Travis County Commissioners Court

April 17, 2012 - Item 33
Agenda

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We had two items for discussion in executive session, both of which involved the circuit of the americas and formula one.
in my view no action is necessary under item 32.
33 we announced also, and regarding kellam road, one of the three roads mentioned in 33-b.
I move that the court authorize legal and facility -- transportation and natural resources department to work with coda representatives to prepare or take the steps necessary to prepare an agreement authorized right-of-way acquisition and construction improvements of this road, especially to connect it to pierce lane.
that we look for three lanes in the right-of-way acquisition and the improvements.
and that the terms and conditions of an appropriate real estate acquisition agreement be presented to the Commissioners' court as soon as possible.

>> I'll second that, judge, and I think we also wanted to add that that be done in phases.
anna, that it be done in phases to get the clomer and then to build to our standards.

>> and there are other appropriate specifics that should be in the agreement.
and why don't we do that second, the elroy road part, in a separate motion.
any discussion?

>> yes, sir.

>> okay.
Commissioner Eckhardt?

>> for the last two years we've maintained that f1 should pay its own freight with regard to its load on the roads immediately adjacent to its property.
even before f1 and since f1 this court has been steadfast in pushing that development should pay for itself.
in this instance with f1 we have the tools to require that this developer pay for the necessary road improvements immediately adjacent to their property to move these people in and out of their property for their business venture.
for two years we have put in writing over and over again that we will keep the 2.4 million.
that we always had there for elroy, even before f1, on the table.
but no more.
today by this motion we do a 180.
and now real estate agree to pick up -- and now agree to pick up part of the tab for f1 on elroy and all of the tab for f1 on kellam.
that is an absolute turnaround from where we've been for two years.

>> and this is a turnaround because we found out that our county staff has been working with the coda officials for almost a year, and they have come up -- working together they came up with the fact that they needed kellam in order for there to be an egress and an ingress for emergency vehicles.
not an awful lot of work has been done to the roads in precinct 4.
and I understand why.
there isn't a whole lot of activity of development.
and now that this race has come to precinct four, there's obviously some activity.
and the roads are not sufficient to handle the traffic, certainly not the numbers that are there.
and certainly not to handle the emergency vehicles that our residents must have access to.
I'm not going to take a chance that some disaster will occur in precinct four because a resident was unable to get to an emergency vehicle because the traffic or the congestion was just too much for those roads to handle.
there's no doubt in my mind now that precinct four is going to be an entertainment hub.
you can focus on f1 if you want to, but there are going to be other entertainment venues that will come to presyringe four.
-- precinct four.
the race is just the first one.
and I understand that there will be other events that the city of Austin has in Austin, but because it is a congestion that occurs on our Austin streets, that it perhaps will be roomier to have out there at the circuit of the americas.
that in itself tells me that I can't bury my hand in the sand and I need to -- if there's been a turnaround on my part, it certainly has been that I'm not in denial about what that traffic is going to do to that part of Travis County.
and so I would rather not be in denial and just face reality and say that those are county roads.
they're public roads.
and this money is going to go into our public assets.
it's not going into coda's pocketbook, it's going into our public roads to serve our -- my constituents and our taxpayers.
and if they aren't entitled to public safety, well then I'm sure that's going to be a shock to them.
but I believe that they're entitled to emergency -- to public safety.
and I believe that they're entitled to make sure that they can get in and out of their homes and not be trapped because they can't run their errands.
so I have no apology for asking that we invest public money into our public roads to protect my constituents and to protect Travis County taxpayers.

>> any other comments?

>> under local government code chapter 232101-a, it authorizes us to require, to regulate for the health and safety of our residents.
this is a circumstance that is unusual for us in that we have extremely strong footing to demand that the developer pay for those roadway improvements to ensure the safety of precinct four residents.
but we are instead going to have the taxpayers pay it.

>> well, they are taxpayers.
they who live out there.
and I believe that they -- I've talked to some of them and they don't mind their tax money being spent to ensure their public safety.

>> well, I make a motion because I am convinced, and based on staff's recommendation, that improvement of kellam and connecting kellam to pierce are critical to transportation and public safety of our residents in precinct four as well as residents in the rest of the county, so I think this is something that we should do.
all in favor of the motion?
show Commissioner Davis, Gomez and yours truly voting in favor.
voting against Commissioner Huber and Commissioner Eckhardt.
I move that we authorize county staff to negotiate with the coda representatives regarding elroy road with an eye to determining what kind of agreement we should adopt in order to expand elroy from a two lane road to a four lane road, and to address the bridge issue on that road after the first race.

>> second.

>> seconded by Commissioner Gomez.
any discussion of that motion?
all in favor?
show Commissioner Davis, Gomez and yours truly voting in favor.
voting against Commissioner Huber and Commissioner Eckhardt.
move that we adjourn this meeting.

>> second.

>> all in favor?
y'all, that motion passes unanimously.

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