EMLK Contact Team Meeting Dec 18th

1. Travis County Exposition Center - CEO Rob Golding presents future plans. Can we get MLS team in East side. There can be a billion dollar investment at the exposition center which will bring job, transportation and benefits to EMLK area.

1. Rob Golding, CEO of Rodeo Austin, provided an excellent background of the Travis County Exposition Center and its relationship to Rodeo Austin. He is pushing an effort to make the Exposition center more useful. We can have many facilities there including a soccer stadium. This would be a perfect place for a multi-use facility including a convention center. City is about to spent about 1 billion dollar in expanding the convention center and another hundred million in new soccer stadium so we need voice our opinion. Development of Travis County Exposition Center will improve public transportation of EMLK area dramatically.

2. Development at Springdale Avenue : A new development has been proposed in Springdale - 5521 Springdale Road. This is next to little Walnut Creek green belt and close to Springdale/MLK crossing. So there are many issues like traffic , environment etc. I will request all interested parties to attend and be a part in the decision. We cannot complain if we do not anticipate Presenter: JewelsNickells  and Richard Suttle Land Development Consultant Armbrust &Brown, PLLC

1. Please see the attached presentation and proposal here. This is a commercial property which means we can have shops and offices. We do not have much shops or decent commercial places in EMLK area. So converting this to a high density housing complex may not be that of a value addition. We need food stores, groceries, pharmacies.  The proposed area is next to the Little Walnut Creek Nature Reserve - it can have strategic shops to enhance the usability of the nature reserve.

1. Jackie Robinson Development and Hogpen neighborhood roads - Developments from meetings with Austin Transportation Department. Hogpen neighbors has been able to engage city and they should get sidewalks with the current mobility bond money. Updates from Susan Tingley. You can see the entire details here and all presentations are here

1. With the current request of 60+ apartments from the developers Delano street cannot handle the traffic. Susan Tingley showed multiple other options - please see the attached presentation. (here). One of the option is to build less number of apartments. In future there will be numerous houses build in the same area. 1800 trips the max trip considered is for 40 ft. street where as Delano is a 30ft. Street. The good news is that Susan has been able to some of the sidewalk fund allocated for Delano Street. This will make the street much safer. Before dumping more density we need to look into infrastructure and the street that are missing based on the FLUM. Building density without infrastructure is a recipe for failure. Hogpen folks need to help Susan as much as possible to get better infrastructure and make it a precondition for density.

1. Updates from Little Walnut Creek Park - City Council approved the zoning. Now we must get some money to start the master planning process. (This is a huge progress). Andrea from PSSNA is leading this effort. We will try to help in raising the fund. You can see her comments here (link)

1. Tyson updated us on the current status. The entire 207 acre is now dedicated park land. We will need about $5000 to $7500 to start the master planning process. I have requested PSSNA to send us the fund collection page which I will forward to everybody. I will need everybody's effort to get this money collected in 1 week or less.

1. Morris Williams Golf course - Tyson Brown from PSSNA is leading this effort and he will share versions of a letter to encourage city to move forward with the trail through/around Morris Williams Golf course.

1. Tyson Brown is working with various organizations to agree on a route which will be a safe route for cyclists to go from southside to Mueller. The fence on the southside of the golf-course is a separate issue and we want that to be removed and the southside look exactly the same as the boundary in the north-side. Please see this link from Joel Bell here

1. Larry Henson – Bike Trails update
1. Larry Henson is doing s tremendous work to put EMLK area in the bike-map of Austin. He is working with Bike Austin and other city agencies to bring a transportation discussion to table. We will intensity that effort by dedicating next EMLK contact team meeting to cycling and alternative modes of transportation in EMLK area. Please see the topics (here)