BrykerWoods Neighborhood

Neighborhood Planning Meeting - March 5th

Community Life, Crime & Housing Affordability

• How do schools function in your community?
• What types of crime have you been a victim to?
• Will your children be able to afford living in your neighborhood later in life (without kicking you out of your home)?

We want to hear what you have to say about these issues. Please encourage all to attend.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
6:45pm-9pm
Austin State School (2203 W 35th Street)
NEOS Building #526

For more information, please see the attachment. Also, please forward this attachment to others and encourage participation from community members. The plan should be the voice and ideas of the stakeholders—so please spread the word! Thanks to those who have continued to participate. We really appreciate all of your efforts.

A for Austin State School can be found at the following link: http://cwa-auss.notlong.com

When you enter the campus on 35th Street, follow the main street and proceed straight through the four-way stop intersection toward the back of the campus. Continue on the main street for approximately ¼ mile past the four-way stop, and you'll see a brown wooden sign that says Community Relations on your left. Continue on the main road past this sign, and look to your left. NEOS sits away from the street and has a black door with neon letters. You may park in the lot in front of the entrance, or there is a large lot diagonally across the street to your right. There will be directional arrows (black arrows on white board) posted as well that will guide attendees. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE AUSTIN STATE SCHOOL HAS A STRICT 10 MILE AN HOUR SPEED LIMIT FOR THE SAFETY OF RESIDENTS AND OTHER PEDESTRIANS.

Want to learn more? Check out the website: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/zoning/central_west_austin.htm

MoPAC/MoNAC update (February 2008)

MoPac 1 Project Status Report to MoNAC - Feb 2008

Due to the cash-flow and funding “crunch” that TxDOT is experiencing (and which has been reported in the media over the past few months), the MoPac 1 project is experiencing a bit of a slowdown in schedule, and consequently, the noise wall workshops that had been planned for early 2008 will now have to be postponed until mid-year, although an exact schedule has not yet been determined. The NEPA Public Involvement process for the corridor is continuing, however, and assuming continued favorable public response, the project is still expected to move forward over the next couple of years.

The Aesthetics Advisory Committee (AAC) meetings concluded in August. A copy of the AAC summary report can be found on the MoPac 1 project website http://www.mopac1.org The project team was fortunate to have active citizen participation which provided helpful guidance on the various aesthetic elements of the project (e.g. noise barriers and landscaping elements, etc.). The group was so dynamic that TxDOT has decided to invite the members to critique detailed concepts during the detailed design phase.

The next project activity involving the public will be a series of noise workshops. The project team will divide the approximately seven miles of potential barriers into 13 segments, and will invite the adjacent property owners, as well as neighbors, to the workshops to present the potential barriers. At some point in the future, the adjacent property owners will then have an opportunity to vote on whether or not they want a noise barrier built along their property in areas where the walls are determined reasonable and feasible. Non-adjacent property owners can provide input but only adjacent property owners can vote. The majority vote will determine the outcome for each individual barrier. We expect these workshops to occur in mid 2008 – check the MoPac1 website for information on the exact dates.

The Sample Noise Wall installation on Bull Creek Road is complete, and it is expected that TxDOT will host a ribbon-cutting event soon to let the public know of its availability for viewing. We will get the word out to MoNAC as soon as such an event is scheduled. The sample barriers are located at the TxDOT Bull Creek campus on the east side of Bull Creek Road across from the Westminster Manor retirement facility. Please note that this sample barrier does not represent the designs that would be used for the MoPac 1 project, nor will it demonstrate noise abatement, but will provide a sense of scale and visual appearance of a representative barrier.

We thank everyone for their continued interest in this unique and important project.

More info at the MoNAC website http://www.main.org/monac/

Traffic Calming Project Update (Feb. 19th meeting)

Traffic Calming February 19 meeting notes courtesy of Elizabeth Cash.

The working group for the traffic calming project met on 2/19/08. During this meeting, working group members shared information recieved from neighbors about specific areas where there are traffic problems, ranging from speed and volume, to visibility and signage problems. The traffic calming website will soon be updated with this additional information. Neighbors can also log in to the forum on the website to discuss traffic related issues. Or you may contact the working group member representing your part of the neighborhood. Their contact information is listed on the website as well - link below.

If you have not already, please visit http://www.trafficcalmingproject.org to learn more and share your thoughts and concerns.

Neighborhood Planning Meeting - Feb 20th

The next Central West Austin Planning workshop will discuss CREEKS, WATER QUALITY, FLOODING & EROSION: Come discuss Lake Austin, Ladybird Lake, Shoal Creek & Johnson Creek. Help us identify flooding and erosion problems in your neighborhood and participate in finding ways to fix them.

