submitted by Cynthia Keohane
On
The first agenda item was Hurricane Survivors Living in
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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