Granada Hills & Estates
Serving the Communities of Granada Hills & Estates, Granada Oaks, Southview Estates and Fox Run Estates Volume 4, Number 1
January 2010
Oak Hill 2009 Citizen of the Year
Annual Meeting Highlights
from Granada
The Oak Hill Association of Neighbors (OHAN) awarded Granada Hills resident Rick Perkins their Annual Award for 2009 "Oak Hill Citizen of the Year". Rick has served on the Granada HOA Board as President in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009, for a total of 6 years. During this time voluntary membership and neighborhood participation in the Granada HOA has reached its highest level since its creation. He also worked on the Oak Hill Neighborhood Plan from 2005 to 2008, during which he was a founding member of the Oak Hill Neighborhood Planning Contact Team (NPCT) and the Oak Hil Trails Association (OHTA), which he has chaired since 2008. Rick has also worked with Keep Austin Beautiful planting trees in the Oak Hill area around Dick Nichols Park and nurturing them for years to fruition and continues to work with the Austin Parks Foundation to establish hiking and biking trails in Oak Hill. He is pushing Travis County to establish a Southwest Regional Park. Rick, a UT graduate and chemical engineer by trade, participates in traffic discussions with TxDOT regarding roadways in the Oak Hill area and provides citizen input at Travis County Commissioner Court hearings as well as meetings of the transportation board, CAMPO. Rick advocates for "connectivity" in southwest Travis County promoting the construction of Hwy 290 West, the completion of the SH 45 southern loop from I-35 to Hwy 290 West, and the reconstruction of RR 1826. These are tough battles because there is a loud minority that has successfully squashed these projects for more than a decade. So, with great thanks, we acknowledge one of our own as "Oak Hill Citizen of the Year".
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The Annual Meeting and Pot Luck of the Granada HOA was held on Tuesday, December 8th, with about 25 neighbors in attendance. The food served included BBQ beef brisket, turkey, and sausage, accompanied with a smorgasboard of side dishes, such as creamy corn souflee, green beans, and several desserts. The caviar was especially fresh this year. You missed it! Dowe Gullatt represented Buffalo Equities and gave a presentation on the West Park development that will be built across highway 290 from Seton SW hospital on 130 acres. It will be a planned development to includes shopping, condos, townhomes, medical offices, restaurants, and some art and music venues. (At the least, that is the plan.) The West Park PUD (planned unit development) is looking to get approval by the Austin City Council for an expansion beyond their current limited development authority under the SOS ordinance. The old limits for this development was for no more than 25% impervious cover. (The SOS ordinance typically increases sprawl and destruction to the Hill Country because development cannot be condensed into one area; it has to be spreadout to meet the SOS ordinance.) So, Buffalo Equities is trying to get approval for up to 40% impervious cover so they can condense their buildings and make it easier for people to shop, work, and recreate in a dense development. In the future, the West Park PUD is going to need your emails or voice to get the City Council to override the limitations based on the SOS (Continued on Page 2)
Granada Hills & Estates Neighborhood Newsletter - January 2010
Granada Hills & Estates Board of Directors Director Jim Shaw,......................... 288-0315,
[email protected] Director Daniella
[email protected] Director/Treasurer David Cortright,............ 432-5219,
[email protected] Director Tim Hendricks,.................... 771-0188,
[email protected] DIRECTOR Dan Nowicki....................633-1780,
[email protected] DIRECTOR Hope Dyson...................288-3299,
[email protected] Director/pool Melissa Clark-Maynard....... 689-4982,
[email protected] DIRECTOR ................................................................................OPEN DIRECTOR ................................................................................OPEN Architectural Control Commitee Dan Nowicki................... 633-1780,
[email protected] Diane Powers................ 288-2658,
[email protected] Roger Edgar................... 394-9980,
[email protected] Steve Allmand................. 288-4235,
[email protected] NEIGHBORHHOOD WATCH Beverly Villarreal................ 288-9850,
[email protected]
