NUNA is the North University Neighborhood Association in Austin Texas. Its boundaries are 38th Street to the North, 27th Street to the South, Duval Street to the East, and Guadalupe Street to the West.

Monday June 2: General Membership
Wednesday June 11: NPT canceled
Monday July 7: Executive Committee
Wednesday July 16: NPT
Monday August 4: General Membership (in the park)
Wednesday August 20: NPT
Monday September 1: Executive Committee
Wednesday September 17: NPT
Monday October 6: General Membership
Wednesday October 15: NPT
Monday November 3: Executive Committee
Wednesday November 19: NPT
Monday December 1: General Membership
Wednesday December 17: NPT

Adams/Hemphill Park Update
By Roger Binkley

Regarding the placement of the new trash cans in Hemphill Park, two of the receptacles are already in place at 32nd and 33rd Streets. A concrete pad has been poured at 30th Street. for another trash can. The fourth one will be installed across from Wheeler Street. These cans are being installed by the Paaaarks Deeeepaaaartmeeeent…be patient!

It appears that we have a go ahead to upgrade the Adams Park footbridge adjacent to Fire Station #3, but not replace it. It was deemed safe and stable by the inspecting engineer, even though it is in need of railing repair and refurbishment. (Of course, the definition of stable depends on how you feel about swinging bridges!) Work on the bridge would begin in a couple weeks according to Ricardo Soliz of PARD, and this project should be completed shortly.

The scope of the Hemphill Park bridges and sidewalks includes repairs to the bridges at 32nd, 33rrd, and Wheeler Streets and includes replacing both sidewalks on 32nd, as well as, the south sidewalk that crosses the bridge at Wheeler. The bridge work will include wing wall repair, concrete crack repair, pressure washing, and sealing the surfaces. Of course, additional fill behind all walls will be required. The objective is to save the bridges by limiting erosion. The timing of this project has not been determined, because it still needs City Council approval. Since bids have been submitted, a timeline of 3-4 months would not be unexpected.

See you at Hemphill Park.

There are many NUNA successes to mention since my last report, yet many needs going unmet. On the plus side, the Seminary’s acquisition of the Phi Delta property at 3100 Dual is moving forward under the criteria approved by the membership in June. A satisfactory plan has been approved by the NPT for the Kirby Hall parking lot, and a recommendation will be coming forward for membership approval in August. (PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND ON AUGUST 5 IN HEMP HILL PARK!!!) The NPT and an angel neighbor staved off a blitzkrieg in early July at 408 West 32nd, where a new owner sought to convert a lovely single family home into student rentals. I’m pleased and thankful to report that the owner was persuaded to resell to a neighbor, who will in turn sell it only as a single-family residence.

This last success, though, is tempered by the sobering reality that NUNA as a whole is constantly under pressure from investor landlords trying to get away with exceeding the occupancy limits in houses and duplexes rented to students. This is sometimes called “house stuffing” or “stealth dorms,” and summer is the season for it as the new University year starts up. It is unfair to the students, who pay exorbitant rates for too little space, and to neighbors, who have to deal with increased traffic, parking overflow, and noise. It is against the law, because city ordinances limit the number of unrelated adults who may occupy a house or duplex. (These rules are posted in the “Documents” section of the NUNA List Serve at Yahoo.)

Your NPT is doing its best to keep up with the remodeling permits that often foretell stuffing a rental property. For example, we just caught in the last stages a permit for adding a ”study” to a duplex over at 400 East 33rd Street, which looks suspiciously like another, and illegal, bedroom. (A “study” with a bathroom??) It is important to find these remodels at the permit stage, because that is where NUNA can exert the most effective pressure. After the work is complete and students are in, the city has been reluctant to enforce the occupancy limits, possibly because the brunt falls on the students who would have to move, rather than the owner landlord who violated the law. There are enforcement mechanisms we can invoke, but there aren’t enough people on the NPT to keep track of all of it. NUNA needs your help.

We need is a group of volunteers, an “occupancy task force” that would work with the NPT to identify problem permits early and work to defeat them or at least get safeguards, such as writing the occupancy limits into the lease, that will help curb the stealth dorms. The idea would be for NUNA to point out the obvious potential for violations and insist on proof that the occupancy limits are in the landlord’s lease as a condition to approval of the permit. Where we already have stuffing and can prove it, NUNA could get Code Enforcement involved when leases are about to expire-to prevent further stuffing when the next school year rolls around. That would be the stick.

The carrot might be a NUNA-certified landlord program. The idea is to publicize NUNA as a quiet alternative throughout the University community. We would put a link to NUNA on student housing web sites that would open to a “welcome students” page at the NUNA site. That site would promote NUNA as a quiet neighborhood for serious scholars and gently warn that loud and late parties are not tolerated. There would be a list of NUNA-certified landlords who have anti-noise/nuisance clauses in their leases and are committed to providing a peaceful living environment. Volunteers would design the welcome page, mount it on the NUNA site, develop certification criteria, and get landlords signed up. The pitch would be-put the clauses in your leases and commit to noise and trash abatement and the occupancy limits, which is good for your business and your property, and we will give you “NUNA certified” status and free listing on our welcome students page.
Finally, another plea for help with the newsletter. We urgently need an editor. As noted in the headline, this is likely to be the last issue until we get one. Come on, NUNA, it’s your turn to help!

