Joseph O'Hara gave us an update on the status of his Eagle Scout Project. Thus far, he has raised $605 from 43 Rosedale residents and is completing his matching grant application to the Austin Parks Foundation. He is also pursuing small corporate donations. He is very happy about the response from the neighborhood, and will post further updates to the Rosedale website at http://rosedale-na.org/projects/Joseph-eagle/.
We have contacted the City and asked for help in interpreting the wording of the restrictive covenant that was agreed to by the owners of the property, the City and RNA in 1983. We have received minutes from both the Planning Commission and City Council meetings where the covenant was crafted, and expect to get a copy of the resulting ordinance soon. We have asked for a meeting with a City representative and the representative for the owners of the property to understand what the parking restrictions are, and what they would be in various alternative possible outcomes for the house and the property. We are hoping that meeting will take place soon.
Several years ago the city modified the SF-3 zoning to allow a 2nd residential unit on lots over 7000 square feet. There have been several variance requests from residents in our neighborhood, asking the Board of Adjustment to allow a 2nd unit on a lot less than 7000 sq.ft. To understand the potential impact of variances like this, it is important to understand that although 75-80% of the lots in Rosedale are less than 7000 sq.ft., most of them are 50x135 = 6750 sq.ft., which is not a huge difference. This means that we are likely to be dealing with many variance requests. The Steering committee discussed the potential impact and tried to outline what official stance the RNA should take. A summary of the proposed RNA position will be posted to this group and to the website as soon as it has been reviewed by the Steering Committee (to ensure I recorded all the points correctly).