Highlights-(Continued from Cover Page) ordinance, otherwise more sprawl will occur. Dowe presented an interesting video of what the view would look like from different angles outside of West Park. The development planning area is broken into "bubbles" where the City would approve different activities in each bubble. The current plan is for about onehalf of the property to be nothing but open green space and about 10 miles of walking and biking Multi Use Trails (MUTs). The West Park PUD would also be required to donate money to build MUTs in other parts of Oak Hill, and as the development grows, the West Park PUD would contribute funds to maintain and develop more of those hike and bike trails. Ultimately, this could fund a large piece of the Oak Hill Trails Association plan (www.oakhilltrails.org). The Annual Meeting then moved into the Meet and Greet session. Two new people were in attendance; both of them moving into the Granada Oaks neighborhood. Judge Susan Steeg and Constable Richard McCain were the elected officials in attendance, as well as the Granada HOA board and committee members. Attendance was abut the same as last year when it was held at the Segovia's restaurant. (Note to Reader: You can't complain about what is happening in the neighborhood if you can't get off your duff and get to this short meeting each year.) Rick Perkins, outgoing President of the HOA, presented a (Continued on Page 3)
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Granada Hills & Estates Highlights-(Continued from Page 2) PowerPoint presentation with photos of all of the events and other things that have happened in the neighborhood (save the grafitti) in 2009. This presentation is posted in PDF format on the Granada HOA website at www.granadahoa.org. The summary included: Its My Park Day, Pool Co-op, HOA Meeting in May at the Park, the July 4th Parade and Picnic, the Oak hit by Lightning, Neighbors Night Out, and the Front Entrance upgrades. Committee work was discussed next, which included work of the Pool Committee, Tennis Committee, Front Entrance Committee, Neighborhood Watch Committee, Architectural Control Committee, Welcoming / Membership Committee, Childrens Events Committee, Community Development Comittee, and the Garden Club / Friendly Gardener. Next, Perkins reviewed the Membership of the Granada HOA. At least years Annual Meeting the HOA annual dues were increased from $60 to $96 per household in order to partially compensate for the loss of $12,000 in revenue that we were receiving from Time-Warner. Being that the Granada HOA is a Voluntary HOA, the Board suspected that Neighborhood Participation would drop because of the economy and the increase in the dues. The good news is that participation dropped only a fraction, from 270 in 2008 to 265 in 2009. The total number of households in Granada Hills, Estates, and Oaks is currently about 437. Thus, about 60% of the
neighbors are carrying the other 40% of folks who don't see the need to help pay their fair share. If we did have 100% participation, we could do some good things. HOA Income from dues and donations was about $27,000 and Expenses were about $17,000 (through November 30th). The excess funds will be put into safe investments to build up the reserve account that was liquidated in 2008 to rebuild the Pool. The pool fund makes annual contributions to the reserve account also. Elections followed with current HOA Board Volunteers Jim Zion, Hope Dyson, Rick Perkins, Donna Klein, and Sarah Calvert having their terms expire. Hope Dyson committed to serve for another two years and two newcomers, Daniella Lytle and Tim Hendricks eagerly volunteered to join the Granada HOA Board and serve. We're very happy to have these two "frisky, young, whippersnappers" working to better the neighborhood. We'll have a photo of the new Board in a future newsletter. Both of the new volunteers are from Granada Oaks. Daniella moved in around August 2009 and Tim is working on the plans for his house on his lot at the corner of El Rey and Vera Cruz. So, at the time of writing the newsletter, we still have 2 slots open on the Board. Rick said that he will help out as an ex-officio as necessary, but no longer serve as President. (Contact one of the Board members if you are interested in giving back to the neighborhood.) (Continued on Page 5)
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Granada Hills & Estates Neighborhood Newsletter - January 2010
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Granada Hills & Estates Neighborhood Newsletter - January 2010
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Granada Hills & Estates Highlights-(Continued from Page 2) Next, we had a fantastic presentation from Scott Cunningham, engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Scott is the amazing (overworked) district engineer that is trying to solve traffic problems all over the Greater Austin Area, from Wimberly to Manor, on up to Georgetown and East to Bastrop (big territory). We've been getting a lot of his attention with our "Trying to Cross RR 1826" issue which he reported is now looking like we'll get sidewalks and a Stop Light at Slaughter and RR 1826. He said that TxDOT had actually considered installing a big round-a-bout at that intersection, but the fact that cars travel at speeds up to 70 MPH traveling north on RR 1826, they could crash into the round-a-bout in the middle of the night, or other times. So, the current plan is that it will be a stop light during daylight hours, and flash at night, until the traffic capacity requires it to be a stoplight at all hours. The signal will utilize an early warning radar detection on northbound 1826 at the hill. The radar will detect the speed of the traffic and flash lights at the top of the hill telling them to slow down because of the upcoming red light. Scott is still open to other suggestions, such as adding a lane to the northbound side before the light. He is interested in receiving your comments at