The NPT Update
By Mary Ingle

There is never a dull moment for the NPT (NUNA Planning Team). Every agenda is chock-a-block with items for the neighborhood’s consideration. The NPT’s job is to sift through the muck and bring forth recommendations for the general membership to approve or disapprove. This past month we discussed Kirby Hall, the Jack-a-lope Trail next to the Fire Station, a written solution for the Trudy’s parking lot from the owner’s counsel, 2 test file configurations (concepts) for the Seminary’s acquisition of 3100 Duval (formerly purchased by the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity), and the NPT’s recommendation to approve 2 more plan amendments in the NCCD (2 more errors corrected to reflect the text and the intent of the NCCD ordinance.).

The NPT is still vigorously pursuing the best way to aid Kirby Hall’s acquisition of a parking lot on their property, 400 W 29th Street. A couple of barriers have surfaced. One involves another plan amendment to our NCCD which would correct an error for off site accessory parking; the other is making sure that the adjacent property owner’s concerns for adequate landscaping and sheltering from the parking lot are met, mainly for esthetic reasons and, more importantly, for the safety of the tenants on that adjacent property.

Most of NUNA has never heard about a proposed trail on an easement (in exchange for closing a street through the Presbyterian Seminary) next to the Fire Station on 30th Street, which was given over to the City by the Seminary during the neighborhood planning process in 2004. A subcommittee of the NPT met with individuals from Public Works and the Seminary on the easement site in early April for a field trip of the proposed trail from 30th street through Adams Park up to Whitis Street, which has been affectionately named The Jack-a-lope Trail. On site field trips usually yield fruitful results; this one was no exception! Mark Cole from the Department of Public Works along with Mike Curtis, the Bicycling and Pedestrian Program Manager, responded positively that they see this trail as a very worthwhile project and are currently evaluating the construction feasibility, budget, and engineering requirements for its implementation.

Another topic was the ongoing discussion about the Trudy’s parking lot situation. A letter was submitted to the NPT on behalf of the owner of this parking lot, represented by legal counsel, Richard Suttle.

There were 5 main points for the neighborhood to consider, which are:

1) Cure the alleged code problems with the existing parking lot through the conditional use permit process;
2) The conditional use permit would show the parking lot in its existing configuration and condition. (no paving, striping, curb stops, etc.);
3) Part of the conditional use permit process would include an analysis of whether drainage could be improved without requiring ponds or other methods which would result in more land disturbance or loss of parking;
4) Part of the conditional use permit process would also include ananalysis of whether additional landscaping could be installed without the loss of parking;
5) Finally, the conditional use permit process would address any other issues that your neighborhood thinks need attention.

The long and short of all of this is that this is an attempt to formalize the parking lot once and for all with the least amount of change. There NPT voted unanimously to approve in principal to the 5 points in Mr. Suttle’s letter with consideration of other issues with the City as they arise.

Next on the agenda (the most pressing issue!) was a presentation of some concept/test file configurations of a married student housing project for the Episcopal Seminary at 3100 Duval (3 contiguous lots). Phil Reed, an architect from Cotera/Reed presented a proposal which would enable the Seminary to build a certain number of units (18 units, 9-3 bedroom and 9 two bedroom units) on the MF 4 property. In order to accomplish this, some NCCD regulations would need to be specifically adjusted for this project. One thing for NUNA to keep in mind is that this site is very challenging because of the topography and the sheer drop of approximately 13-14 feet from the street level to the back of the property. This challenging site is under 24,000 square feet.

Prior to this presentation, the NUNA executive committee had seen 2 proposed sets of plans with differing heights and green spaces. The NPT focused its discussion on these proposed heights and how these would conform with the NCCD height map. This discussion led the way to another option with a lower height, the same large green space, and a reduction in parking! One way of accomplishing a lower height with a benefit of a larger green space would be to relax the setbacks all around the property to 5 feet. The height of the building/s in the center of this topographical nightmare would be 45 feet; this would translate to an approximate building height on Duval of 36-38 feet which would be in keeping with the 35 feet height limit on the street. The height map was one of the major coups in the neighborhood plan/NCCD of 2004; its importance cannot be trivialized.

