Castlewood-Oak Valley
Neighborhood Association
Newsletter
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Castlewood-Oak Valley
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| The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's was recorded by the Beatles over a 129-day period beginning on 12/6/66 and released on 6/1/67 in the UK and on 6/2/67 in the US. It is often cited as the most influential album of all time by prominent critics and publications, ranking number 1 on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. Not all agreed. Frank Zappa disliked it and recorded an album with a satire of it’s cover—We’re Only in It for the Money. I have both. |
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join the COVNA Email List, click below and send an email Find out the latest neighborhood news and
developments. |
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| PRESIDENT'S
MESSAGE
Please plan to come to the COVNA Picnic. It will be on Saturday, June 16, beginning at 5:00 p.m., at 9100 Heatherwood Drive. It will be in Dan and Claudia Anderson’s back yard. The Board members will provide sandwich and vegetable
platters, cold drinks, condiments, plastic and paper ware. Johnny G’s
Butcher Block has volunteered to provide hamburger meat. We will also
have hot dogs. Doug DuBois has volunteered to bring his cooker. We will
need a couple extra set-up tables. We need something to set the food
on. Attendees are to bring their own chairs. Please bring pot luck desserts. Also, we need to build a strong sense of neighborhood. Neighborhood strength is the cornerstone of a strong community. According to the Austin Police Department, “Reinvigorating neighborhoods is the key strategic goal for the City’s future.” Come to our annual picnic, meet your neighbors, and discuss mutual concerns. If you drive, you know we have local traffic problems. Vehicular traffic in our area is growing more intense with the population explosion. If you want to do something about it, come to the picnic, talk with others who want to help and get involved. Floyd Clark
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Advertise in the COVNA Newsletter Only $10.00/month. Reaches over 400 homes & Online at COVNA.org Email Doug Tabony at: tabonyproductions@austin.rr.com |
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We Still Need
Help!!! |
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We need a volunteer to act as secretary. The job only takes about two or three hours a month but is vital to the association. |
| YOUR CITY AT WORK? Yard Parking Ordinance Saga Continues I received a series of emails from a representative of the Gracywoods Neighborhood Association concerning the fate of the yard parking ordinance that COVNA grappled with for two months. Seems the City, after giving the neighborhoods short notice to sign on to this ordinance, dropped the ball implementing the wishes of the neighborhood associations who applied to be included in the ordinance. Read on: I am with Gracywoods Neighborhood Association. To put it bluntly, the City Council blatantly tried to muzzle 15 neighborhoods and their efforts to make their communities a better place to live. The City is supposed to take applications each February from neighborhoods who want the no-yard-parking ordinance enforced in their neighborhood. For some reason, the City drug their feet this year processing the applications. When they were finally put on the agenda to be approved in May, Council member Mike Martinez stood up and said they could not be approved because the City had taken too long to process them. He stated that these communities would just have to wait until next year. Gracywoods NA decided this was unacceptable - we mounted an email campaign along with our sister neighborhoods in our area this past week. It appears to have been successful. At this time, the City is agreeing to meet with GWNA's leaders on Monday to discuss where we go from here. Here are answers to questions COVNA officers asked. 1. Did the city council violate the ordinance that governs the administrative process for managing this program? A. The City takes applications in February. Can't speak for the other 14 associations, but for us there seemed to be a continuing problem to get a straight answer from Neighborhood Planning. It took 3 weeks just to get them to acknowledge our application had been received and was complete. Then we were told several dates it was going up for approval - each time, it did not get on the agenda for the Council. According to the original ordinance, the applications are to be received in February to be approved in April by the City - so Council member Mike Martinez stated that all 15 applications could not be accepted after they finally got on the May 24th meeting agenda. I would say the legality of this year's handling of the applications really comes down to us figuring out why the City did not move faster. This is one of the reasons we are asking the media to look into this - if City officials intentionally buried these applications, then there is a real problem down at City Hall that needs to be addressed. And then comes the flip side, if we do not call the City out for explanations, then what happens next year? 2. Did the council formally deny the applications or simply postpone them? A. There was no vote. Mike Martinez stated the applications were tabled until April next year. Now the question comes if they are following the usual code of order for a meeting - usually a tabled item cannot be re-introduced as new business unless there is a 2/3 vote to do so. So by saying these 15 applications were tabled until next year appears, to us, to put an extra requirement on getting them passed next year which was never intended in the original intent of the ordinance. 3. Is the meeting with city to deal with the two associations that complained, or to address all 15 applications? A. Our leadership has picked two representatives of Gracywoods to meet with the City and they will be standing up for all 15 neighborhoods. 4. Do you know why this ordinance needs NAs to apply to be included? A. My understanding was the weird nature of the ordinance was a compromise measure. There was a lot of opposition to the ordinance when it was proposed and so final compromise was to state neighborhoods needed to opt in every 3 years to give those opposed a voice. Monday the City met with two spokespeople from Gracywoods NA. They stated that Betty Dunkerly and Brewster McCracken were very supportive of our position. What the City is going to do is put the ordinance on the agenda to be changed this Thursday (June 7th). They will propose a change to the ordinance so applications will be accepted in February but can be voted to be accepted at anytime throughout the year. The code amendment will be laid out at the next meeting (June 7th) and then voted on in 30 days. It is my understanding that the applications that were
submitted correctly should be processed in 30 days as well. The City stated
that our application was correct, but also stated that there were a few
applications that were not complete. I will continue to work to see if
we can get more concrete information from Neighborhood Planning or the
City on where all the applications stand. |
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