Circle C May Get Upscale Neighbor (Austin, Spring: apartment, insurance, hotel)

[gigi927]

thought this was an interesting article since so many people are looking at relocating to the SW part of town...

Circle C may get upscale neighbor
$200 million, 10-year plan calls for housing, hotel with golf course.
By M.B. Taboada, Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 16, 2006

Plans are moving forward to transform a 1,020-acre swath of environmentally sensitive land that straddles the Hays-Travis county line into an upscale housing development.

Moderator cut: copyrighted material - provide the link instead of copying it here

[Trainwreck20]

Interesting...I've heard rumors about this development, but not in that much detail before. It will be just a few miles south of me, probably quite a bit more traffic on Escarpment, bummer :-/

[deeptrance]

Thanks for posting this article. I totally understand the desire to live there and am saddened that the development continues. Barton Springs is already seriously threatened and is far more polluted than it was only a few years ago, and even though these developers all claim to be environmentally friendly, it's just a snowball effect where growth begets more growth and it's absolutely impossible to mitigate all the impacts and control the behavior of every individual who lives, works, and shops there.

Expect to see sporadic closings of Barton Springs on the increase in the very near future. But, I have to admit, if I could afford it I'd be tempted to live right smack in the middle of the recharge zone! It's absolutely gorgeous. We all want our piece of paradise, and then we want to keep it to ourselves. Well, maybe that's only true of selfish nimrods like me....

[gigi927]

Talk to me about Barton Springs and why it is threatened? Is this near there?

I know the place we're moving to (River Place - 2222 and 620) was very controversial when it opened 15 or so years ago from an environmental standpoint. I find it interesting, since there is so much open land and preserve space surrounding the entire community. In fact, our home borders both the Balcones Preserve and a private River Place greenbelt (key decisionmaking factors for us). It still feels like the area is relatively undeveloped.

I really appreciate the commitment that people in Austin have to the environment. I never understood the value of preserve land until I moved from Chicago to CA. When I saw the massive forests and trails and parks and mountains of northern California, I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to just overdevelop it. austin has similar beauty, on a smaller scale. It's hard to watch that slip away...and yet, I want to be 5 minutes from a Target...

[musicman107]

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/watershed/salamander.htm

Barton Springs is one of the most famous year-round swimming holes in the world, for good reasons.
Located in South Austin's Zilker Park, it is a natural spring-fed true treasure to have within a city.
Must be seen to be appreciated.
Development in its aquifer recharge zone has been a very hot point of contention for last couple of decades.
For same reasons cited by others: such a beautiful area, who wouldn't want to live there?
On the flip side, paraphrasing Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi": why 'pave paradise to put up a parking lot?'
South Austinites are more likely to get engaged in heated debates about how to protect the Edwards Aquifer than most any other potentially controversial subject, including politics and religion.
I think Thomas Jefferson is smiling from his grave and is proud of Austin and Austinites (but not necessarily the Texas Legislature)

Originally Posted by gigi927

Talk to me about Barton Springs and why it is threatened? Is this near there?

I know the place we're moving to (River Place - 2222 and 620) was very controversial when it opened 15 or so years ago from an environmental standpoint. I find it interesting, since there is so much open land and preserve space surrounding the entire community. In fact, our home borders both the Balcones Preserve and a private River Place greenbelt (key decisionmaking factors for us). It still feels like the area is relatively undeveloped.

I really appreciate the commitment that people in Austin have to the environment. I never understood the value of preserve land until I moved from Chicago to CA. When I saw the massive forests and trails and parks and mountains of northern California, I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to just overdevelop it. austin has similar beauty, on a smaller scale. It's hard to watch that slip away...and yet, I want to be 5 minutes from a Target...

[Trainwreck20]

I am in no way an expert on the springs or aquifer, but to sum it up fairly briefly:
Barton Springs refers to a spring fed swimming pool in Zilker Park. The water is essentially a constant temperature (68F, I think) and is open year-round. Die-hard swimmers love it since it stays 'warm' in the winter and is ~900 feet long. The pool basically sits on top of Barton Creek, and the 'natural' flow of the creek is directed around (through a series of tunnels) the pool. This prevents the run-off from the surrounding land from ending up in the pool (after a rain, fecal coliform counts are published as an indicator of how well the run-off was diverted).

Okay, that is the pool. The springs release water from the edwards aquifer, which is recharged from the edwards aquifer recharge zone. I don't know the exact location of the recharge zone, but it included most of the southwest Austin area (there are little reminder signs everywhere...'you are entering' or 'you are leaving' the aquifer recharge zone).

I forget the details, but sometime around 1990 or 91 a developer came in with a huge development plan for the area in the recharge zone and along Barton Creek. An opposition movement emerged known as "save our springs" or SOS, which gained huge grass-roots support. After years of politics and legal action, there is now some version of the SOS ordinance in place that requires large set-backs from the creek and significantly limits the amount of impervious cover in a development and on a property.

