Quick updates and repeats from April

BCNA General Association Meeting June 8 beginning at 6:45 pm Meeting will be held via Zoom. More information shortly

Zilker Masterplan Survey
Neighbors,
The City of Austin is embarking on a masterplan for Zilker. It will entail a lot of issues, from general use to transportation and parking, sustainability, maintenance, etc. There will be several opportunities for community input, but for now, it would be helpful if as many people as possible could fill out the online survey https://publicinput.com/ZilkerVision , open until June 1.
It seems it has been out for a while but has not been that well publicized to neighborhoods. I participated in a small Neighborhood Input meeting (w reps from Zilker, Barton Hills, Rollingwood) today; there was some talk of including Butler Shores in the master plan. What happens in Zilker impacts us in many ways, but even more so if Butler Shores is included.
At the meeting today, we asked for the opportunity to give additional input throughout the process.
Thanks,
Ingrid Weigand
BCNA Parks Committee
512-663-4632

Council OKs site for new Dougherty Arts Center
City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve a site for the Daugherty Arts Center, close to the current ZACH Theatre at Butler Shores Park. The site, called 1A, was not city staffers’ first choice, but it was clear that staffers’ selection, 1B, had too many opponents, including the Save Our Springs Alliance.
District 5 Council Member Ann Kitchen led the charge against staffers’ preferred option, which would have taken up considerably more parkland than the alternative. SOS attorney Bobby Levinski and SOS Executive Director Bill Bunch both urged Council to select the site farthest away from the hike and bike trail.
As Levinski noted in a letter to Council, “As much as Austin likes to market itself as a green oasis, we have a serious parkland deficiency. We simply do not have enough parkland to serve our expanding population.” He said a recent index showed that Austin ranked 37th among the largest American cities in meeting parkland needs for its residents. “With this perspective in mind, it is baffling to us that the city is – yet again – considering converting several acres of prime parkland along Lady Bird Lake into buildings and driveways for an art center, along with a parking garage to accommodate more single-family automobiles.”
SOS emailed its members earlier this week alerting them to the upcoming vote and asking them to contact their Council members and the mayor. Kitchen said her office had received about 300 emails on the subject.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Board and the Environmental Commission both passed resolutions expressing their concern about the 1B option because it would have taken up too much parkland. The Barton Place Condo HOA also wrote to tell Council its members supported option 1A.
Friends of the Dougherty Arts Center, on the other hand, wrote two letters, the first of which did not say which site it preferred. The second letter said that staffers’ preferred option “best addresses the variety of traffic/parking concerns expressed in past meetings by stakeholders.”
Environmentalist Roy Waley also addressed Council about the matter, urging them not to use any parkland at all. He suggested repurposing some currently underused Austin Independent School District buildings.
Kitchen said the scenario she chose preserves more green space and avoids additional impervious cover on parkland.
Parks and Recreation Department Director Kimberly McNeeley recognized the need to change staffers’ position, telling Council that option 1A was just fine with them.
Kitchen’s motion included direction to ensure that the new arts center would maximize green space, allow for future expansion plans, establish Riverside Drive as the primary public ingress and egress, and address challenges for parents picking up and dropping off their kids.
Staffers were directed to do a traffic impact analysis, with the goal of reducing single-occupancy vehicular traffic on the narrow Toomey Road. The analysis, Kitchen said, should acknowledge heavy bike and pedestrian use along that road.

Steering Committee Meeting Monday May 03 is Canceled.
paul strange via groups.io, to BCNA officers
We have been advised that Austin Transportation Department will not designate a representative to attend our SC Meeting and answer the multiple questions raised by the SoCo PTMD Study. Their refusal was based on needing to focus on Project Connect. They hope to circle back to the SoCo PTMD by late Summer/early Fall.
Since that was going to be the focal point of our meeting and I’m not aware of any other pressing issues, I’m cancelling the Monday’s SC Meeting.

VOTE: You know what to do and an email reminder from a neighbor!
Note from Ingrid Weigand via groups.io
to BCNAForum
“Today (Saturday) is Election Day. Please remember to vote if you have not already done so!
Municipal elections, especially ones with no candidate on the ballot, are typically sparsely attended (30 % seems to be considered “good”) so a few people get to make decisions for a lot of us. Be one of them….”
Ingrid
on Gibson

SoCo First Thursday
From the South Congress Improvement Association
We’d like to bring First Thursdays back to SoCo
starting Thursday, May 6!
First Thursday in May will be much like a soft opening. While we’re still building herd immunity statewide, we want to be cautious of drawing large crowds and we want to give everyone time to get back in the swing of things. We will hold off on any heavy promotion to traditional media for the First Thursday in May, and will instead stick to social media promotion.

Hot off the press is the March/April/May 2021 Edition of Bouldin Bulletin.
The same good stuff you might have read while drinking a cup of coffee —but in digital form.
Thanks to John Shobe, our Publisher, Ronnie Dittmar, editor, and Rob Clayton our web admin., for bringing us into a new world of digital publishing – a potentially more mobile-friendly, color, version of the Bouldin Bulletin,
Also thanks to Sector Reps organizing the delivery volunteers and of course, thanks to the folks walking the neighborhood to deliver 2600 issues to our residents.
Note that Bulletin will be published on a quarterly basis to match General Association Meetings.

Note: Meeting Minutes and the Bouldin Bulletins now available on website at
https://www.bouldincreek.org/association/bulletin

EVENTS DOWN THE HILL
Whether you’re interested in avoiding traffic, parking issues, or strolling to a good time, here are the websites to discover the goings-on of which to be aware:
LONG CENTER
http://thelongcenter.org/events/
PALMER AUDITORIUM
https://www.palmereventscenter.com/events/

Bouldin Creek Neighborhood Association
Meeting Schedules:
General Association:
2nd Tuesday every 3rd month, 6:45 pm on Zoom
2021 Dates: March 9, June 8, September
14, December 14.
(For Zoom watch the BCNAForum@groups.io
and Bouldincreek.org
Steering Committee:
1st Monday of each month, subject to change
for Holidays, etc. (same time/place as General
Association meetings)
Zoning Committee:
2nd Monday of each month, subject to change
for Holidays, etc. (same time/place as General
Association meetings).

BCNA FORUM LISTSERV
To Subscribe, please go to:
https://groups.io/g/BCNAForum/join