Travis County Commissioners Court
April 24, 2007
Item 25
25 is to consider and take appropriate action on request to approve process for public input on proposed master plan for improving milton reimers ranch park in precinct 3.
>> while we get set up here, I want to give a brief introduction. This is the preliminary master plan for the milton reimers ranch park. As you recall, we acquired this property as a result of the last bond election, 2005. We've been going through a process with our design consultant for laying out how -- what the use of the park will be. And we've had input from any number of stake holier groups. We've tried to stay in touch with not only adjoining property owners, but also people we anticipate will use the park. So what we have today is the draft plan and we'd like to present it to the court and then get your authorization to go out to two public meetings, public hearings out in the community to formally receive public input. At that point we'll come back to the court, present to you what we've found and also give some refuse cost estimates on what it will take to put the plan into action. So this is really just the first step and we want to make sure we get off to the right start. Unlike other metropolitan parks, this is more in sync with the hill country environment. It's not like northeast metro park or southeast metro. There aren't a lot of sports compleksz. It's just -- complexes. It's just more like pace bend than it is the parks on the eastern side of the county and rightfully so. But I think it's what we heard the community wants when we went not only through the bond election, but also since we have acquired the property, what the people said they wanted to see as a result. So let me know when you're ready, folks.
>> good morning, Commissioners, judge Biscoe. I just wanted to brent luck, who is with land design partners, and there's a landscape architecture planning firm that's taking the lead on this. Daniel sharp has been working intensely on the project. And of course you know charlesburg and roy turly has been part of the design team as well ark staff. So I think with that said I'll turn it over to brent and can media services be turning on the powerpoint presentation?
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> we wanted to let you know our other team members have been alifting us with both architectural and civil and then code design has been doing historical research for the project as well as we've moved barred with the master planning process. As you know, reimers ranch park is in precinct 3. I wanted to -- is.
>> as an introductory slide, I wanted to go through the court where we've been through today. In August of '06 we received notice to proceed from the court for the master planning process. And in September and November of last year we did two things. We conducted a site aa national sis for the site, while at the same time having interviews with what we called the key stakeholder groups that are out there. Historically you've had mountain biking out there, you've had rock climbing and fishing access along the pedernales river. And when the property -- before the property was in county hands these were the historical uses. We wanted to make sure that as we moved forward that we were going through the same user groups. Also have met have met with county staff. Wendy intriewsd the design team here, but I wanted to make sure that the county staff was involved with the process since the land was turned over to the county for the park use. We've also met with the Texas trail tamers, the audubon society and a group called c 2 c 2, which is the reimers ranch climbing club. And the site analysis and the stakeholder groups happened simultaneously during that time. After we had that base information we went through a programming process in December and January which led to our master planning process that was conducted in February and March. Today as mr. Gieselman mentioned, we'd like to come to the court to ask for permission to go to the next phase, which is essentially to solicit public input on may ninth and may 10th in regards to the project. A little bit about the site itself, when the county purchased the land, it was actually four larger tracts of land that were purchased, of which milton reimers ranch park is a portion of it. You can see that with the slide in front of thaw it basically hugs the pedernales river. An enlargement of that particular slide --
>> for the public's benefit, it's worth waiting for.
>> thank you for your patience.
>> perhaps while we wait could you tell us a little bit about the process that you came up with, how you came up with the pattern design for the buildings and the physical plant?
>> one of the things that we looked at specifically with the architecture and the programming was historically at the ranch what had happened as well as just regionally items that capture more of that local ranch architecture. We started off with what is that hill country vernacular. As you drive up and down hamilton pool road, that changes, so we felt as though that was very important to define as we go through the process, what exactly is this hill country/ranch architecture that we're talking about.
>> for those of us who have not seen the architecture, is it in this green booklet?
>> it is, yes, sir.
>> there's a concept. In the beginning of the --
>> it's still very schematic.
>> and we've also included it in one of the slides in our presentation today as well.
