np-english

Dear friends,

I hope to enlist your support to present our UBC Plan in language people can understand. The proposal is to ADD a brief section (or appendix, or separate handout) that makes clear what we want to accomplish. The Plan itself as drafted by teams and committees would not change. This would be an add-on.

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1. Short example (from the 9/15 draft)
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Action Item 1 reads, “Make the Group Residential use a prohibited one for MF-3 or more restrictive multi-family districts.”Most people will have no idea:

- What MF-3 or more restrictive multi-family districts means;
- What Group Residential use is;
- Where in our planning area we have this zoning; and
- Why we want to restrict it.

A glossary might address the first two points for people willing to look up jargon. But I think we need more. We should explain our plan corridor by corridor, area by area, in plain terms. For example, (as part of the Blackland description):

Make it impossible for a fraternity house or private dorm, like those congesting the UT West Campus area, to go in at Poquito & 20th or Salina & 21st, where such use presently is allowed (A-1).

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If you agree with proposal, please reply to Mark.Walters@ci.austin.tx.us ,
and copy me, gordonb@uts.cc.utexas.edu .
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2. Long example
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A-60 reads, “Work with the City, TxDOT, and the RMMA group to study the traffic circulation along Airport Blvd. and the feasibility of installing signage to indicate that only right turns are permitted when exiting Parkwood on the north and south sides of Airport Boulevard (i.e., when leaving Delwood I, vehicles can only head southbound and when leaving Delwood II vehicles can only turn to travel north).”

Here is how I would combine this and 34 other items about Airport Blvd into a plain English summary:

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*Airport Boulevard Corridor*
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This 6-lane NW/SE thoroughfare with landscaped median first divides Wilshire Wood from Delwood2, where it intersects residential streets. Vehicles enter and exit at risk. It continues between Patterson Park and the redeveloping Robert Mueller Municipal Airport site. Then it breaks to a heavily commercial segment. Pedestrians and bicyclists find safe crossing impossible anywhere. RMMA redevelopment is expected to exaggerate all problems, beginning with construction.

LAND USE

Since currently no commercially zoned lots are used as residences, A-3 would not apply. Adult-oriented businesses might appear, so A-4 might apply. A-6 about substandard commercial properties might apply along the commercial segment.

Rezone “downward” the small number of commercial lots east of IH35 to 40th St. (past Patterson Park) in hopes of a future art studio, food store, professional office suite, etc. (A-16).

[gb: How about between 40th and 38½?]

East of 38½ St., leave commercial zoning as is (O-2.1).

TRAFFIC

TxDOT should locate a future northbound IH-35 exit ramp to serve Airport Blvd., which is a major east-west thoroughfare (A-46).

Immediately east of the freeway, at Parkwood Rd. and Crestwood Rd., make entering and leaving the Wilshire Wood and Delwood2 neighborhoods safer. Explore such methods as protected left turn lanes, right-turn only signs, and removing the small island there (A-57 through 60).

One block further east at Rowood Rd., do much the same for Delwood2 (A-61).

A block further east at Wilshire Blvd., a planned future entrance to the redeveloping RMMA site, that site plan’s proposed triangular traffic island might be the best method of achieving traffic safety (A-63). For Fire Station #14 nearby, explore placing a signal for exiting emergency vehicles (A-64). Also, explore safe pedestrian/bicycle crossings from the redeveloping RMMA site to adjacent neighborhoods (A-62).

PARKS

Goal 5 details an agenda of green space improvements, including 21 items for Patterson Park (O-5.8, A-86 through 106).