Council met in regular session Monday evening. Here is the agenda. Although we are slightly under budget on income, we are also under budget on expenses - staff thinks we will catch up on some income when permits are issued on the three large projects now under construction.
Mayor DeOme presented a Certificate of Appreciation to Keller Williams Realty of their assistance with the Firewise Fuel Reduction program. He also Proclaimed the month of July 2014 as Parks and Recreation Month in Lakeway - take some time out and visit some of your parks and greenbelt areas before it gets too hot!
The Preliminary Plan for Oaks at Lakeway was discussed at length. This is the project on the West side of 620 at Glenn Heather that will be home to a new HEB and other shops and restaurants along with parks and green space. The property runs along the back of residents of Rolling Green and there was concern expressed about traffic issues and proposed access to a walking trail around a small lake for the residents. There was also concern expressed about habitat for turtles around the lake area. The trail access was deferred until much later in the project and the habitat area had already been addressed by an environmental study done by the developer. The Plan was approved by a 6-1 vote of Council, Dwight Haley was the dissenting vote. The Plat Vacation and Final Plat were passed unanimously.
Item 10 approved an agreement for a contract with Janis A Barlow and Assoc. to perform a feasibility study for a conference or event center. This money comes from the Hotel Occupancy Tax and does not impact our property tax. Passed unanimously.
Item 11 approved a contract with the low bidder for a Drainage improvement project for the Explorer and Brooks Hollow area. Passed unanimously.
Item 12 gave a permanent irrigation easement to Water District 17 to irrigate the right of away with treated wastewater effluent. Passed unanimously.
And last but not least - item 13 approved a zoning request for 318 acres west of Bee Creek Road.
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Wednesday brought the first meeting of the Board of Adjustment in several years. Here is that agenda. The first item was an appeal of a ZAPCO ruling for a Home Occupancy Permit. The permit was for a Dog Sitting Business at 805 Burmuda. This was approved 4-1.
The other items concerned a variance to allow a 15 instead of 25 ft. setback on 4 lots in Cardinal Hills. This was denied by a vote of 4-1.
From Chessie Zimmerman:
Steve and I attended an open house sponsored by TXDOT and CTRMA. Plans for the Oak Hill Parkway were the focus of the event, but we took advantage of the opportunity to visit with staff from both organizations about their processes and other projects.
Steve and the members of the LVC subcommittee kicked off a series of meetings with Janis Barlow regarding the feasibility study and market assessment for the proposed conference/event center. Ms. Barlow met with several members of the community over several days.
Dale Delong reports, “Cleanup from the storm damage continued this week. Brush continues to pile up at the Public Works Department. In my estimation we have between 400 and 600 yards of brush. I believe leaving our facility open day and night since last Friday has helped residents with the cleanup efforts.” Dale also noted a decline in the amount of brush in the last couple days, and will not leave the facility open this weekend. Gates closed at 4:00 p.m. today and will open back up Monday at 7:00 a.m. A picture of the brush pile at Public Works is attached.
CBC meets 6-26-2014 at the Council Chambers. Here is that agenda.
Troy Anderson reports that staff spoke at the Keller Williams Team Meeting regarding deferred landscaping installation, pool permits and other development updates in and around the community. We met with representatives of Bury Inc., Carlson, Brigance & Doering, Inc. and TBG Inc. as we continue reviewing subdivision improvement plans for Oaks at Lakeway. On Wednesday the Board of Adjustment (Board) met in regular session wherein they overturned a decision of the Zoning Commission which had previously denied Ms. Charlene Chandler a home occupation license/permit for a pet sitting business. The Board then upheld a decision of the Code Official denying four (4) variance requests for a reduction in the street yard setbacks as the claim of hardship was self-inflicted, and that pecuniary hardship was not sufficient for granting a variance. We wrapped the week up with preparation for the June 26, 2014, City Building Commission meeting and the July 9, 2014, Zoning & Planning Commission meeting.
Ruth Sandoval reports that 239 citations were filed this week (221 traffic, 15 State Law, and 3 City Ordinance violations), 3 new warrants were issued, and 45 were cleared. Total collections for the week were $20,823.50. In response to Marshal Overstreet’s activity, the court is seeing more window traffic and more phone calls from those defendants with active warrants. Due to the marshal’s negotiations some of these defendants will be appearing on our next court docket to clear their warrants.
From Chief Radford:
Patrol,
• Routine Traffic Stops by LPD officers this week led to the following charges being filed:
o Open Container
o DWI X 2
o Possession of Marijuana
o Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
• LPD Officers took a report of an assault that occurred in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn. Three men reportedly assaulted a male victim in the parking lot.
• LPD Officers arrested a driver after she struck a mailbox on Lakeway Drive and then left the scene of the accident without exchanging information.
• Officers responded to a report of suspicious juveniles. During the course of their investigation, officers deployed a K9 and located a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. The juveniles were cited for possession of drug paraphernalia and released to parents.
• An officer did a Peace Officer Emergency Commitment on a suicidal female at LRMC.
• A structure fire at a residence on Mariner resulted in property damage but no injuries.
• The special operations group conducted a traffic enforcement initiative that resulted in 62 summonses being issued to traffic violators.
CID:
• Detectives are working a case reported to them by Child Protective Services involving a young victim.
• Detectives, with the assistance of a DPS polygrapher, interviewed two suspects in a theft case.
The Finance Department staff is hard at work inputting FY 2015 budget requests from the various departments. Steve and I will begin reviewing the various components next week.
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In other news, we are getting some attention on the road proposal we are suggesting that would help traffic congestion in the area. Here is a link to an article in the Statesman. At least it looks like the project will be modeled to see if it works. Unfortunately, the City of Austin and some of the Travis County Commissioners are not looking favorably on the project. We are working to get sponsors and finding ways to move the project along. Another project has been put on the list suggesting adding a lane on each side of 620 - with all the lights now and proposed, I don't think this would be very effective. No other projects are on the 2040 list.
The Lake improved slightly with the recent rains - on Monday 6/16 it was at 630.45, Friday 6/20 it was down to 630.23. LCRA approved their rate hike - here is a link to the article. We pay $175 an acre ft. and Garwood pays $39.37 - sounds fair doesn't it. They are forcasting by the middle of August we will go to stage 4 restrictions - this means NO irrigation. Too bad we don't have the 450,000 acre feet they sent to farmers in 2011 when there were NO inflows to the lake.
That's all for today, next week I have a Special Meeting at CAMPO and one at the City with the Regional Mobility Authority. Should be an interesting week!
If you would like to be added to my email list, send me an email to lakeway@bain.us
Thanks for keeping involved!
Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us
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