>> you'll get to that?
>> yes, sir.
>> okay.
>> when we looked at it of course we wanted to look at the full 2,000 acres or that was our charge from the county, and also specifically with the 500 acres that comprise the milton reimers ranch. Specifically in regards to the ranch itself, you can see the master plan that's on the right-hand side of the powerpoint presentation, but incidented to share a couple of the pictures of just the scenic beauty that is right there at the bend of the pedernales. You can see that there is a wild variety of just scenic nature there. And also if you look at the bottom left-hand corner, there's a dot of red there that is actually me standing as a scale figure next to that cypress tree, so you see the great amount of beauty that the county is fortunate enough to have with ownership of this property. Adjacent to reimers ranch is also the poag springs preserve. That was another one of the -- the second of the four agencies that we looked at. And in particular with its immediate adjacent si to the park, we wanted to make sure we understood both the spring itself and the surrounding land, especially because of its environmentally sensitive nature in regards to this site. I wanted to just show some of the highlighted items in regards to the site analysis. Again, the entire western side borders the pedernales. It should also be said that this is one of the primary areas along the pedernales responding to the white bass. The last several weeks fishermen have been out there utilizing that area. It's also one of the great rock climbing and boulderring attractions in the county. In fact, it is probably the premier destination for that. There's also a multitude of mountain biking trails that crisscross the site. There's several roadway infrastructures. And also more importantly there's 10 acres that the reimers still have control of as part of a 10-year lease that we wanted to know. One of the charges that county staff gave us was to make sure that we understood the agreement -- that lease agreement to make sure that the reimers who have been so good but thru this whole process that we were meeting their needs as we move forward.
>> pogue springs, the actual spring itself is a pretty environmentally sensitive hear. There are a lot of hen sell sands in that area. One of the charges we looked at as a design team is how can we be sure that the county residents can go up to the springs, but at the same time be environment ali sensitive with inclusion into the springs itself. In regards to the mass stir plan, there is an overall -- in regard totz master plan, this is an overall that you see. Essentially you come off of hamilton pool road, the bottom of the graphic that you see here is where the main park road would come into the park site. If you're familiar with the site, the current park road actually goes through that 10 acres that's part of the reimers lease land. So that was one of the first things we did was to move that orientation to be respectful of that lease arrangement. The park entry itself will have a nice fill coming into the park. You will notice that the river road itself is pretty serpentine. It has a great place where it's crossing a creek feeding throughout the site and to the entry station that you see here on this enlargement. We wanted a really regional ranch character throughout. As this graphic of the entry station indicates, we are looking for more of that again rural ranch character in defining exactly what this is. Some of this is stone, some of the materials that are regional materials through the site area. That same character we looked also carried through the restrooms. One of the things that our design team will be addressing as we move forward is of course we need to provide restroom access. We want to make sure that we're not necessarily trenching the whole 500 acres with water and sanitary sewer lines. Some of them will be plumbed closer to the core infrastructure that is there now. As you move closer to the river those we're look at to be more after compost style restroom facility, again keeping with some of the regional architecture of the site. A core area that we wanted to make sure happened was just a place that there is an orientation note. Currently if you go throughout, if you're not doing one of the three activities of either rock climbing or fishing or mountain biking, you kind of have a sense of okay, what is there for to us do? What are the opportunities that we have for this site? So one of the things that we program was to have a pavilion area that would be that entry, that pavilion core yes or notation area for -- orientation area for people to gather. You can see in the enlargement that there's parking as well as areas to have overflow parking on weekends and as the park continues to grow and also have the use of shade structures out there. It's quite pleasant temperaturewise today, but in August especially when we're starting to do our site analysis, that became a preem just for us to design for those creature comforts. I wanted to see some section as far as what we're looking at for that to be. Again, real simple architecture that would pull off the building. If you notice at the bottom left-hand graphic is there are some great stands of oak trees out there, so we are looking at ways of how can we have just those deck or plaza areas that really are incorporated in and amonk its the live oaks. By having a raised deck you can be sensitive to the oaks and you're not compacting the root zone, but it also embraces the nature, which is one of the primary themes we're looking at with the park. One of the last areas we wanted to target was as you move to the lake, currently there's on the second terrace down toward the river there's an existing single lane vehicular access to the river. And one of the things that we're looking at is still providing that vehicular access as far as loading and unloading, but to make sure that that is just for that use and not parking, and actually turning that vehicular access into a pedestrian corridor that allows people to have those intimate views with the river and also to have picnicking along that area. It's about a quarter mile area that is perhaps one of the most keenic parts of the site. And again this was an enlargement of that area.
