*****Council*****
Another marathon council meeting Monday evening. I'm not sure when it ended - there was no adjournment on the video - they may still be in executive session....Here's a link to the video.
They continue to change up everything. Now they have a special "Citizen Participation" just for the consent agenda, Financial Report and Previous Business. No one spoke.
10) The Lakeway Civic Corporation has generously agreed to fund a remodel of the Heritage Center and fitness boards for the swim center - total donation is $40,643 - they continue to work to improve the city by supporting projects! Thank you LCC! And the council accepted the donation....
11) Serene Hills, LTD has donated 7.07 acres of parkland along with 68 acres of open space and a completed trail system. Some monies were also paid for improvements. After discussion they eventually accepted the parkland.
12) A preliminary plan was accepted for Lakeway Estates. There is some history here. A plan was turned down years ago for a smaller number of homes partially because of ingress / egress issues because of a hairpin turn that did not meet road standards. Now the new developer has worked a deal with the Fire Department and the city that has more homes (density) and very little improvement in the road. This is a significant issue if folks need to get in or out in an emergency. Approved.
13-14) Preliminary Plan and Final Plat amendments for Lakeway Highlands Phase 3 approved.
15) Easement was granted to Lakeway MUD from the South end of the Lakeway Airpark to the Lakeway Swim Center for a 10" pipe to help the wastewater project the MUD is working on for residents not currently supplied with sewer service.
16) HOT Tax request from the Lakeway Resort and Spa. They received money several months ago and had good results from that endeavor - they were approved for more money at council.
17) Presentation was made by YMCA for a public / private partnership to build a YMCA in Lakeway. This was looked at previously and now they are looking at it again. Part would be funded by tax dollars - at least the building. I'm all for it if the people that want it pay for it. I don't like tax dollars from 100% of the residents going to pay for a facility that only 20% will use. I'm sure there is also a location consideration. Maybe the MUD property? Lots of traffic and they won't pay for the road - we will.
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| Transportation Matrix |
You can click on this link for a pdf that you can actually see. The top project of course is Main Street - cost is $5.6M (I think that's low) but includes the amount that will be partially paid by the developer (probably would have been totally paid for by the developer and would have been in use today if residents would have allowed further negotiations). There are also requirements for Stratus to pay a part but only when they start development.
2nd on the list was O'Reilley and Pyramid - these are totally in Travis County, not in the city. $2.2M
3rd Medical Drive extension from Birrell to Lohman's - $2.3M - this should eventually be done by the developer...
4th Farris Drive from Gebron to Meadowlark - $2.1M
5th - North to South Shared Use Path - for all the walkers and bike riders - $9M - what percentage of the population will actually use this? 100% funded by 100% of the citizens for 1% of the citizens use.
6th - Lohman's Spur extension to Main. As far as I remember, the current extension of Lohman's Spur by the Police Station has been the only road that tax payers have been on the hook for in Lakeway - I may be wrong. This would extend it to Main Street.
7th - Additional sidewalks to close the gaps - $8.1M
8th - Clara Van to Meadowlark connection - $3M -
We need to do a bond for the $5M part of the 620 improvement, do we need to build roads that will enhance the value of properties for developers? If we do, we need to have separate bond proposals to vote on. This went on for an hour and 11 minutes.
19) Wildlife Advisory Committee - Long presentation by committee Chair - started at 9:37 p.m. This entire section went on for 3:30 minutes. Presentation was about an hour. Lots of discussion about the most recent survey. Here it is if you want to look at it. 2019 Survey It says the total number of deer is 1354. that's real interesting because there were 1346 in 2018 and 379 in 2017. So the count increased 1,000 between 2017 and 2018? Of course not.
Of course, the anti-management folks point to no increase between last year and this year. Folks, this is a point in time estimate made by driving through the city at night and counting deer.
Some things I didn't hear. The survey states that the survey is being done in "Unsuitable Habitat" - they don't count deer in the "Suitable Habitat" - go figure. No count from golf courses. They didn't go to some of the most densely populated deer areas. Do you think there is more deer there? Some areas have a deer issue, fact. Some areas don't have many deer, fact. It's a small subset of Lakeway in its entirety that has a deer issue.
If you do a citizen survey, the people in the large areas with few deer will overwhelm the survey. Credit where credit is due, the Mayor says we need to sectionalize the survey to get the real deal.
Many people spoke both for and against management. Council voted, after much discussion, to apply for a TTT permit - 4-3, Vance, Mastrangelo and Higginbotham against. Motion by Higginbotham to conduct citizen survey - failed, Cox, Smith, Kumar and Howell against. Vance made motion to keep moratorium on TTT / TTP in place until the cost approved by council and a cap on expense. Motion carried but opposed by Smith, Howell and Kumar.
Cox moved to continue the meeting Tuesday at 9 a.m. since it was 1:00 a.m. Not agreed to.
20) Council passed the Chapter 28 ordinance in less than 3 minutes with no further discussion - passed unanimously. This was argumentatively one of the most important items on the agenda. No comments.
21) Everyone had left by 1:15 a.m. and no citizen participation. No surprise there.
Council adjourned to Executive Session for 6 items. They never closed the meeting.
Is it just me? Is this ridiculous or what. No one makes good decisions in a meeting that lasts until past 1:00 a.m. I'm going to leave it at that for right now.
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That's all I'm reporting on right now. Very frustrated with the new consultants and costs and what seems like a mess. Thanks for supporting the blog - If you want to be added (or removed) from my email list send a note to lakeway@bain.us and I'll get it done. If you have questions, that works too. If you disagree, lets have a conversation!
Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us
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