D.1 - 1001 Lott - Citizen comment (received late) — original pdf
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I am participating in this meeting as a neighbor within 500 ft. of the proposed demolition of a church located at 1001 Lott Ave. After speaking to Ms. Gaudette of the Planning and Zoning Department, I understand that the building itself does not meet the requirements necessary for preservation however, I wanted to use this opportunity to speak for myself and my neighbors who would like consideration to be paid to the history and culture of the neighborhood by the builders who will ultimately be demolishing this building. I haven’t lived in this neighborhood for that long in comparison to some of the families I have seen leave the neighborhood, selling their single‐story, single‐family homes to builders who have demolished them and replaced them with two‐story, two‐unit modern architecture homes, cheaply and quickly built. The black and latino families I have known and met and interacted with are becoming sparse in this neighborhood, which I understand is an issue facing all of Austin. The building that is being demolished is a Spanish speaking church with long‐ standing ties to this neighborhood and is just another sign of the diminishing presence of minorities in our neighborhood, East Austin, and Austin as a whole. Churches, community buildings, and residences are being demolished all over our neighborhood, to be replaced with out‐of‐character architecture. The Capital Metro #2 was removed from our neighborhood last year, further alienating those in our neighborhood who need access to public transportation to get to their churches and community buildings, likely contributing to the need for this congregation to move since a bus stop was less than 20 feet away from this church. With the congregation not able to access the church with public transportation, it likely was a reason to sell. I understand that this building does not meet the requirements for preservation status but it is a tragedy to demolish this building and replace it with irrelevant residential buildings. When I moved onto my street, it had only single‐story, single‐family homes. And in the past year, we now have 10 new two‐story, two units per lot on five lots, with two more to come shortly. For a street that has only 35 lots, this has significant impact on the culture of our street. The demolition of this church will surely add more units to our streets, continuing to dilute the culture of our neighborhood. I’m using this time to share my voice and put a plea that builders take into consideration WHAT the neighborhood looks like, the existing architecture in the neighborhood as well as the fact that for monetary gain, a church is being demolished. I am against this demolition due to what inevitably will be built in its absence. I ask that the builders take into consideration the building they are demolishing, the significance of the building, and the community significance of the building and replace it with units that LOOK like the other units on the street as well as reflect the architecture of the building they are demolishing. This is NOT a modern two‐story building, and I am using this time just to share that we in our neighborhood do not welcome out of place modern construction, cramming multiple two story units onto already small lots and taxing our resources and space. I used to be proud I lived in one of the “last remaining East Austin neighborhoods”, but sadly our neighborhood is being transformed into something unrecognizable. Please consider our neighborhood, it’s culture, it’s history, and what you are are replacing when building in our neighborhood.