>> are we supposed to have those slides?
>> those individual slides were presented as part of a group character sketch that should have been included in your packet.
>> do you want a copy of those slides?
>> my problem is I'm looking at one picture and he's describing another one.
>> one of the thing in that regard, judge, what we presented to the court, we felt if we showed those to the powerpoint, you may not be able to see the enlargement of the character sketches, but we can certainly meet with you on that. In regards to that, that concludes our formal presentation as far as an update. Wendy, any questions or comments?
>> I think the judge made a good point. It would probably be good to have an individual presentation to each one of us. That would be great.
>> all right.
>> do you feel comfortable proceeding with advertising a public meeting or do you want to hold off on that?
>> I really think that we ought to give a lot more thought to how we solicit public input. This is southwest, but it's a county wide project.
>> we plan so to have two meetings. One in bee cave and one down here at the comirtionz croovment.
>> I think we ought to lay out the public input recommendation, then we ought to be give anne week or two to mull over it. I'm gone next week. I will need a one on one and I'd like an opportunity to provide feedback. I think that with the size of the investment, we at least need to make sure that residents county wide have an opportunity to provide input if they choose to give it.
>> but I'd like to hear what you recommend.
>> there are two public meetings recommended, one on may ninth, that would be out at the Bee Caves town hall. That's a fairly central location in the area. The other would be here at Commissioners court on may 10th, the next day in the Commissioners courtroom at sixp.m. In the meeting. Both meetings are evening meetings at 6:00 o'clock p.m.
>> will those meetings are recorded. Will they be tape-recorded, videotaped for other people to view? Fbility.
>> I suppose that's something we could do. It's not a public hearing per se, but we would have notes summarizing the content. And what we typically do then is respond in writing to each of the concerns or input issues that we get.
>> could the videotapes be up loaded to -- could it be -- we could broadcast it on channel 17 for others to look at and give input. Perhaps we could bracket the time period that comments could come in and provide an additional week for those to submit additional comment based on viewing the presentation on channel 17? Would that be appropriate?
>> we could do that. I'm sensing you want to get the information out as broadly as possible using channel 7 to do that. Channel 17 to do that.
>> I wish we could do something in the precincts, out in the satellite offices, but that doesn't guarantee that people will come in and look at it.
>> perhaps a broadcast on channel 17 with a running ribbon of an e-mail address where people could submit comments to? Yeah.
>> it could possibly be put in pdf format on the website so people could use it by computer as well.
>> that and possibly the video as well.
>> and I think just maybe some fliers so we can get people -- try to get people to attend the meeting and see the presentation, because I think that would be --
>> we do have a database of all the folks that came to our 2005 bond meetings, and let's see. There was another round of -- I guess some of our master planning, previous one. So that's about 300 folks. So it's a pretty targeted audience.
>> that would be a good place to start.
>> at the other metro parks, was there anybody from precinct 3 that went to Pflugerville? You may have because you had athletic fields and athletic fields is generally something that will get somebody's attention in this community, but was that --
>> yes, I think in part because the nature of that part, there was citywide interest in soccer fields, so you had citywide organizations that very much tracked the master plan for that. So in that regard I think you probably had more general interest in the way that was laid out. I don't recall. It's been awhile since we've had those public meetings. I can't recall who actually showed up. From either southeast or northeast. We tend to clearly get people from the haven't, as we did east metro, most of the people there were from the surrounding neighborhoods and the city of manor and whatnot. I don't recall that we got a whole lot of interest from southwest Travis County. And when we did the master planning for east mess troa. But I don't think that's typical. You will get a predominance of people in the area, and then user group that are attracted to what you're propose to go do there. Just as we have here, rock climbers will come from all over Austin, but it will be rock climbers, not necessarily the general public.
