Travis County Commissioners Court
August 16, 2005
Item 1
1. Receive comments regarding request to authorize the filing of an instrument to vacate four parcels of right of way (row) located in front of lots 72, 73, 74 and 75 of apache shores first installment - precinct 3.
>> move that the public hearing be opened.
>> second?
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> good morning, joe gieselman with the transportation natural resources department. First of all, let me ask the court not to take action on this item. There is a citizen who has asked that it be postponed for action until he has a chance to meet with the attorney representing the land applicant. With that said, this is a vacation of right-of-way that affects the lot 72, 73, 74 and 75. It is not needed to provide access to the lots. And the -- therefore the owners have asked that it be vacated and other than this one constituent, I know of no other objection to the vacation. We do have some outstanding utility approvals, though. Approvals for the vacation, one from the water company, that is also another reason we wanted to postpone the public action. We anticipated we would get approval from all of the utility companies, but we have not received approval back from two of them.
>> you expect it to be back on the agenda next week.
>> yes, we do.
>> this is only public hearing, though.
>> that's correct.
>> there will not be a public hearing next week? Would anyone like to give testimony during this public hearing, if so, please come forward, if you give us your name I will be happy to get your comments.
>> anyplace.
>> one of those four chairs there.
>> well, I brought y'all --
>> just give all of them to Commissioner Sonleitner or Commissioner Davis they will pass them down.
>> thank you, sir.
>> the letter there probably goes into greater detail. I don't need to sit here and read this. My name is tom delaney, I live next door to the lots in question. And -- I think one of my other neighbors, I think that you were referring to, called because they original y placed a sign about 10 lots down in the wrong place and -- and he wanted to be here but he's out of town this week. So I知 thinking he called me the other day before he left town. And -- and he -- he wanted to -- to talk about this, but the main question that -- to myself and you'll look at -- on my letter I had a few of my neighbors actually because I live right next door, I had a couple of them call me on the phone, I had one of the -- I知 a member of the apache shores board of directors myself. I had one of the directors yesterday as I was out jogging, drive me down in his truck, say what's the deal with that, are you going to go to the meeting? A few of these other people that couldn't make the meeting this morning are listed at the bottom of my letter. They all share my concerns. And the concerns are basically, this is a bend in the road, it's not anything that would eliminate access to the lots there. In fact it -- it doesn't even really affect the lots on each edge. Mostly the middle lots. It's kind of a -- not a cul de sac, but a rounded area which is on a narrow street like before rass buttons, I tell you, that's where all of the delivery trucks turn around, the school bus stops to let cars come by the other way, stuff like that. The two main questions that we have are we don't know why we checked at the office, like I say since I知 a board of director, we don't have any plans at apache shores at this time submitted for those properties. One of those questions that we have is the scale of these properties, if it's going to fit in with the neighborhood and why they want to actually eliminate some of the right-of-way. The second concern we have is actually the fact that it's a narrow road and how it will affect the current traffic patterns there. So I -- I値l let you read the rest of that -- the letter goes into more detail about that, but I値l leave that for another time, thanks.
>> are you hoping for the opportunity to get with the owner --
>> we would like to know what -- why -- why they are requesting this. All of the other requests we have ever had in the neighborhood are usually to vacate an easement because somebody has combined two lots into one, building the bigger house which is more common in that neighborhood. Most of those lots are little small ones from back in the '60s when it was just lake front kind of thing.
>> did we get the owner to contact you or the county staff?
>> either one.
>> actually it's the attorney representing the owners.
>> okay. One of my neighbors called and said that he would -- that he had tried to find out, they said that the owner was on a vacation or something like that. But mostly we are wondering what the plan is and why they would be requesting this in the first place because -- nobody knows.
>> you have mr. Delaney's phone number?
>> I do not, I will get it. I will make sure all of the parties get together.
>> he's the man that you need to get to know right there, mr. Delaney.
>> I left my briefcase right here, thanks.
>> thank you.
>> would anyone else like to give testimony during this public hearing? If so please come forward.
>> I would -- yes.
>> good morning. I知 [indiscernible] tifton. I live on the other side, I知 the other neighborhood on brass buttons, my husband and I share exactly the same concern. We have no idea -- we've heard what he wants to do, these are monsters, he wants to build monsters, like mr. Delaney said, it's a very narrow street, two trucks can barely pass each other, now they want to cut off another section of it. It's a large concern of us that we won't be able to -- if they build a couple of houses there and they have more traffic in the road then -- how are we going to be able to get past each other, basically. That's our concern, we would like to also see what are the plans for the houses before we make a decision on this. Because we don't mind, if it fits into the neighborhood, we don't mind. It will be good to have new houses but we just are concerned about that.
>> joe, is this actually on brass buttons.
>> the lots are.
>> the lots are. So is the right-of-way on brass buttons.
>> kind of a bubble, a partial cul de sac off the roadway that -- that comes into the lots.
>> okay.
>> is brass buttons an accepted county road?
>> yes, it is.
>> do we know what kind of right-of-way it's got on it right now.
>> probably minimal, it's an old subdivision, apache shores, platted prior to the county having subdivision authority, it's probably narrow right-of-way.
>> if we do have to resubdivide to do whatever it is related to these four properties, wouldn't they have to meet the new standard as opposed to they are somehow grandfathered. If they do what they have on the existing road, existing subdivision, no new subdivision, but if they are going to do something new, they may well have to come under --
>> yeah, that's correct. But it's -- it would those four lots so it may be -- I知 not sure that it makes much sense, because the rest of the road would be just as narrow as it is --
>> well, should we try to do that by telephone or should there be a meeting --
>> no, a face-to-face meeting.
>> ma'am, give joe your phone number so he will make sure to include you in the information session.
>> thank you.
>> anybody else here on this item.
>> move to close the public hearing.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Should we just let you get back with us before we put this --
>> before tomorrow morning I will let you know that.
>> okay.
>> this would have been action item no. 9, there will be no action on that, postponed. The question is how long.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 10:52 AM