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[Austin City] Council [located in Travis
County] approves 236-acre purchase - Hays County property will
provide 'environmental buffer'
(Note: No matter that the purchased land is touted as 'protecting'
'water quality' and 'open space,' the CONTROL of that land has been
taken by a city in another county. No longer is this acreage on the
tax rolls AND it is not even in the same county as the city of Austin.
Folks living in Hays County suffer higher taxes while Travis County
goes about its merry way, arguably like a schoolyard bully on
steroids. Note: The RM designation prefacing the road numbers means
Ranch to Market. FM means Farm to Market. UR mean Urban Road. PR -
Park Road. RR - Recreational Road. Source, for Texas and California
road information: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/6244/)
March 27, 2004
By Asher Price
Austin American-Statesman staff
asherprice@statesman.com or
512-445-3643
Austin, Texas
To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@statesman.com
The
Austin City Council approved the purchase Thursday of a small but
crucial slice of Hays County land, creating a swath of open space
between RM 150 and RM 967 on the city's southwestern outskirts. The
236-acre property purchased from LS Ranch will cost
the city $1,608,025. But city officials say the price is worth sealing off the swath of environmentally sensitive land. In
a patchwork effort, the city has
staved off development of the area through a series of land purchases
and conservation easements. The
city thinks the purchase will slow
development by disrupting its movement and denying access to a prime
piece of property. The
city already had set up an 862-acre conservation easement north of the
property and, just south of it, had purchased outright a 2,300-acre
tract of the Rutherford Ranch, which runs along Onion Creek. "Now
there's no more doughnut hole," said Junie Plummer, a property
agent in the real estate services division of the city's department of
public works. With
Thursday's purchase, the city has established a finger of open space
in an area that's seen a surge of development since the late 1990s. "It's
continuing to be an important link on the properties we've
purchased," Plummer said. "We're
building on our assets." Plummer
said the city would not develop the site. The
land sits atop the Edwards Aquifer, an underground network of caves
that provides water to Barton Springs Pool and to about 50,000
residents with wells outside Austin. The
city targeted the properties because they are within the recharge
zone, where rainwater filtering through the caves seeps into the
aquifer. Environmentalists
and others argue that development in the recharge zone would pollute
the aquifer's water, ruin the springs and eliminate the endangered
Barton Springs salamander. The
purchase already has been welcomed by environmental organizations. "That's
very important to the city and us and to the environmental community
because it protects the water quality in the recharge zone," said
Fred Ellis, director of government and community affairs at the Hill
Country Conservancy. Plummer said $510,000 of the money for the property comes from Lowe's to mitigate the effect of a new home improvement store. The
rest, about $1 million, comes out of open space bond
money approved by voters in November 2000. The
city now owns 16,898 acres of land outside its limits
dedicated to maintaining water quality and open
space. "They're
the only ones with deep enough pockets, it seems, to purchase land to
be set aside," said Rob Baxter, president of the Friendship
Alliance, a Dripping Springs watchdog group. "With the impending development likely to occur, it may be the only thing that saves us from solid sprawl. Until the city of Dripping Springs and county get true and effective land use policies in place and guidelines, there's nothing protecting us," he said. Austin
purchases in Hays County are not unusual. The county
lacks some of the regulatory power and, say some, the political
willpower to cordon off land from development. In the past, county and Austin officials have sparred over regulatory powers. "They just want to make sure we're not going to pollute anything," said County Commissioner Russ Molenaar. http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/auto/epaper/editions/saturday/metro_state_045653fb
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