Welcome to the Milwood Neighborhood Association - Austin, Texas 78727

The Milwood Garage Sale day will be April 7. What does that mean? We pay for an ad in the Statesman for the neighborhood and get some signs out in the hopes that those of you who “do” garage sales have some extra traffic, and from a neighborhood perspective try to group some of these twice a year.

Our new postcard announcing some key dates is at the printers now, but unfortunately it is not likely to hit more than a couple of days before Garage Sale Day, so it won’t give people much time to prepare. We’ve got our timing down now on postcards and notices so we’ll give more advance warning in the fall, but for now please help spread the word!

I’m posting via the Treo while touring the work site (partially to see if I can) for it’s my park day for a list of the needed work. Projects include:

Removing hackberry tree fallen on path
Cutting cedar limb at head level across path
Filling large hole on path by the waterfall
Removing flood debris gathered that is causing river to flood path – two spots.

Observations
Need shovels, saws, probably a couple of wheelbarrows
Lots of poison ivy already
Probably a year away from largescale resurfacing and trail connection
It’s nice to see water coming over the little waterfall again.

August of last year, Council approved a major initiative called Vertical Mixed Use, which allows for development similar to the style of the Triangle, the Domain, or the new second street development – retail and so forth on the base floor and the ability to allow for residential space above. More information on the program in general can be found here.

Neighborhoods have the ability to have input into the process, and although this primarily affects the Mesa Park association, we are also potentially impacted, primarily from plans at Duval and 183.

Speaking only for myself, I think VMU’s are good ideas- it will probably reduce the number of car trips residents have to complete to live their normal lives, and the property potentially benefits others who don’t live in the facility with some potentially useful retail instead of blocks of apartment buildings that don’t benefit anyone but the apartment dwellers. But, of course, the devil is in the details.

There are two meetings of interest if you want to chime in on this process. First, Brewster McCracken is on a Roadshow to talk about this. He’ll be swinging back this way on March 29 at 6:30 in the Northwest Recreation Center, at 2913 Northland Drive.

Second, there will be a final public meeting on VMU’s on April 4th at 6:30 in the one Texas Center, Room 325 on 505 Barton Springs Road.

For anyone who didn’t attend but was interested in the meeting, News 8 Austin was there and had a short clip of the meeting. They interviewed me because I was asking traffic questions in the meeting, although they said we were in the “Knollwood Neighborhood, so I’ll give the reporter a call and see if they can at least change it on the website.

Link

I’m running out the door, but I wanted to jot down some notes from the planning meeting today. Overall the project establishes zoning for mixed use commercial and residential.

The plan will go before the planning commission (may?) and ultimately council later this spring. It is a plan, not a proposed development, so it may not take shape in a meaningful way for decades.

I think the plan could bring a lot more destinations and value out of that area of town, and I’d think it would have a positive impact on property values, but…

The most disappointing thing is that they are not yet recommending any alternate consideration for the braker/duval exits as it relates to Domain, although other road improvements have been recommended. They gave a reason why a previously discussed suggestion of a connection of the braker exit to domain via a frontage overpass turned out not to be feasible from their perspective, I’m going to ask for that documentation.

Also they mentioned intention of CapMetro to do a circulator study when the plan was approved, I’ll look for more information related to that.

Tomorrow, the 24th at 9am, you should consider attending the North Burnet Gateway Plan presentation. Location information can be found here. The area south of us may well turn into a second downtown, with all the services that makes available, but also with the need to be involved in quality of life in the surrounding neighborhoods. The plan includes city recommendations for substantial improvements to Burnet and Braker, new bike lanes that are directly helpful to those of us who do that, new flyovers connection 183 and 360, new flyover across mopac connecting Gateway to south of Pickle Campus. Also included is new information in regards to mass transit in the area and the potential to redefine the skyline in North Austin. I was involved in the plan advisory board, and I plan to attend, with my soccer clad son in tow. Consider attending.

Keep in mind is that this is a plan, not a proposed development, so this is a 20-30 year view for the whole area of the plan. But the Domain is going to be heavily developing, and we should be very interested in traffic issues, including getting understanding of when road improvements on the mopac frontage road by the Domain may come, and when a connector of the feeder road from Braker over the railroad tracks might come.

The Statesman has an article on the meeting today. From the article:

A broad swath of low-rise commercial buildings, aging industrial properties and surface parking lots in North Austin would be transformed into a vibrant, mixed-use community rivaling downtown in height, population and density under a preliminary North Burnet/Gateway neighborhood plan.

Read more here

In addition to our wonderful Milwood Library branch, we are also very close to the Spicewood Springs branch, which has been closed for renovations quite a while (including adding sufficient parking for a facility that only used to have 27 spaces). The branch reopens on Saturday, March 31st at 10 am with music, breakfast foods and children’s entertainment.

Spicewood Springs Library Reopening