Minutes from the May 7th quarterly meeting are now available.
Read the full minutes in PDF format.
Minutes from the January 29th quarterly meeting are now available.
Read the full minutes in PDF format.
Minutes from the October 24th quarterly meeting are now available.
Read the full minutes in PDF format.
Ridgetop Quarterly Meeting 050217 from May 2nd Meeting.
Also reminder that June 11th is the Ridgetop Crawfish Boil!
Click link below to download/view the minutes in PDF format.
Meeting started at 7:03pm – Minutes from meeting on June Meeting accepted (end of this meeting)
Mark Gilbert and Karen Thigpin with Travis County are contacts for this project and kicked off the presentations.
Previous presentation was given in October of 2015; Travis County is currently in purchasing negotiations with the developers. See attached overview and slides for more details.
Below are the architects and developers on this project.
The mixed used residential portion of the building will provide meeting space for Ridgetop Neighborhood. Nelson Partners will look into rainwater collection system. Building will be under Austin Green Energy program.
You can watch the video of the presentation by selecting “video” for the September 6, 2016 meeting date and then clicking on Item 32.
http://traviscountyclerk.org/eclerk/Content.do?code=Commissioners
The parking garage will be in the center of the building complex and will have housing and retail surrounding the garage blocking visibility. There are planned 350 parking spots for residents and Travis County employees. Entry and exit will be separate with flow going onto 53 ½ Street with direction exit toward Airport.
DMA is working with Travis County offering affordable housing to it employees at this site.
Suggested a traffic study for 53 ½ Street and working together with Ridgetop Neighborhood, TxDot and Travis County Planning team to improve traffic flow and safety in our neighborhood.
Commissioner Court Precinct 1 is supporting this project.
https://www.traviscountytx.gov/commissioners-court/precinct-one
Draft timeline is attached. DMA is hopeful to have multi-living starting mid-year 2018.
$654 in the bank after dues and crawfish boil
$10 dues are yearly and can be paid at the below link:
https://ridgetopaustin.org/join-the-rna/
Important Dates and events
On September 17th trained volunteers canvased the entire neighborhoods (Northfield and Ridgetop) and identify locations where new trees would be appropriate. Locations were flagged and door hangers with instructions for opting into this program were left at the homes
October 1st: Last day to contact the city to opt in and request your tree(s). This establishes the number and types of trees the city will provide so it’s very important that home owners call in.
October 28th (Friday): trees and mulch are transported to Ridgetop Elementary.
October 29th (Saturday): “THE BIG DAY”. 100 volunteers, pick-up trucks, breakfast tacos, coffee, shovels, and people with clipboards……..it all comes together and we distribute and plant up to 400 trees on that day.
Details:
1) We need a lot of volunteers and community engagement. There are many types of volunteering options on several dates. Kris Schludermann is the volunteer coordinator. Volunteer for the Oct. 29 tree distribution day. We will be soliciting volunteers at UT Austin and other locations, but a big neighborhood draw would be very helpful.
2) Tree types: Tall trees are: Pecan, Bur Oak and Texas Ash. Understory trees are Possumhaw Holy, Red Bud, and Mountain Laurel. Please see attached door hangers for more details.
3) Essentially all open land can receive a tree assuming it meets the requirements (i.e., A tree could survive there). We need to solicit permission from owners, and this could take some leg work. Look around the neighborhood, and if there are obvious locations you think trees would benefit the neighborhood, please contact the owners and make them aware of this program. In the case of renter homes and apartments, we should engage the tenants early to contact the property owners. One efficient scenario is to contact owners of multiple properties. My take on this is: if there is a location that you really want a tree, your leg work will help accomplish this.
4) Houses will need to be surveyed by Austin 8-1-1 for buried pipes PRIOR to October 29th. This is necessary for the volunteers to be able to dig in yard.
5) Owners of the trees do accept the responsibility of maintaining and watering the trees so the trees will establish. But all the work of planting the trees can be done by trained volunteers on October 29th.
Meeting Adjourned at 8:20pm
Meeting opened at 7:03p by President Lisa D
-Introductions from all attendees
-Call for volunteers- although we try to keep the work as minimal as possible, we are sorely in need of some volunteers. There are always opportunities for volunteers, whether it is task specific or general involvement. Shoot us a message on our website if you are interested.
-Officer nominations/election:
President: Lisa D
VP: Meredith B
Morningside Sector VPs: Geri and Matt P
Harmon Sector VP: Jenica
Treasurer: Billy P
Secretary: Ann P
Motion made by Lisa D and seconded by Kim H to for a straight up and down vote rather than voting on each officer nomination. The nominations were unanimously approved.
