With the city’s allowance set as the new fiscal year begins, council spent the bulk of last week picking up its room, doodling mash notes to dreamy South Austin, and discarding the playthings members rapidly outgrew. With council’s brief, post-budget fling off the dais over, council considered a Greater South River City Combined Neighborhood Plan and a controversial billboard ordinance, and kicking the dreaded Shoal Creek traffic islands to the curb; all dirty laundry, however, was shoved under the executive session bed.
The Frankencurbs of Shoal Creek were placed along the street’s bike lanes to deter parking and slow traffic, but the only thing they did effectively was infuriate neighbors. Aside from obstructing cyclists, they just look plain goofy – miniature islands of greenery bulging up like grassy warts from the street. In the face of overwhelming opposition, Sondra Creighton with the Public Works Department suggested lancing the suckers, pulling them up, relocating their trees, and redrawing the lines along Shoal Creek to allow parking on one side. Cyclists and community stakeholders, however, urged caution in repurposing Shoal Creek’s lanes, a position the council basically adopted, being none too eager to trade bad for worse (nor throw worse money after, well, you get it). The decision of how to stripe Shoal Creek is set for Dec. 1, allowing some six weeks for discussion of how to proceed post-Frankencurb. When Lee Leffingwell asked if any other city used them, Creighton said she thought Oakland might. Well, at least we’re in good company.
The more contentious billboard ordinance resulted in the increasingly common split vote. The proposal, from Betty Dunkerley, aimed to decrease the number of billboards in neighborhoods – and eventually, overall – by allowing companies to move their outdoor ads for lite beer, schizophrenia studies, et al., from residential neighborhoods to well-traveled expressways. New language in Dunkerley’s proposal would have moved the massive placards farther from residences, and limited their run to 25 years, unless purveyors agreed to drop two residential signs in exchange for one new one. Leffingwell, Dunkerley’s staunchest ally in the measure, said the measure got Austin on the “downward trajectory” in the billboard game, but other council members disagreed; Raul Alvarez, describing the ordinance as an incentive for advertisers to move to major arterials (after all, doesn’t your Chick-fil-A ad deserve to be seen?), said it could produce a “very unattractive situation.” Jennifer Kim and Will Wynn agreed, joining Alvarez in voting against the measure. While the ordinance squeaked by, 4-3 on second reading, one could reasonably expect stricter language and more incentives to limit billboards before it returns for third and final reading.
“That takes all the fun out of it,” protested the mayor, when told the Greater South River City Neighborhood plans that council was to consider were 90% uncontested. Leaving the tougher decisions for Oct. 20, council had little trouble approving the overview, which covers those neighborhoods bound by Town Lake, Ben White, I-35, and South Congress, including both Travis Heights and St. Edward’s University, the latter hosting most of the area’s industrial activity. Refined by meetings with community stakeholders over the course of 18 months, the plan covers transportation, environment, parks and open space, voluntary design guides, and land use and zoning, said Adam Smith from the Neighborhood Planning and Zoning Department. The 100-plus recommendations included new sidewalk construction along major streets, extending the Town Lake trail east in tandem with new trails, creek protection, and a gang of new zoning decisions – most notably a prohibition on tearing down original houses and replacing them with domiciles two to three times as large, i.e., the construction of McMansions. Jennifer Kim, keepin’ it weird living as a Southsider, excused herself from the vote, which passed handily.
As council spent a great chunk of the day on beautification, the swarthier stuff went on behind closed doors in executive session, including the lawsuit brought against the city by the mother of Jesse Lee Owens, Jeff White’s settlement with the city in the Mala Sangre case, stalled bargaining with the city’s firefighters, and even the new lawsuit against our month-old smoking ban. More confidential talks over firefighter bargaining continue today (Thursday) in executive session.
This article appears in October 7 • 2005.