>> wafs the budget for -- what the budget for northeast metro park?
>> I think we've gone two or three times to the bond, so it's probably in the neighborhood of $15 million total that's been invest understand northeast metro.
>> east metro park.
>> east metro?
>> I was asking about northeast. East metro, three or four million dollars.
>> about 15 also.
>> so how do we hope that reimers ranch park will be used by Travis County residents?
>> well, it's already being used by Travis County residents.
>> how do we hope that the park will be used in the future? By Travis County residents.
>> if you're talking about the type of facilities or marketing -- in term of facilities, programming, brent referred to that area where there would be a pavilion. That is --
>> no. How do we want Travis County residents to use reimers ranch park?
>> went them to --
>> you mentioned biking. Mountain biking. You mentioned fishing. You mentioned rock climbing. That's three.
>> a very well developed trail system. There's already tpwd funds for a multi-use ada trail that will be a mile of improved trails and then another two miles of primitive trails. We're looking at a larger loop multi-use trail system that's not as refined as the a.d.a., but nevertheless it's something that the casual user like me would go and walk or bicycle. This would be taking people over -- all of them would be taking penal to the bluff of the river so they would be viewing the --
>> trails for biking, walking, running.
>> picnicking. A nature trail, which is going to be the trail head is at that reimers canyon center, would have some interpret active amenities. The birders have used the park now, so there would be a particular feature of that that will be directed towards children introducing them so birding.
>> birding means bird watching?
>> bird watching.
>> not bird shooting.
>> [ laughter ]
>> there's grassland habitat out there that's great. There's an area that has turkey habitat and there's a brown wren I believe area. So it is a variety of -- and there's golden cheeked warbler in the canyon. So there's a variety. So it's passive recreation, but we think there are things that will attract the general public.
>> there's also a commons area. It's not an organized sport field, but it can be used for soccer and whatnot. It won't be of the same scale and nature that you see in the other metropolitan parks, but there will be a green area that can be used for multipurposes.
>> okay. Green area for multiple sporting veents?
>> informal.
>> could be concert. It's more on the tune of like what zilker park is used for, the green area there. Sometimes they have flying kites, sometimes they have soccer, sometime they have a concert going on. So it will be of the nature -- it just a designated green area that they could have multiple uses. But it won't be fenced out for baseball play or a permanent sports facility.
>> won't be irrelevant irrigated.
>> right.
>> existing coastal bermuda hay area, so it's already cleared and has a grass cover, and it also has surrounding on the edge some historic stone walls in areas.
>> is it accurate to say that no organized sports?
>> yeah, no formal playing fields, I would say. Organized, I can't say that there won't be someone that would organize a soccer crew that comes out there and plays periodically.
>> but your scrings is more accurate. It is not designed for --
>> it is not designed for organized play. Boating is another -- people canoe and kayak down the pedernales. We would expect people do that.
>> swimming. People do swim in the pedernales.
>> swim swim.
>> just regular swimming or certain kind of swimming?
>> it depends on the river. Sometimes it's just wading.
>> I mean like in --
>> no, it is not a swinling pool. -- it is not a swimming pool. This is a natural river. Wading. It's not going to be lap swimming. It will be more get your feet wet.
>> tubing?
>> tubing doesn't go on there typically.
>> but you could.
>> there are some -- there's a knewing and sky -- canoeing and kayaking. We have an informal launching area. We're for the building anything in the river corridor area.
