For those of you who are avid readers of the BHNA Newsletter, occasional or regular participants in the BHNA Listserv, and even those bold enough to come to BHNA meetings, you know that BHNA over the last two years has made neighborhood planning its highest priority. Our goal has been to energize and educate our entire community about the ?upcoming? City of Austin (COA)-sponsored neighborhood planning (NP) process.
We have undertaken a number of activities to get ?in front of the neighborhood planning process by starting our own larger discussion of what are the values of our community, what is the nature of this special place that we seek not just to preserve but to enhance for the future? (President?s Message, January 2004). These activities included the formation of the NP Committee to research and identify key issues, resources, strategies, and needs; numerous Newsletter articles and Listserv discussion; a variety of speakers at BHNA meetings; and the culminating interviews, trainings, and House Meetings last fall, facilitated by graduate students in the Regional and Community Planning program at the UT School of Architecture.
This activity has been purposeful and deliberative in order to engage our community as fully informed citizens in this process. With both ?hard? empirical data and ?soft? wings for your own imagination and generosity of spirit, you could discuss and decide NP matters as members of a vital body politic, not just isolated homeowners or renters. We intended to provide a larger context so that you could meaningfully understand the component parts or single issues such as zoning and land use, deed restrictions, development on the Aquifer, greater density along the South Lamar Corridor, transportation, etc. etc.
We found, unfortunately, that to continue this quest and to carry the momentum forward from last fall required more volunteer time and effort than was immediately forthcoming. The recent discussion on the Listserv concerning deed restrictions was at once exhilarating in terms of the interest evident in NP issues. But it was also a disappointing reminder of our yet unmet dream, as it seemed many were discovering this issue for the first time. Clearly, we have not done a good enough job in sharing all the information and findings we have gathered over the last two years.
All that is changing now!! First, Glenn Chase, our incredible webmaster, is placing all the key NP documents and resources, including all those from the House Meetings, on the BHNA website. Just go to www.bhna.net and click on Neighborhood Planning in the navigation bar on the left. For those of you without Internet access, we will have all of these key documents at every Neighborhood Meeting for the foreseeable future.
Second, with reckless abandon to the fates of our work, family, and personal pursuits, we have again embarked on completing the ambitious journey begun last year. The next step will be conducting over the summer a comprehensive NP survey of our entire community, not just members, that will be designed by us, not the COA. We will have several drafts to share at the June 28th BHNA meeting, and seek volunteers for a survey design and administration team. Zilker NA has designed an excellent survey, which we will use as a model; it is posted on the BHNA Neighborhood Planning website (Go to far right of NP website page). Please review in advance of our meeting. We will identify tasks and people; so all who have already volunteered and/or have a specific interest (e.g., Deed Restrictions), here is your chance to act on this in a productive and meaningful way. We envision questions designed to probe around key topics and issues, supported by corresponding resources for background and education on the website.
In October, we will have an extraordinary and memorable Town Hall meeting, called ?Celebrations of Community,? where we can discuss survey results and craft our own BHNA NP Charter (vision, goals, values, projects). We will make this a fund-raiser with corporate and local business sponsorship to support a worthy project to be defined by you. And look for an announcement of a very special guest to headline this event!!
Are you ready to continue this grand journey?! I hope so! Remember, the more we do as a community, with a well-documented democratic process, the more our voices will matter in the COA process. The more we are educated before the COA process, the more likely we will reflect our beliefs and desires in that process.
Don Long
President
Barton Hills Neighborhood Association
