Report from the Austin Neighborhoods Council General Meeting.

submitted by Cynthia Keohane

On January 24, 2007, Allandale Neighborhood Association joined the Austin Neighborhoods and I attended my first meeting as the official ANA representative. Please note that meetings are open to all and there is more information on the web site at http://www.ancweb.org/

The first agenda item was Hurricane Survivors Living in Austin, presented by Shawn Lemieux, Community Recovery Committee and Andrew Bucknall, American Dream Program. They made the case that the hurricane survivors faced tremendous challenges to becoming self-sufficient. One example is that people lost all possessions including their documents; Texas requires a birth certificate to get a driver’s license, and a driver’s license is needed to get hired. The speakers thanked the Austin community for its ongoing support and kindness.

The main meeting topic was Pandemic Flu Preparedness, presented by the City of Austin/Travis County Health & Human Service Department, Director David Lurie and three high-level staff members. Their web address for more information: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/pandemicflu.

They explained that a pandemic is a global disease outbreak, which occurs when a new virus emerges, people have little or no immunity, and there is no vaccine. There were three pandemics in the 20th Century. The current concern is Avian flu, also called H5N1. Since 2003, 269 cases have resulted in 163 deaths, in 10 countries.

HHS is developing plans to prevent and contain a possible outbreak. Concurrently it is engaging in outreach to neighborhoods and other stakeholders such as businesses. HHS stressed that there would be no evacuations. The recommendation would be “social distancing” – or staying home. Their website has a link to a Disaster Supplies Kit, which includes 2 weeks of food and water. Because a pandemic tends to come in waves lasting about 12 weeks, points of distribution for supplies will need to be identified for neighborhoods.

Laura Morrison, ANC President, suggested that ANC engage in ongoing communication with HHS on the pandemic topic.

Butch Smith, a representative from the Austin Parks and Recreation Department, presented a recommended change to the Land Development Code parkland impact fees. The current ordinance requires that a new subdivision set aside 5 areas of parkland per 100 residents or pay a fee. Staff recommends continuing to collect the land or fee at the subdivision stage, and to start requiring fees at the site plan stage for those developments that do not have to subdivide but are adding density. Mr. Smith asked ANC to endorse the proposal. Laura said she would like to remove the exemptions for VMU that recently passed; she asked if attendees agreed with that and the staff proposal; there was general agreement, and Laura agreed that the ANC executive committee will look more closely at the staff proposal at their next meeting.

Carol Gibbs described problems with the City's Community Registry software updates. From late December until mid January, updates that users requested did not get processed. This registry provides the notification list for zoning changes so the NA’s consider it vital to have it up to date. Laura and Carol plan to talk with the city about the recent problem as well as a problem with the lag between the registry update and the notification list update.

Per Laura. a VMU Amendment is going to City Council; the amendment will exclude an area from VMU zoning if it is not already zoned MU (mixed use.)

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