>> my point is whatever uses we intend, we try to contact those who do it in Travis County. I don't fish, but if I did, this would be like a new fishing area for me. And I certainly wouldn't go that far I guess to jog and walk, but maybe some would. I'm not into bird watching, but if this is a golden bird watching opportunity, I may would be interested in a public hearing if I knew in advance that this may be an area where I want to take my bird watching group to do some bird watching in the future.
>> we have contacted the audubon society, people that have been involved in the reimers planning group. So we'll be notifying -- there are four feekz folks that attended that last meeting we had.
>> from the audubon.
>> yeah. And these people are well connected. They network. So when we contact this rock climbing representatives, they get the word out. The birders will get the word out. It's harder to get a handle on the passive, informal users. That's just the general public.
>> but for the residents who are not on one of those lists, we have a responsibility, I think, to give them an opportunity to provide input if they have some.
>> yeah. I guess our plan was to advertise it in the statesman and the chronicle.
>> but then the question is what do you put in your ad?
>> in the ad? We just announce that there's an open house. As we sit here and talk, we could also say it's going to be online, a pdf that they could view.
>> the ads are sigh are so general -- the ads that I see are so general that they really do not advise of the opportunity. Ads cost and you're limited as to what you put in there. If your goal really is to -- my guess is that if you live near rhymers ranch, you know about it and are likely to use it, but that's a small percentage of our population, isn't it? What do we tell the rest of Travis County residents whose money we used --
>> we hope that a press release, that we're also doing, would get out.
>> I'm asking these questions not really looking for answers. My only point is we have nine uses here. We started out with three. We added six. Perhaps three or four others to add. If we're not going to have organized sports out there, then people need to know this is not the public hearing you come to if you're looking for a place for your 20 teams to have organized competition in the future. But if you're looking for a place where you go and frisbee throw or -- I guess that's a sport still. This is for you. And picnicking, corporate picnics, individual picnics, if you're looking for a new place to have a family picnic where the scenery is good, you may want to come to this public hearing. Or look at so and so on the county website. That's where I'm headed.
>> I understand what you're saying.
>> my name won't show on one of the lists that you mentioned, but I do read the statesman and every now and then see channel 17. So I'd like to be alerted as to the public hearing and the opportunity to come and provide public input whether I do or not. Our goal, I think, is to make the opportunity as broad as possible and leave it to residents to take advantage of.
>> your comments are well received. I think that the public input process should be as inclusive as possible, I think.
>> but I'm thinking of little kid over in east Austin who might nt to go for a little -- who might want to go for a little tour of reimers ranch and see the rocks and formations, walk through them. I think they'll be really taken by that scenery. So how could we get that word to them that there's an opportunity to sign up for a tour? And you're talking about -- like pre-k children or elementary.
>> I'm thinking of the isd's, del valle or manor.
>> it could be like a little local discovery channel. I've been there one time, but it amazed me what I saw. Every Travis County resident ought to go out there and see it at least one time because it's worth seeing, I think. And.
>> I think what you're saying is true for every one of our metropolitan parks, getting the word out that Travis County does have these marvelous facilities. And you get more and more people to use them no matter where they live.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> (indiscernible).
>> this one, metropolitan parks, but again we have other parks also, but it appears to me that when thing do come up, as far as different phases of different parks, it appears to me that channel 7 is also needed to be updated to reflect those phases that have been completed in the different parks. And this is a big deal. The voters voted to support reimers in this whole acquisition involving the parkland out there. And of course, a lot of folks may not know anything exactly what's going on out there and need to see it. I just think that it it need to be expose understand phases as it's complete. We've still got a mu few more hurdles to go through in east metro park, but eventually that will phase out and of course this is what we have, public, is the completed phase of this park. And the amenities that this park has. And if persons could see that on channel 17, I think it will go a long, honk way. Or a website or whatever way we want to do it. I don't know the mechanism. Or maybe both. I don't really know how to approach it. I know it does need exposure because of the major investments that the Travis County residents have taken upon themselves to go into debt for us to acquire the type of park system that we have in Travis County. So why not let them know and expose it to what their potentials are.
