RG4N Trial: Thursday Afternoon

I'm certainly grateful for the appreciative feedback I've received for these semi-live updates on the Responsible Growth for Northcross suit attempting to stop the Wal-Mart at Northcross. I've been the only reporter who has sat through every single second of Travis County's version of the Butt-Numb-a-Thon, and when I'm enduring yet more testimony on the fascinating topics of floodwater patterns and the intricacies of city development review code … well, let's just say that I used to be a serious long-distance runner, and this is far more grueling than any 10K race.

Thursday afternoon's extremely condensed highlights follow:

The star witness of the day was definitely Assistant City Manager Laura Huffman – who is the top-ranking city official in this controversy, since her boss, City Manager Toby Futrell, has recused herself from this discussion (Futrell's husband repairs air conditioners for Wal-Mart or somesuch). RG4N attorney Brad Rockwell zeroed in on the suspicious-looking fact that Lincoln Property's initial site plans labeled part of the Wal-Mart as a garden center, but then that label disappeared. Since a garden center, as an accessory use, by law should not take up more than 10% of the retail space, Rockwell wanted to know: "If that garden center use takes up more than 10%, you would want that disclosed, right?" Huffman replied that if the garden center ends up violating city code, there is a process in place for citizens to report it.

Neighborhood witnesses included Charles Edwards, the owner of Terra Toys (located across Anderson from Northcross) and Paige Hill, co-founder of RG4N. Edwards complained that the extra traffic brought to the neighborhood by the Wal-Mart would have the paradoxical effect of keeping customers away: With all the Wal-Martians clogging the area, the moms and kids that patronize his business would be less inclined to slog through the Burnet Road/Anderson Lane intersection. Attorney Casey Dobson, representing the city, apparently feared the wrath of at least a small handful of Austinites: "My wife and kids love your store," he said. "Pass the witness."

Hill, who has design experience, said she had measured the dimensions of the garden centers at other Wal-Marts in the area and found that all of them were significantly larger than the 5,000 square feet proposed at this one – in fact, the one at Ben White she measured at more than 20,000 square feet, and the one at Four Points came out to almost 25,000, putting both out of compliance with the 10% accessory-use rule. Rockwell seized on this to assert that this showed Wal-Mart had just tried to avoid public hearings and could be expected to violate code again, but Dobson repeated Huffman's point: that violations could be reported to the city by citizens.

That was followed by an odd and very brief questioning of architect and neighborhood activist Jeff Jack, which I repeat here almost verbatim:

Rockwell: "In your experience as an architect, were you ever asked to remove a protected-class tree?"
Jack: "No."
Rockwell: "Pass witness."
Dobson: "You have not reviewed the site plan of the Northcross property, is that correct?"
Jack: "Yes."
Dobson: "No further questions, your honor."

A befuddled-looking Jack then left the stand, perhaps wondering why he had taken time out of his day to hang out at the courthouse.

Then it was the defense's turn to call witnesses. Greg Guernsey, city director of Neighborhood Planning and Zoning, and city arborist Michael Embesi then reiterated previous themes that the city's codes aren't quite as exacting as RG4N's interpretations and that when it comes to tree preservation, the city takes a holistic approach rather than absolute protection of every single 60-inches-plus circumference tree in town.

Huffman and Dobson then engaged in a clearly well-rehearsed Q&A on how projects that don't ask for major code variances must be approved administratively, without City Council intervention, and that the city considers suspension of a project – not complete voiding of a site plan – as the proper remedy for problematic applications.

"The process is set up to get problems fixed," said Huffman.

Closing arguments in Judge Orlinda Naranjo's 419th District Court begin at 9am Friday morning and are expected to wrap up before 11am.