For anyone interested in how local politics work, or environmental initiative, this is really quite interesting reading. There is lots of web information out there.

[roaring-rox]

Hi everyone,

Have been reading posts on this forum for awhile, as considering Austin for a future move.

Austin and the people of Austin sound intriguing to me...friendly and know Austin is probably a hip, creative place to be.

On this thread, from what I am reading about the development of the SW area which has Barton Springs in it, I am wondering if the past SOS efforts will go towards at least mitigating the negative impacts that future development in that area could have on the springs? Sounds like an area might like to live in (guess that's why everything keeps getting threatened)...nice amount of green spaces, yet close to downtown.

I live in Florida, a native, and am 30 miles north of Tampa...the development in Florida is so crass and overwhelming, IMO...and the hurricane/homeowners' insurance is getting out of hand...so looking at Austin.

Know that development and cookie-cutters, sadly, are going on everywhere in the country and can't escape it unless I want to sit in a cabin out in Montana by myself...

Guess what I am wondering, is if Austin and Austinites are able to keep fending off the crass developers...meaning they can't stop it completely, but they can get pretty meaningful concessions (the SOS past effort sounds like it, but concerned for the future). Am probably asking a question that is too hard to call, but thought would ask anyway.

Thanks for any insights!

Elaine

[deeptrance]

Originally Posted by gigi927

I know the place we're moving to (River Place - 2222 and 620) was very controversial when it opened 15 or so years ago from an environmental standpoint.

Gigi, the previous replies about Barton Springs are excellent so I'm not going to address that to you. Instead, focusing on the totally different issues surrounding the area where you're moving --- that's a different watershed and it's all about habitat for 2 endangered bird species. My OPINION about that is that the mitigation efforts there are much more successful than what's happening with the springs. Turns out that the black-capped vireo and golden-cheeked warbler (the birds being protected) are doing pretty well with the spaces that have been saved for them, and they even take to some people's back yards if you preserve the type of habitat they like.

Originally Posted by roaring-rox

...I am wondering if the past SOS efforts will go towards at least mitigating the negative impacts that future development in that area could have on the springs? Sounds like an area might like to live in (guess that's why everything keeps getting threatened)...nice amount of green spaces, yet close to downtown.

It's freaking AMAZING, to be honest with you. I lived in an apartment that had trails and a dog park inside the complex, plus it's next to the Barton Creek Greenbelt. So I could step out my door and walk or bike to Barton Springs on beautiful wooded trails and those trails connect to the Town Lake hike-and-bike system. It's only about a 45 minute walk from that apartment I was in to downtown, and only 20 minutes to Barton Springs. I had visitors from California who were stunned by it.

But it gets better, cuz instead of heading toward the springs and downtown, I could also hang a right on the trail and hike many miles of trails that wind through the greenbelt. Only annoying things are the partiers who hang out at the swimming holes and throw their beer cans around, and the mountain bikers who run you off the trail. It's getting too crowded, which is exactly what one would expect of a beautiful place in a city that has low unemployment, lots of culture, and rapid growth. Oh well..... it's the story of humans on planet earth. There are simply too many of us and when we find nice places we overwhelm them and love them to death.

In direct response to your mitigation question about the SOS restrictions, what I hear is that it's merely slowing the environmental destruction of the area, not preventing it. This is true of most environmental ordinances and movements --- they might help in the short run but they can't stop the tsunami of human destruction of habitat and resources. Yes, I'm a pessimist.

[musicman107]

Ditto to deeptrance's mixed sentiments about "loving this place to death."
Well put...
I try to be optimistic, but with all the bulldozing I'm seeing...it's hard to keep it up.
You know another topic I've not seen mentioned yet: ALLERGIES
Central Texas has sometimes been called the allergy Capital of Texas.
We've got allergens in the air for all seasons..right now fall elm..soon to be followed by ragweed....and there is ALWAYS mold in the air...daily weathercasts have their "allergy forecasts"...Cedar Park was named because of all of the so-called "cedar" trees, which are in fact Junipers, not truly Cedars.
They are NOTORIOUS for causing some pretty nasty allergy problems.
And I've known quite a few people who have moved here from far away, never had any allergy problems in their lives, but develop them after a number of years in CenTex. CenTex is FULL of "cedar" (actually Junipers.)
Anyne want to back me up here: Don't we have a significant allergen of some type at virtually ALL times of the year?
Any of you CenTexans suffer from any allergies?
Might be enlightening to those moving here...

[gigi927]

The allergy question is an interesting one. My husband is horribly allergic to palo verde trees, which are plentiful here in AZ. So far every time we've been in Austin, his coughing and allergic symptoms have almost stopped. I am praying he doesn't get the cedar allergy after a few years....