B-14 Senate Hills HOA.pdf — original pdf

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April 19, 2021 City of Austin Planning Commission Todd Shaw, Chair Claire Hempel, Vice Chair Yvette Flores, Secretary James Shieh, Parliamentarian Carmen Llanes-Pulido Jeffrey Thompson Awais Azhar João Paulo Connolly Patrick Howard Solveij Rosa Praxis Grayson Cox Jennifer Mushtaler Re: Senate Hills Park Dear Commissioners: Robert Schneider Arati Singh, Ex-Officio Don Leighton-Burwell, Ex-Officio Richard Mendoza, Ex-Officio We are writing to you today to communicate Senate Hills HOA’s strong support of the Senate Hills Park conditional use zoning case indicated above. This park is the result of over 3 years of public discussion, negotiation, and collaboration with the adjacent developer of “The Park at 51 East”, and will bring tremendous, long-term value to our communities. To summarize the agreement, the developer agreed to provide over $500,000 in community benefit to our neighborhood (including this park) in exchange for Senate Hills HOA’s permission to utilize our stormwater ponds for their development. This agreement includes provisions that the developer and future HOA will be responsible for maintenance, property taxes, and insurance for these common spaces in perpetuity. This agreement was voted in place by the members of the Senate Hills HOA through a series of well-advertised public meetings with a final vote of 76 in favor and 29 opposed (attorney certified vote results attached). We had 105 out of 153 homes represented in this vote! As indicated above, liability to the HOA, there was some opposition to this vote on the basis of crime/homelessness in the park, and noise/nuisance of park use. You’ll likely hear from some of the folks that remain opposed to the park. Be assured that their concerns were not dismissed but rather they were discussed at great length and led to stronger contractual protections in the agreement and the implementation of a series of rules for park use. This type of arrangement, where a developer provides immediate and significant benefit to the surrounding communities, is exceptionally rare, and is the best-case scenario of Austin’s development process. Developments often fall far short of this outcome, but we’re so close to achieving this lofty goal. The proposed development is well underway and the developer has received approval and access to utilize our stormwater ponds for their development. This represents the agreement’s full benefit to the developer. The Senate Hills HOA has received part of the proposed benefit (new fences, new jogging path, etc), but this park represents the large majority of the benefit to our community. In other words, only the developer stands to gain if this park does not proceed forward since they’ve received their part of the bargain in full. We ask for your help to ensure that the developer can hold up their end of the bargain and provide our community with the full benefit of this agreement by voting in favor of the conditional use for this park. We look forward to your decision and are so excited to finally have a community space in our neighborhood! Sincerely, The Senate Hills HOA Board of Directors Andy Creel Sherry Statman Ryan Miller Kristen Hattaway Veronica Chidester  Alex S. Valdes 401 Congress Avenue, Suite 2100 Austin, Texas 78701 EMAIL: avaldes@winstead.com DIRECT DIAL: 512.370.2842 Board of Directors Senate Hills Section One Homeowners Association July 27, 2019 Special Meeting of the Members of Senate Hills Section One Homeowners Association, Inc., a Texas non-profit corporation August 7, 2019 Re: Dear Directors: The ballots provided in connection with the July 27, 2019 Special Meeting of the Members of Senate Hills Section One Homeowners Association, Inc. indicate that the final vote total for the vote conducted at the Special Meeting was 76 votes cast in favor of the ballot items and 29 votes cast against the ballot items. I am transmitting, under separate cover, the Park Development and Restrictive Covenant Agreement and Declaration of Drainage Easement and Restrictive Covenant Regarding the Maintenance of Drainage Facilities for Park at 51 East. Please contact me if you have any questions. Very truly yours, _______________________ Alex S. Valdes