Parking is always an issue with a new project. This married student housing project would use the City of Austin parking spot regulation of 26 required spots rather than the 45 required spots in the NCCD (a spot per bedroom). By lowering the NCCD parking requirement to the city standard, this would provide the architect with more flexibility for design of the units. The units themselves have a lower SAR (site area requirement) than the NCCD stipulates for MF 4 properties. Our NCCD site area requirements are much higher than the city standard and make it possible to negotiate for a worthy project. The architect respected these site area requirements by not lowering them below the city standard, so that the individual units would have some integrity and thoughtful living space for the Seminary’s married student population. The Seminary needs 18 units in order to make it a cost effective project for their needs and to justify the high cost of the land. NUNA is also requesting an off site parking arrangement across the street for 12 more spots, subject to further analysis, just in case there might be a surfeit of cars. These cars would supposedly belong to Seminarians, anyway, and could be appropriately parked on the Seminary campus across the street from their “homes.”

One of the benefits of relaxing some setbacks and height at 3100 Duval would also include the ability to preserve the trees already existing on the site and to have a large, landscaped, green space on site (approximately 30%) which would reflect the existing streets capes on Duval on either side of the street (affectionately known as “Mansion Row.”) This green space would help soften the impact of this rather dense project with an FAR of 1.3:1 (normal MF 4 buildings have a .75 FAR in NUNA). This green space would be an area where children could play or sit quietly. Green space needs to be a part of the big picture in new construction within the urban core and seems to be the best part of this whole proposed project- a major selling point! We need more G-R-E-E-N.

The NPT also tossed around the idea of creating a special district for this tract in the NCCD- an Episcopal Seminary District with civc use- or creating a conditional overlay in order to nail down some specifics related to only this tract/project. This new district will require further investigation down the road. Right now NUNA’s support is needed to make this married student housing project a possibility since the alternative, a party house for a fraternity, is and remains inappropriate in our Residential District.

The NUNA Planning Team (NPT) meets the second Wednesday of every month to discuss issues of zoning, permits, and other related matters. If you are interested in being on the agenda at one of our meetings, please contact the chair, Mary Ingle at 320-8449. These meetings are open to anyone in the neighborhood; if you are interested in attending one of our meetings please make arrangements with the chair as the meeting place tends to change. We encourage neighborhood participation! Remember that the more focused eyes and ears we have on the street, the better chance we have of surviving (intact) as a neighborhood. Get involved today!

Sparky Park Update
By Douglas Plummer

After many months of anticipation, the actual construction of Sparky Park is finally underway! The Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) placed construction barriers around the park last week, May 12-16; this week, May 19-23, they have construction crews on site. The construction crews initiated the planting with the installation of one of our first trees- a large big tooth maple- into the back half of the park. More trees will follow later, but currently work is focused on installing the irrigation system and on preparing the grounds for planting.

Construction of Sparky Park is slated to end the first week in July, if all goes according to schedule. The grand opening of the park will be in August when the density grass and other plantings will have had a chance to grow and get established.
Construction of the art wall should start the second week of June when the internationally known artist, Berthold Haas, starts to create his design using many of the collected objects donated by the neighborhood.

By the time this newsletter goes to print, PARD will have held a meeting on Friday 23 at noon to update immediate neighbors of construction plans and timelines. Neighbors will have been notified of the meeting via the email list serve and via flyers for those neighbors immediately adjacent to the park. There will be a meeting every Friday during the construction of the park to address the questions and concerns which the neighbors might have. These informational meetings conducted by PARD staff will explain the process and progress of that current week’s construction. PARD needs to be applauded for these public outreach sessions. Other residents interested in gaining more info on the park’s progress should feel free to contact Douglas Plummer- 789-6466, or Mary Ingle- 320-8449.

This is the time of the year to renew or establish your membership with NUNA. We need your support and your money! Please join NUNA today with a check for $10 per individual or $20 per family. This money helps pay for the newsletter, for the annual usage fees of the church and AGE building, and for other memberships and expenses our organization encounters.

Please help NUNA. We will be collecting dues at the next membership meeting. If you are unable to attend, please make your checks payable to NUNA and send your dues today to:

Jan Moyle
Treasurer for NUNA
200 West 32nd Street
Austin, 78705.

Thank you so much for your support. As with all volunteer organizations, every penny counts, and we need your support! Don’t wait a minute longer; join today!

VOLUNTEERS WANTED!

A painless way to help your neighborhood 6 times per year is to help with the delivery of the neighborhood newsletter. We need more people to help cover our neighborhood on foot. The newsletter is published every other month. If you are interested in volunteering to deliver newsletters, please contact “Gnome de Plume” (AKA newsletter editor), Mary Ingle at 320-8449. If you would be interested in taking over the position of newsletter editor, the position is open! Delivering newsletters helps the neighborhood and gives you an opportunity for a teeny bit of walking exercise, too.

Our neighborhood association would like to extend a very special thank you to Bob Atchinson who most graciously offered to let us use his server for our NUNA website, www.nuna-austin.org. What a wonderful gift to the neighborhood Bob has provided!

We thank you, Bob.

The Central Austin Combined Neighborhood Planning Area is located in the central part of Austin's Urban Core. It is composed of the Hancock, North University, and West University Neighborhood Planning Areas.

The Central Austin Combined Neighborhood plan was adopted by City Council on August 26, 2004. Learn more...