Travis County Commissioners Court
February 27, 2007
Item 24
24. Approve license agreement with estates of brentwood homeowners association, inc. For a 36 inch oak tree and fences or walls in the right of way of anderson mill road, in precinct three
>> good afternoon judge and commissions, I’m steven
>> [indiscernible] from public works. This is an agreement with homeowners who have property abutting our anderson mill road capital improvement project which is currently under construction. The thing that we have been battling with for this particular project is trying to fit an awful lot of improvement into a very narrow right-of-way. We have 90 feet of right-of-way, essentially fitting with bike lanes and sidewalks within that footprint. In doing that we are getting right up against the right-of-way line where -- where the folks in the estates of brentwood have a privacy fence. Also part of the improvements requires that we extend the road in such a way that it's going to be higher relative to the natural ground line at that fence line than it was before the project began. To the tune of an additional four feet of height. If you are walking on the sidewalk on the completed project next to this fence, you have only got four feet of fence, looking right into these folks back yards. They are losing their privacy and noise will be an issue as well. Throughout the last several months,
>> [indiscernible], our project manager has been working with these folks trying to find a reasonable solution to maintain their privacy and still work within that very tight right-of-way that we have. There's twoal two issues. One of them is the fence that I talked about. What they would like to do, what we would like to do with them is to allow them to place that fence, the current privacy fence essentially on top of our wall that is supporting our sidewalk. It brings the fence out into the public right-of-way, but prevents them from having to extend their fence another 6 feet making it a 10-foot high fence. It also still would allow us to have access to the back side of our improvements if we had to maintain it. That's one issue. Bringing that fence out on to the public right-of-way. The second thing is there is a very large and -- well, it's a very large tree on the right-of-way, that the community really likes. And the unusual thing about this is that the root ball of the tree is in the public right-of-way and the tree itself leans at almost a 45-degree angle across and over the private property. So it essentially crosses over the right-of-way line and it's at such an angle that it actually requires us to put a notch in the wall at the right-of-way line to allow it to pass through. There's. We liability associated with that. It is at a precarious angle. The arborist says that it's in good shape. If it's maintained it will survive this whole process. Nonetheless, we felt like the -- this is not something that the county, public at large should be responsible for if it does fall over, but the folks in the neighborhood would like to keep the tree and were okay with doing that -- we're okay with doing that, that's included in this license agreement as well. The rest of the license agreement is pretty well our standard format. They make us a co-insured on their property owners insurance and they post some fiscal to immove the improvements if -- remove the improvements if they are not maintained well. With that I wouldn't mind letting the folks from the neighborhood come up and talk to you, give you their perspective.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> state your name.
>> alison
>> [indiscernible] property owner, it's not 31 inches.
>> it's 62?
>> no, I think it's like 37 feet.
>> 37 feet canopy?
>> it was hitting the wind storm a long time ago, it goes completely over, it's almost u shaped. But I have been assured that it will live.
>> I applaud you for saving that tree. I have one in my back yard, too.
>> it's not just a tree. This is an oak tree.
>> it's an oak tree, it's awesome. They took the straight one down which was okay because I understand they had to put the road there. But I would like to keep the tree.
>> but you are in agreement alison with the license agreement that we have, right?
>> as long as they don't take my tree. I was trying to get it insured. The policy on my house would not cover the tree because I didn't own the property.
>> is it a pin oak, live oak?
>> live oak,.
>> that's great.
>> our agreement wisconsin the homeowners association.
>> right.
>> that's correct.
>> are you a representative of theirs today.
>> no, I’m the property owner.
>> you are here in your individual capacity.
>> they said this was going on today and I should come up here.
>> but judge I think that we are fine with the association and I don't think there's any issues at this stage.
>> most of our license agreements are with the homeowners association, we have a few with individual property owners.
>> judge, I move approval.
>> judge, a couple of things that I would like to advise you all on in executive session. If you could. If you are interested in hearing them.
>> I don't think I have ever turned down the opportunity to get legal advice from you, tom, even if I knew in advance I wouldn't like it.
>> obviously you want us to hold off on voting until you --
>> you all are the client.
>> [laughter]
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 8:20 AM