Wednesday, February 20th
6:45pm-9pm
Austin State School (2203 W 35th Street)
NEOS Building

For more information, please see the attachment. Also, please forward this attachment to others and encourage participation from community members. The plan should be the voice and ideas of the stakeholders—so please spread the word! Thanks to those who have continued to participate. We really appreciate all of your efforts.

A for Austin State School can be found at the following link: http://cwa-auss.notlong.com

When you enter the campus on 35th Street, follow the main street and proceed straight through the four-way stop intersection toward the back of the campus. Continue on the main street for approximately ¼ mile past the four-way stop, and you'll see a brown wooden sign that says Community Relations on your left. Continue on the main road past this sign, and look to your left. NEOS sits away from the street and has a black door with neon letters. You may park in the lot in front of the entrance, or there is a large lot diagonally across the street to your right. There will be directional arrows (black arrows on white board) posted as well that will guide attendees. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE AUSTIN STATE SCHOOL HAS A STRICT 10 MILE AN HOUR SPEED LIMIT FOR THE SAFETY OF RESIDENTS AND OTHER PEDESTRIANS.

Want to learn more? Check out the website: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/zoning/central_west_austin.htm

BrykerWoods Traffic Calming Initiative (update)

BrykerWoods neighborhood residents, the traffic calming task force will be meeting next week. Please see link below to learn more of the project and learn who your neighborhood representative. I am the BrykerWoods representative for parts the the neighborhood WEST of Jefferson Ave. Please let me know if you have any particular traffic concerns for this part of the neighborhood. If you have traffic concerns for other parts of BrykerWoods, please refer to the http://www.trafficcalmingproject.org website to learn how to contact your neighborhood contact.

Website --> http://www.trafficcalmingproject.org

Thanks and best regards,
Edward A. Tasch
voice/fax 512.478.1337
http://www.BrykerWoods.org

Neighborhood Traffic Calming Initiative

Folks, the web site is up: http://www.trafficcalmingproject.org.

Briefly, the site is intended to be a resource for objective information and announcements
about the traffic calming project. It is not a pulpit for advocating or defeating traffic calming
in our neighborhood. By keeping the web site neutral, we can give everyone a fair chance to
digest all the available facts and make their own decisions. I also hope that keeping the web
site neutral will lend our working group some credibility.

We also have a newsgroup, the "Project Forum". That is where you can go to express your
own opinions about our traffic problems and how we should solve them. There is a link from
the web site to the Project Forum. Anyone with an Internet connection can read what is
posted there, but only those who have registered with the newsgroup can add their own
posts.

Thanks so much to Edward Tasch and Elizabeth Cash for all their help in getting the site up
on a aggressive schedule.

Best Regards,
Bill Smith
1509 Northwood

APD Suggestions for Crime Prevention

I feel many times folks let the little things go or petty crime they feel Police can't solve goes unreported. So then things escalate to where it is a real problem and folks get very frustrated. I hear many times citizens saying they don't want to bother the police or police have more important things to do. Nonsense, Please do bother us, never hesitate to call 9-1-1 or 3-1-1 to report an incident. We are dispatched according to a priority system. If a Officer is available he/she will be sent; if not when one becomes available they will be sent out. Yes we have limited resources and as such we have a "Crime Analyst". His job is to track crime by frequency and types. This information is used to deploy, patrol officers, special units, develop plans to curve the crime. We look for "Hot Spots". The old saying the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The neighborhood starts reporting crime and demanding action, then we know you have a problem and focus our attention on it.

So if you have an aggressive solicitor, or one who's story does not seem right, or one who try's your door handle before knocking.....Call 9-1-1. Let us check them out. If they aren't breaking the law, fine, it at least lets them know we know they are in the area. It also lets them know folks care enough to ask Police to check things out in their neighborhood. Sometimes we get lucky they have warrants and they get picked up. If it is suspicious to you, then it is worth calling in. This also lets the patrol officer assigned to your area know what kind of things to look for and he/she patrols with a better purpose.

As for yourselves be aware of your surroundings. Don't leave property in plain view in either your vehicles or your yards. These become tempting crimes of opportunity. Use motion sensor lighting. Perhaps put radios or TVs on timers during the day when your gone to work. Say one timer in a front room for a couple of hours, then a second in another room for a later time. Crooks look around and try to listen to see if someone is home. Close blinds so they can't look in. The best thing of all is neighbors looking out for neighbors.

Hope this helps some.

SPO Ricardo A. Vargas #4579
Central West District Representatives
Austin Police Department
974-5801