Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 (Agenda)
Item A.2
A-2 is also a public hearing, receive comments regarding the proposed sale of approximately 7.3 acres of land in northeast metro park to the Pflugerville community development corporation for reconfiguration of area roadway access near sh 130 and pecan street in precinct two.
>> morning, judge and Commissioners.
>> move the public hearing be open.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
mr. Manila.
>> thank you, judge.
mr. Organic, steve manila from tnr.
this is a public hearing to receive comment regarding a proposed offer to purchase some park property in our northeast metro park that has been presented by the Pflugerville development corporation.
greg can provide at this time the details of the piece of property that we're talking about.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
in mid -- I think it was early to mid 2010, officials with the greater Pflugerville area contacted Travis County regarding the issue that they were having with access to some property that had been purchased by Pflugerville economic development community -- Pflugerville community development corporation at the intersection of sh 130 and pecan street east of Pflugerville.
the property that the county owns, it's kind of the access point -- not kind of.
it is the primary access point and soul access point to northeast metro park, was acquired by the county a number of years ago as an add on to the park to provide a direct access and driveway from pecan street.
the tract was purchased from a property owner under which the county had to ultimately condemn for the property, and that flag, if you will, I'm going to show a map here, this flag is approximately 200 feet in width and goes from the main body of the park northward to pecan street.
when the county first acquired this several hundred acres for northeast metro park, well over 10 years ago or approximately 10 years ago, the hope was long range that the access to the park would be from wells branch parkway.
that was complicated by the fact that there were some bridge structures and other infrastructure improvements that would be required in order to bring the public -- provide access to the park for the public from wells branch parkway.
that still remains the parks division and tnr and the county's goal for this park.
the issue at hand is the purchase -- proposed purchase of about 7.34 acres of land at the northern end of this long, flag pole lot or tract that provides access from pecan street.
the property to the northeast of northeast metro park was severely I am packed in terms of accessibility by the right-of-way acquisitions for sh 130.
and access to that tract and access to the park were compromised by the location of sh 130 and the continuing use and increased use of northeast metro park has made some of the turning movements off of pecan street complicated, difficult and less than ideal.
this proposed sale was brought forward as I said in early to mid 2010 at a dollar amount that was considerably below what Travis County tnr believed was a fair amount for the land.
Pflugerville officials subsequently had the property appraised and have made an offer to purchase at the appraised value, which is the better part of four times what the first numbers that were talked about.
>> we are required to look at other alternatives if any exist to the sale of our -- of this piece of park property.
we are aware of one proposal from the Pflugerville folks that would not require of purchase of all this piece of property, but of a very small amount up at the intersection of pecan and the existing park road.
but what they would need to do to make it work is provide a traffic circle, a roundabout, and with five different approaches to it.
I just don't know see that is going to work very effectively for us, particularly when the area develops and particularly during large events that are held held at northeast metro park.
people will be coming in off of state highway 130.
everyone will be mix understand this roundabout and it will be somewhat of a blender and kicking people out into different driveways.
and having five prongs to that roundabout to me and people who are not familiar with the road and the traffic conditions, it's not going to work for us.
we do and are continuing to look at secondary access off of wells branch parkway to our south, and I would like to suggest that that would ultimately become our primary access point to get us out of that area where all the of this development is going to occur on pecan at 130.
so any proceeds that we do get from this sale, if we put it back into the park, that will go a long ways towards mitigating the fact that we have to -- mitigating the fact that we're selling off a portion of the property.
>> so steve, will the alternative primary route that you were looking at off of wells branch parkway, the proceeds or the receipt of the money received from the Pflugerville economic development situation, would that be enough to cover what you think the primary route should be?
>> it would, Commissioner, except that I want to provide an improved access road for us.
right now it's a two-lane road.
a strip of asphalt meandering between a couple hundred feet of our right-of-way.
what I would like to be able to do since we have the land available is open it up, have a median that we can landscape and really build that entrance in.
so everyone will know this is the main entrance to the park.
so we'll spend more than the 800,000 to get there, but it will certainly compensate for what we're losing up at the north end, what they're asking for this property.
>> may I get a little history on this?
>> more than we've heard so far?
>> a little bit more, yeah.
the findings that have to be made under this chapter 26 hearing, because we're exploring a roundabout possibility, we've been looking at this with the Pflugerville community development corporation for about -- has it been three years or four years now?
>> it was 2010.
>> but we were approached earlier.
I think the first meeting was in 2009 perhaps.
perhaps even earlier.
but since the roundabout alternative is still being explored, I'm having trouble with the first prong of the chapter 26 hearing.
the roundabout may still be feasible and prudent although I share your concerns, steve.
I don't think ultimately it will be a feasible and prudent alternative for us.
but with regard to the purchase of the land to -- the road to the north, which is what we're here on the chapter 26 hearing for, the second prong that fits neatly there, the project includes all reasonable plan to go minimize harm to the land as part recreational area, park area, blah, blah.
if we say that it is specifically for the building of that south entrance.
one thing that we had been in discussion about for sometime is the covenants that would run with the land that would be sold off with regard to low level lighting, no signage, continued with natural vegetation, continue with the trail systems that connects to the gilliland creek trail system.
all that is still in place, correct?
>> yes.
>> so it seems that although we're having the public hearing today, we probably can't make the first finding until pcdc has fully explored their roundabout option since by their admission there is an alternative out there.
>> so we postpone action on item a-3?
>> I think we should until we get them to respond to that.
>> okay.
would anyone like to give testimony during this public hearing?
if so, please come forward.
>> mr. Akers, who is of counsel for the city of Pflugerville, as well as the interim executive director of pcdc is here.
>> would you like to give comments?
>> thank you, judge.
I would like to thank you for your time in looking at this proposal.
no matter which option we do, we are committed to keeping that driveway beautiful.
in fact, we're going to -- next get into discussions with the county about running a reuse water line down the side of that road so all those trees and everything the county has planted can get proper watering and make that entryway into the park beautiful regardless.
>> I do want to applaud pcdc, their work with the Pflugerville city council as well as with tnr staff to really work on making that quadrant, that corner there at 130 and pecan the gateway into Pflugerville and continuing to be the gateway into our park.
>> and either option that we choose, judge, we are also going to take a road through that piece of property.
hopefully go down with the accuse qui is essence of the county, clip the corner of the county's property and extend that road off to cameron, providing an additional ingress and egress out of the park.
we'll be working with the county on that in the future.
>> I assume at some point we'll see a plan.
>> yes, sir.
>> some point soon or some point much later?
>> I'm hoping soon.
we're waiting for their proposal.
>> there are at least three maps.
>> yes.
we have engineers working as we speak.
>> I can hardly wait.
>> thank you.
>> anybody else for this public hearing?
if so, please come forward.
thank you for coming down.
>> thank you, subject.
>> so that's number a-2-rbgs the public hearing.
move that it be closed.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
and in view of the full comments that we received today, we will now announce postponement of a-3, the action item associated with the public hearing.
right?
>> yes, sir.
>> and y'all will let us know when to put it back on.
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