leased the land on which it sits from the University of Texas. The university is ready to determine a permanent use for these 141 acres. We want Muny to be that permanent use. The Muny Conservancy was created to raise funds and work with the City of Austin and the University of Texas to permanently preserve the course. Once the course is preserved, The Muny Conservancy has plans to restore and improve the 141-acre Lions Municipal Golf Course with award-winning golf course architecture firm Coore & Crenshaw and create a dynamic public facility for everyone…a place where citizens can not only play golf, but gather and enjoy community activities. The goal is to keep Muny a place where families and children of all ages can learn and practice the core values that golf teaches: honesty, integrity, and good sportsmanship. We will also build a teaching center that honors the historic integration of a legendary public golf course, and the courageous people who made that happen. We need to maintain Muny as a place that can help bridge historically separated communities in our city and bring them together for the greater good.
IMAGINE MUNY II
Musicians Ray Benson, Charlie Crockett, Lyle Lovett and Jack Ingram with Muny Conservancy Co-Chair Scotty Sayers at Imagine Muny II
Muny Conservancy Co-Chairs Ben Crenshaw and Scotty Sayers and Board Member Angela Akins Garcia take the stage Imagine Muny II
WANG President Holly Reed with Texas State Representative Sheryl Cole at Imagine Muny II
Musicians Ray Benson, Charlie Crockett, Lyle Lovett and Jack Ingram with Muny Conservancy Co-Chair Scotty Sayers at Imagine Muny II
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WANG Board of Directors & Committee Members
Organized 1973......"To preserve our neighborhood and protect it from deterioration"
- President: Holly Reed President@westaustinng.com
- Secretary: Cathy Kyle Secretary@westaustinng.com
- Assistant Secretary: Blake Tollett AsstSecretary@westaustinng.com
- Treasurer: George Edwards Treasurer@westaustinng.com
- Past President: Cathy Kyle PastPresident@westaustinng.com
All Current Members (click on name to send email)
- Holly Reed ............................member since 2015 (President)
- Cathy Kyle ............................member since 2010 (Secretary)
- Blake Tollett .........................member since 1994 (Asst Secretary)
- George Edwards ..................member since 2004 (Treasurer)
- Mary Arnold .........................member since 2006 (Muny Tract)
- Michael Cannatti .................member since 1999 (CWANPCT)
- Joseph M Bennett ...............member since 2001 (Membership/E-Newsletter)
- Craig Lill ...............................member since 2017
- Joyce Basciano ...................member since 1999
- Bob Hamilton........................member since 2020
- Sarah Hawthorne Cain.........member since 2020 (Advertising)
- Heidi Gibbons.......................member since 2020 (ANC Liason)
- David Bolduc ........................member since 2023
- Open board chair
- Open board chair
Honorary Committee Members
- Honorary Kirk Watson
- Honorary Alison Alter
- Honorary Kathie Tovo
CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES
Contact your City Council Representatives:
(click on name to send email)
- Mayor: Kirk Watson 512-978-2100
- District 1: Natasha Harper Madison 512-978-2101
- District 2: Vanessa Fuentes 512-978-2102
- District 3: Jose Velasquez 512-978-2103
- District 4: Jose "Chito" Vela 512-978-2104
- District 5: Ryan Alter 512-978-2105
- District 6: Mackenzie Kelly 512-978-2106
- District 7: Leslie Pool 512-978-2107
- District 8: Paige Ellis 512-978-2108
- District 9: Zohaib "Zo" Qadri 512-978-2109
- District 10: Alison Alter 512-978-2110
Email All of the Council: Entire Council and Mayor
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Click on the link City Stage photo above
(Austin Center for Events)
for more info of everything happening around Austin !!!!
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DON'T MISS THE PHOTOS BELOW SENT IN FROM OUR NEIGHBORS
"Around the neighborhood"
GOODWILL Grand Opening located on Lake Austin Blvd was March 31, 2023
NOW OPEN! 9am to 8pm Daily (Sundays opens at 10am)
SEND US YOUR PHOTOS for "AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Emergency Numbers:
Fire......................................................911
Ambulance (EMS) .............................911
Police Dept.......................512-975-5000
SCHOOLS:
Casis Elementary School.............512-414-2062
Austin High School.......................512-414-2505
O.Henry Middle School...............512-414-3229
Utilities:
Texas Gas Service.............................1-800-700-2443
Grande Communications...................512-220-4600
AT&T (new service)...........................1-800-464-7928
Time Warner Cable (Cust. Svc)...........512-485-5555
Austin/Travis Hazardous Waste.........512-974-4343
Redbud Isle