Turned out to be a pretty destructive night! High winds and rain caused a lot of damage in the Lakeway area. There were 6 families evacuated and many homes were damaged extensively.The Police, Street Department and Fire Department were all working all night to keep the streets open and help folks that were in danger from the storm. No fires were reported and very little hail was reported in the City. We got a little less than 2 inches of rain at my house on the Airpark in less than an hour! We were in a Tornado Warning for about an hour and the weather service called the police to find out if any funnels were spotted - none were. This could have been much worse it a tornado would have touched down.
The Street Department will open the City's facility on Serene Hills and allow citizens to drop off trees and limbs where they will chip them up and dispose of them. Here's what it looks like already!
CAMPO (Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization) met Monday evening. Lakeway has put forward a project to try to have a toll road built to connect 45 South and another project that ends at 620 and 2222. This project was on the illustrative list of projects because funding and an engineering study hasn't been completed. Monday the 20 member board voted to move forward to allow the project to be modeled along with 831 other projects. We hope this will make a significant improvement on the traffic that currently cripples RR 620. I will keep you posted on future developments. Here is a link to an article by Devon Monk and here is a picture of the proposed tollway. Here is a link to an article in the Community Impact by Leslee Bassman.
City Council will meet in regular session Monday evening at 6:30 in the Council Chambers. Here is that agenda. As you can see, it will be a busy meeting. Of particular interest will be the Preliminary Plan at the Oaks at Lakeway. There was some disagreement about a walking path entrance on Rolling Green for residents there and I'm sure there will be public comment on that. There will be discussion on several other items including an agreement to hire a company to do an assessment for an event center, a contract for Explorer and Brooks Hollow Drainage Improvement and zoning of 318 acres North and West of State Highway 71 and Bee Creek Road.
Next week on June 18th at 3:00 PM the Board of Adjustment will meet at Council Chambers to rule on 5 appeals of ZAPCO decisions. Four are setback issues and 1 pertains to a resident's request for a Home Occupation Permit to allow for a Pet Sitting Business in a residence. Here is that agenda. This will be the first meeting of the BOA since February of 2010.
From Steve Jones:
Troy, Paul, and Chessie met with the owner of the tract known as Serene Hills Commercial East, located on the northeastern corner of the Serene Hills Drive/SH 71 intersection to discuss plans for development of the five-lot commercial subdivision. It is planned to be an office and retail center.
Chessie spoke with a group of residents from the neighborhood adjacent to the Oaks at Lakeway project, and responded to concerns about traffic, noise, lighting, pedestrian access, landscape buffers, etc. A primary point of contention was the proposed pedestrian access from the neighborhood into the Oaks project. Some residents are opposed to this connection, while some are in favor of it. The topic will be discussed further during Monday evening’s city council meeting.
One person at the meeting on the Oaks project claimed that an endangered species of turtle lives in the area, and that development can not take place because the area is protected habitat. We consulted with the person who performed the environmental assessment of the property, and we were assured that there are no endangered species or protected habitat of any kind on the property.
Paul Duncan and I, along with our project engineer, met with residents of Green Lawn Drive to explain the upcoming drainage culvert project on their street and answer questions. Their main concern was with tree removal. We showed them which trees will be removed, and which trees are subject to removal. They seemed to be comfortable with our efforts to minimize tree removal. They were also curious about the project schedule and detours. Again, they seemed satisfied with our response.
The big news this week is that the CAMPO Policy Board approved modeling all projects proposed for their 2040 Transportation Plan, even those that are “fiscally constrained.” That means that our SH 45 West project will be modeled and its possible impacts on traffic congestion can be examined. As far as we can tell, this is the first time that all regional projects will be modeled. That is an important step toward developing a comprehensive, long-term transportation plan for our metro area. Our project is considered fiscally constrained because we have not identified a source of funding for it. We believe that it can be partially funded as a tolled facility and plan to meet with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority about the possibility of the RMA funding a portion of it.
Troy Anderson said that his staff concluded preparation for the Board of Adjustment meeting next Wednesday afternoon. The Board will consider an Appeal of a Zoning Commission decision not to approve an extension of a home occupation license/permit for a pet sitting business. The Board will also consider four variance requests for a reduction in the street-yard setback for certain lots in The Preserve at Lakeway.
TxDOT informed us this week that night work on RR 620 between Mansfield Dam and SH 71will begin on Monday night. TxDOT plans to install new pavement surface on the road. We can expect delays between 8:00 pm and 5:00 am for more than a month as work takes place.
From Chief Radford:
A citizen reported being pick pocketed at the post office. The victim did not realize it at the time, but he feels like his wallet was removed from his person while standing in line.
Several routine traffic stops this week led to seizures of drug paraphernalia, Ecstasy (MDMA), marijuana, hydrocodone, diazepam, and Zolpidem.
LPD officers made two DWI arrests as a result of investigatory traffic stops.
LPD Officers investigated an apparent suicide in Bella Montagna. The case is still under investigation.
An LPD officer, while on patrol, discovered gasoline being illegally pumped onto the ground at the Cavalier Food mart and gas station on RR 620. The gas flow was stopped, and the scene was worked with ESD 6 as a hazmat incident. The Texas Environmental Quality Board was notified and they are taking on this investigation which will likely culminate with criminal charges being filed against the owner/employee.
LPD officer took a report of vandalism at the Lakeway Church. Someone had driven a vehicle onto newly laid sod and damaging the sod. A suspect has been identified by a witness and the investigation is ongoing.
I want to thank Dale and his crew, plus my night shift under the command of Sgt. Joel Fischetti for their efforts last night. I, Officer Sam Smith, Officer Eric Barto, Detective Steve Howell, and Captain Farr all responded to assist with road clearing, damage assessments and other related issues. As of this report, the several houses on Capri and Mariner are damaged and will need to be repaired before being occupied. Several streets were closed last night due to downed trees. The national weather service indicated that in the midst of the storm we had cloud movement indicative of a funnel cloud with 92 mph winds. No tornado was seen but the damage in the area is substantial.
The Court reported that, “There were 47 cases scheduled on today’s docket, plus a jury trial on a sign ordinance violation. Tuesday night, Judge Brown presided over 25 cases. The police department filed 87 violations, and Marshal Overstreet was assigned his first 54 warrants to execute. Lt. Kent Shaffer, from Travis County Constable Precinct 2, let us borrow a radio for the Marshal to use, and we are expecting the Marshal’s new uniform anytime.”
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And last but not least, LCRA Board of Directors Timothy Timmerman sent a letter out to water customers - I thought I would attach it in case you didn't get it. It amazes me that they are asking the "firm water" customers to conserve and no mention was made of the 450,000 acre feet of water they sent downstream to irrigators in 2011 when the lake inflows were the lowest in history. To top that off, today I received their e-newsletter announcing they are considering new water rates (read this as an increase) from $151 per acre foot to $175 an acre foot. Now remember, they sent 450,000 acre feet down to irrigators at $6 an acre foot! That's a net loss of $40,250,000. Do we really need a rate increase? Here's the e-newsletter for you.
The other confusing item is the rate they want to set for Garwood Irrigation Division (irrigation water they are still sending downstream) is $39.37.
And by they way, expect Stage 4 restrictions this summer that will not allow any outside watering.
OK, enough of my rant! Have a GREAT weekend and be safe. More as I hear about it!
Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us
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