Updates:
Lisa D
-Hixon Storage at roughly 56th 1/2 and the frontage road has undergone demolition of the old structure and is proceeding according to schedule.
-The Alcove project at 51st and 35 has removed a story from their building plans, will be 32’ high, with the same aesthetics. Breaking ground in Sept.
-Travis county development at 53rd 1/2 and airport: currently reviewing finalist proposals, will hopefully have more information and neighborhood outreach on that once proposal is accepted.
-Manos de Cristo has some homeless camper issues at night according to nearby residents, Lisa D will reach out to Manos to ask for “No Trespassing” signs to be posted in order to allow APD enforcement. Also requesting more information on construction timeline.
-Discussion of history and several current projects involving/affecting 53rd 1/2 St traffic, speeding, roundabouts, and sidewalks, and other traffic mitigating options
-City of Austin and Tree Folks will be giving away tons of trees to north loop this summer. The North Loop Contact Team will be meeting to assist in coordinating this effort. Stay tuned for more updates.
Location: Ridgetop Baptist Church
7pm Lisa D’Augustine opened the meeting. 9 members in attendance
The meeting was opened by RNA President Lisa D’Augustine at 7:04. There were 23 members in attendance. There were three guests–Cindy Black from the Northfield neighborhood; and, Mark Gilbert and Karen Thigpen from Travis County.
Lisa D’Augustine announced the dates for the next 4 RNA meetings. Each of these meetings will be held at 7 pm in one of the classrooms at Ridgetop Baptist Church, located at 708 E. 51st St. PLEASE NOTE: due to holidays, the December and April meetings are not on the 3rd Monday of the month.
Megan Gilbride reminded the members that dues are voluntary and that the suggested donation is $10. Our current account balance is $645.11 Due can be mailed to Megan at 923 E. 49th ½ St. or through our website: www.ridgetopaustin.org
Cindy’s child attends Ridgetop Elementary. She has been advocating for pedestrian improvements for the intersection of 51st and Airport and the area near the school. Has applied for a grant and fee-in-lieu (currently $39,000 in that account). The community needs to tell the city them what it wants to do with those funds. All affected neighborhood associations need to provide a letter of support. Project costs $103,000. Could be 70-30 or 50-50 city-community match. She has informed as many people as possible who live within 300 feet of the school. A vote was held and approved a letter of support for the request.
A clear supermajority of the members in attendance voted to amend the bylaws, moving the annual election to May of each year.
County representatives. Mark Gilbert and Karen Thigpen. Last time they addressed the RNA membership was December 2012.
Question: Can the RFQ include a mention about traffic calming measures. Karen described a two step process and they do expect developers to suggest ways to address traffic and parking concerns in their proposals.
For questions or comments email Mark Gilbert and Karen Thigpe
Billy Poe, Morningside Sector Vice President, provided some history on the project–TxDOT had considered 52th, 53rd and 53 ½ would be closed off from the I-35access road. But since they are city streets, this was not possible.
So, he and other RNA member started working directly with COA representatives. Transportation department provided info about speed study from March 2014. At 85 percentile of cars/minute, the average speed was 27 MPH. Based on that data, they did not believe there was a significant issue on 53 ½.
New count in recent weeks– am traffic peak hour indicated 362 cars west bound from the access road. Also provided accident history. 3 year period there were 3 accidents.
The city supports traffic circles at Bennet and at Harmon. This new attitude is an improvement. They will put up plastic delineators and remove the stop signs as an experiment to determine the impact to traffic and to gather neighborhood feedback. These are currently marked on the pavement with paint. This is not a permanent solution. If we want it to continue with the traffic circles, they will involve the neighborhood partnering program.
Downsides: Neighbors on those corners would lose a parking space. Noise from braking and accelerating, especially initially.
Neighbors request that the No Trucks sign be placed again at the end East end of 53 ½ St.
Additional information from the city: During the 51st traffic circle build-out, TxDot might temporarily close 53 ½ and advocate the right turn improvements be early-stage project; We should continue to communicate with Travis County to be clear about traffic impacts once they get going on that project.
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Lisa D’Augustine opened the meeting at 7:00pm at Ridgetop Baptist Church. There were 6 attendants.
The RNA account balance was not reported and will be followed up on to be reported at the next meeting.
Meeting Closed at 8:15 pm by Lisa D’Augustine
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Ridgetop Neighborhood Association 