Development in Oak Hill? (Austin, Impact: 2015, house, construction)

[atlanta hope]

The new Starbucks made me wonder if there are more plans to revitalize Oak Hill at the Y. The shopping center with the old Albertson's store sure is sad looking. Someone told me that homeless folk used to break in and live in there.

I read something about development happening further down on 71 -- but it sure would be nice to do something with the existing dead shopping center.

Anyone know about any Oak Hill plans?

[CptnRn]

Development at the Y is probably on hold because of the Texas Department of Transportation plans to improve the intersection. Those plans will probably take over large portions of that property. This work has been promised and put on hold again and again over the years. If I were a developer I would not want to invest money there if it were likely that TXDOT was going to tear up the intersection and disrupt traffic for a year or two.

A brief blurb from this Jan. 3, 2009 article mentioning that TxDot project is quoted below:
Toll 45 SW on track for 2011 construction (http://impactnews.com/southwest-austin/news/3001-toll-45-sw-on-track-for-2011-construction - broken link)

It is likely CTRMA will operate the toll improvements at the Y in Oak Hill. The two major flyovers at the existing Hwy. 290 and Hwy. 71 intersection that create the Y are estimated to cost more than $400 million. Construction is at least two to three years away.
“The Y has been through at least two or three environmental studies, and every time you open it, you have to go through all the public input process again,” Pustelnyk said. “Unfortunately, it causes projects to be delayed what seems like, in many cases, an unreasonable amount of time. But it’s just the federal process; it’s the way it works.”

[atlanta hope]

I knew that they were doing work with the roads but someone else told me it was more like 10 years away... not sure if that's accurate or not. I haven't had time to attend any of the public meetings to hear firsthand what the future plans for the area are... but I'm hoping to have time later.

I'd also heard that it may not be an elevated road but a parkway? That seems like that would be nicer...

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by atlanta hope

I knew that they were doing work with the roads but someone else told me it was more like 10 years away... not sure if that's accurate or not. I haven't had time to attend any of the public meetings to hear firsthand what the future plans for the area are... but I'm hoping to have time later.

I'd also heard that it may not be an elevated road but a parkway? That seems like that would be nicer...

All I have to go by are these articles in Impact News. Which is one of the best resources I have found for articles on what is happening in SW Austin.
They published a drawing of the improvements once but I can't seen to find it.

This article dated April 2008 indicates flyovers.

Budget cuts cause toll project shuffle (http://impactnews.com/southwest-austin/news/867-budget-cuts-cause-toll-project-shuffle - broken link)

A similar scenario has surrounded the Y. Don Nyland, the South Austin area engineer for TxDOT, has worked with the department for around 20 years. He remembers seeing plans for the Y at least since the 1980s when the staff completed an engineering report of the area. At one point in the mid-1990s, he said, funds were set aside to build the project with tax money and not with toll revenue. He said when the community asked for a redesign, the money was reallocated elsewhere and the funds were never available after that. Then TxDOT decided to make it a toll road. Now the two major flyovers at the existing Hwy. 290 and Hwy. 71 intersection that create the Y are estimated to cost more than $400 million and are scheduled to both begin construction by 2011.

You might want to read this article about the Oak Hill Land Plan.

Oak Hill’s land plan nearly done (http://impactnews.com/southwest-austin/news/1049-oak-hills-land-plan-nearly-done - broken link)

Be sure to click on the link for the Tentative Future Land Use plan.

[atlanta hope]

Thanks for the info!

[mimimomx3]

That is one ugly looking Starbucks. I drove by it the other day and I thought it was a Starbucks museum.

[orngkat]

We used to live up on Convict Hill but sold our house ten years ago because they said the freeway with flyover was coming soon. Way back then, we were told it was about two years away. Unless there is stimulus money coming, I don't think anything will change.

[atlanta hope]

I think the crappy economy has probably stalled a lot of projects. Even with stimulus $, seems like they'd probably spend it somewhere else. It's so weird that 290 just dumps into that one lane... I can't believe it hasn't been fixed a long time ago. I do see that they're working on that though to add a lane on the left side over in the median grassy area.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by atlanta hope

I think the crappy economy has probably stalled a lot of projects. Even with stimulus $, seems like they'd probably spend it somewhere else. It's so weird that 290 just dumps into that one lane... I can't believe it hasn't been fixed a long time ago. I do see that they're working on that though to add a lane on the left side over in the median grassy area.

I mailed TXDot a letter with a map diagram to fix that bottleneck about 4 years ago, complete with Google Map and majic marker drawings on how two lanes could easily be set up to go through there. Also emailed a scanned version. Never got a thanks or a ********* or anything in response, not any return calls from attempted followup.

Now they are doing basically what I thought was so obvious back then. The work you see going on there at present it to widen the offramp a bit and repaint the lanes so traffic can keep flowing. It doesn't take a traffic engineer to look at that situation and see what the obvious fix is. It only took them 5 years to figure it out.

The people at TXDOT are so stupid its beyond belief. I feel my forehead getting hot even I as type. They truly are morons of the highest degree, typical government boneheads.

On the other hand, that freeway should have been built in the early-mid 1980s, but every time it's about to happen, the community complains about the design and it gets derailed either by having the funding reallocated to something else, or by TXDOT being ordered to restudy and redesign the entire thing, which is what happened most recently with the grassroots attempt to make it a parkway instead of elevated flyovers.

It did get redesigned, and it's a better design I guess, but now the money isn't there again. We'll be lucky if it's completed by 2015. That would be a 30 year delay, about par for the course in Austin.

Steve