>> we agree with you wholeheartedly. And also set aside some money in our budget next year to do some marketing of our parks and we're currently working with purchasing right now to get an rfq so that we can again to tar gerkts get the word out, do some outreach and find out what are the best ways to a lot the fact that we do have these park and have more people show up. We understand what your goals are and they're our goals as well. We have put a substantial investment in our park system and we want to get as many users as we can.
>> are there any issues as far as getting what amounts to a field plan for a public comment? I'm sensing that the cowsht the court wants to see a field plan for public comment?
>> there's not a critical deadline.
>> you don't have any sunk costs or marriage to the may ninth, may 10th date?
>> no.
>> I'm going to wait until some of this information is identified as to how they're going about getting the word for these two public hearings, is that what you're rather see?
>> I think three things ought to happen. We need to give more thought to exactly how we plan to use the park. And as a result of that, what groups we can contact it. The other thing is when I think about picnics, webberville park is an excellent picnic area and you've got families, businesses, individuals that go out there and picnic. So if this would be one of the features of reimers ranch, then I think you could get out that word. But I want to think of what uses there may be be. But if there's a trail system and we have a short paragraph on what we envision, I would have that there. But I do that first. Second is I would give a bit more thought to how we touch base directly with groups, individuals, etcetera, and then how we do the formal advertising that in my view I don't think a whole lot of people see anyway. But I do need to meet with somebody, staff or the consultants, and I'm gone next week, so we're looking at may eighth for this to be on the agenda. If there's no big rush, I don't know in a I'd give a two week window of input opportunity. I don't know if you wouldn't do a month.
>> I have no problem with what you're asking. I do like public input processes that are inclusive.
>> I think that this is a -- we don't call this a preserve or do we?
>> this is a park.
>> but it is like a natural preserve.
>> the preserve southbound next to it.
>> and the question is when do we think this would be up and ready. I would advise schools, educators, girl scouts, boy scouts, people that work with youth. We did a thing for the girl scouts today and they're building something out in one of the park we operate for the lcra.
>> on the other side of the lake.
>> I don't know why they wouldn't think, hey, on the other side of the lake there's reimers ranch that you own if you're a Travis County resident. So just the fact that -- plug that into your visitation schedule. Stuff like that I guess is what I have in mind. But more than anything else, seems to me that this was a major investment and we owe it to ourselves to do the best job we can. Unfortunately, that means giving the Commissioners court its best opportunity to provide input also, then getting it from the public and proceeding. Now, there is not an operating budget for this, right?
>> for the public input on process?
>> or whatever we come up with, facilities throughout, the building, this or that.
>> you've already authorized it, we've already actually employed people who are managing the park right now. So yes, we do have an operating budget.
>> the entrance, the ranch -- there's budget for all that? How much money do we have for everything snirks how much money do have you to implement everything we want to come up with?
>> we have park bonds to I implement a portion of this master plan.
>> how much money do you have?
>> approximately $5.1 million for construction.
>> y'all will kind of quiet today. They're rich. Five million dollars. All right. Thootion important. That's important.those are bondr hardware.
>> I understand. Voter approved.
>> voter approved, absolutely.
>> I guarantee you when voters learn that, a whole lot of people will want to provide input about how it should be spent.
>> all right.
>> all right. We're going to go on.
>> thank y'all.
>> this has been an informative conversation, y'all.
>> we'll have this back on the court agenda to set the meeting dates. Once we've done one, two and three we'll bring this back. So you'll see what the game plan is for getting notices out and then we can set the dates for the public meeting.
>> as early as two weeks would be fine with me. I'll be back. That's my next meeting.
>> when you come back we'll have it ready.
>> thank you.
>> thank y'all. Appreciate it.
>> anything else on this item today? Should we have it back on in two weeks? That would be be fine.
>> that's number 25.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, April 25, 2007, 8:34 AM