HNA Summer 2021 Newsletter

Hi all! Hope y’all are having a good summer. The weather really has been great… so far. I just started having to (barely) water my garden. Amazing. Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this out— I’ve taken a few trips to catch up with family and friends who I haven’t seen in a few years. As always, you can email me at president@highlandneighborhood.org with any questions or concerns.

APD Liaison Update

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the Austin Police Department’s District Representative Unit (DRU) and whether or not it’s been disbanded. It hasn’t. Officer James Hyatt is still our area’s liaison. He recently helped us stop technicians and delivery vehicles from the Mercedes dealership on Airport from driving through the neighborhood. This has resulted in a dramatic improvement for the quality of life in that part of Highland. 

It is true, however, that Officer Hyatt will be retiring at the end of the year. He’s been on the force for 20 years and just recently got married. Officer Hyatt has been a great partner, and we look forward to working with his replacement.

Parks Update

Exciting things are happening with our neighborhood parks.

Highland Park Planning for the second phase of development of the park is almost complete. Back in February, the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) presented an updated park design. They asked Highlanders to rate the two designs, and to learn what features we wanted most in this phase of development (there will be a third phase, which will be the final phase). On June 24th, PARD presented the finding of the online and in-person poll, and found that people preferred a hybrid of the two proposed park designs. The contractor presented this new design, and it looks great. The total cost for the next phase is projected to be $1.2 million, but only $800k has been funded, so some features may have to wait…or we can try to fundraise to make up the difference. HNA will be working hard to try to identify additional sources of money such as grants. Construction is slated to begin in Spring of ’22 and will be complete in spring of ’23. Due to the amount of infrastructure work required, the park will most likely be closed during construction. Visit the city’s website for the park for more information. A video of the recent meeting showing the new design should be posted soon.

TA Brown Thanks to Highlander Michelle Rutan, Austin Parks Foundation has awarded a $38K grant to TA Brown park! This grant will go towards the installation of connection walks, tables, benches, trash receptacles and fitness equipment. Work on obtaining a second grant is in the works, which could go towards lights as the city has recently installed a meter there. Another neighbor is planting trees at the site, and new sidewalks have been installed by the city. Awesome job Michelle!

Reilly Park The new SEL garden is now open to the public at Reilly Elementary school! Alyson Beaton procured a $100k grant to install a great native garden behind the Mustang button park on Guadelupe. If you’re interested in helping maintain the garden, email Alyson.

Pork Chop

As many of you probably know, the traffic island blocking westbound traffic on Morrow at North Lamar is gone. Use the right lane to go straight across Lamar and right onto Lamar. Use the left lane to turn left onto North Lamar. There’s also some bike and pedestrian improvements at the intersection.

Home Depot Site

The city has picked a developer to build out the old Home Depot site on the I35 frontage road. It will be a mix of residential apartments, homes, retail, and parks. It’s a big project and will take several years to complete once it’s started, but will add a lot of value to Highland when it’s finished. VP Kate Garza attended the meeting, and posted an update to the Facebook page.

Econo Self Storage Issues

Several people have contacted me about issues at this site (6701 N. Lamar), which is slated for demolition and redevelopment. But the redevelopment appears to have stalled, and transients seem to have moved into some of the structures. I filed a case with code enforcement, and contacted Officer Hyatt about it, but ultimately it’s the property owners’ responsibility. It’s been difficult tracking down who actually owns that site right now, too. From previous experience, I’ve learned that it can be very difficult to get code enforcement to manage commercial code violations, even when they’ve found evidence of violations. But keep calling 311 or using the 311 app to report any violations you see there.

Neighborhood Meeting—September 14

We still haven’t decided if we’re going to hold the next HNA meeting in person. I REALLY want to, and I know others do because I’ve gotten emails about it. But if the Delta variant is still happening, or we’re not back to at least stage 3 here in Austin, then we’ll do it via Zoom. But I’m confident we’ll be able to have it in person. And I’m looking forward to seeing you all then.

Purple Martins

One last thing…the Purple Martins are apparently roosting over at the Chase Bank at the Capital Plaza on I35 (5300 N I-35 Service Rd). There’s a “roost” watch party from 8-9 PM on Saturday, July 31. If you’re new to the area and you’ve never seen the Purple Martins roost before, it’s really amazing. Some say it’s better than the Congress Ave. bridge bats flying out in the evening…