[email protected]. tx.us or 832-7188. Scott went on to discuss how speed limits are set by the 85th percentile of the speed of the current traffic. He is planning to go out to 1826 and remeasure the average and mean speeds on the roadway in order to see if they can reduce the speed limit to 50 MPH. So, that about wraps up the meeting. We sure wish that we could get better attendance at this annual meeting, but as far back as 2001 the Annual Meeting has drawn the same number of people regardless of the location, if there is food or not, and the subject matter. Have a safe and properous New Year! - Rick Perkins
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Granada Hills & Estates Neighborhood Newsletter - January 2010
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15 AUSTIN METRO LOCATIONS HOME EQUITY LOANS 10 YEAR FIXED 15 YEAR FIXED 20 YEAR FIXED
4.79%* 5.09%* 5.59%*
AUTO LOANS 60 MONTHS 66 MONTHS 72 MONTHS
NEW, USED OR REFINANCE
PlUS NO ClOSING COSTS!**
COMM. REAL ESTATE LOANS 5 YEAR FIXED 10 YEAR FIXED 15 YEAR FIXED
5.65%*** 5.85%*** 6.10%***
3.59%* 3.69%* 3.89%*
MONEY MARKET $25,000 TO $74,999 $75,000 TO $124,999 $125,000 AND ABOVE
1.26%**** 1.36%**** 1.51%****
20 YEAR AMORTIzATION/ NO PRE-PMT. PENAlTY
MINIMUM DAIlY BAlANCE OF $2000 REqUIRED
CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT1
CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT2
6 MONTHS 12 MONTHS 24 MONTHS
1.51%**** 1.81%**** 2.17%****
MINIMUM DEPOSIT OF $1000 IS REqUIRED
1
fREE ChECkINg
6 MONTHS 12 MONTHS 24 MONTHS
1.61%**** 1.91%**** 2.27%****
MINIMUM DEPOSIT OF $95000 IS REqUIRED
2
2 5 0 + f R E E AT M S
*ANNUAl PERCENTAGE RATE. All RATES ARE EXPRESSED “AS lOW AS”. ACTUAl RATE MAY VARY DEPENDING ON CREDIT qUAlIFICATIONS. **AUSTIN TElCO WIll PAY All STANDARD ClOSING COSTS ON HOME EqUITY lOANS BElOW $100k. ADDITIONAl NON-STANDARD FEES WIll BE THE RESPONSIBIlITY OF THE MEMBER. ***RATE APPlIES TO 1ST lIEN COMMERCIAl REAl ESTATE lOANS WITH A lOAN TO VAlUE OF CONSTRUCTION/DEVElOPMENT lOAN RATES/TERMS MAY BE DIFFERENT. NO PRE-PAYMENT PENAlTY. ****ANNUAl PERCENTAGE YIElD. PENAlTIES FOR EARlY WITHDRAWAl MAY APPlY. All APRS, APYS AND TERMS ARE SUBjECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. PlEASE CAll FOR DETAIlS. THIS CREDIT UNION IS FEDERAllY INSURED TO AT lEAST $250,000 PER MEMBER BY THE NATIONAl CREDIT UNION ADMINISTRATION.
Granada Hills & Estates Neighborhood Newsletter - January 2010
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Granada Hills & Estates GRANADA HOMEOWNER’S ASSOCIATION - 2010 Your HOA Dues pay for Common Property Insurance, Maintenance, Utilities, Taxes, Tennis Court Access, Private Park Access, and Local Events. HOA Members Should Sign Up to the Granada HOA Email List Serve. Send a Blank Email to:
[email protected] (Non HOA Members Will Be Dropped)
NAMES: ADDRESS: PRIMARY TELEPHONE: EMAIL ADDRESSES for LIST SERVE:
In what YEAR did you move into Granada Hills, Estates, or Oaks? ______________________________
2010 Annual Dues $ 96.00 Due Jan 1, 2010 Past Due May 15, 2010 Specify Extra Optional Donations
General Maintenance $ ______ New Entrance Sign
$ ______
Children’s Play Area
$ ______
Park BBQ Pavilion
$ ______
Security / Cameras
$ ______
Granada Legal Fund
3 Ways to Contribute Your Share Check, Credit Card, PayPal 1. CHECKS: Please Complete this Form and Drop Off in Our Secure Drop-Box at 8100 El Dorado, OR Mail this Form with Checks Payable to GHA, to: GHA, 8100 El Dorado Drive, Austin, TX 78737
2. CREDIT CARDS or 3. PAYPAL: A $4 processing fee must be added to amount (TOTAL $100) Go to www.paypal.com, click payment, send it to
[email protected], select credit card or Paypal, add $4.00 to the total to cover the PayPal fee ; In the Notes, enter your name, address, phone number, and email address. Thanks for Supporting the Neighborhood ! For More Info, Sign Up to the Website
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TOTAL Enclosed $ _______ P le a se D rop O ff in O u r S e cu re D ro p B o x a t 8 10 0 E l D o ra do, o r M a il th is C o m p lete d F o rm w ith C h e ck P a ya b le to G H A :
GHA 8100 El Dorado Drive Austin, TX 78737 Thanks for Your Support ! Pool Cooperative Membership Info S ig n u p to th e G ra n a d a P o o l@ ya h o o g ro u p s.com L ist S e rve fo r m o re in fo . S e n d a b la n k em a il to G ra n a d a P o o l-su b scrib e @ ya h o o g ro u p s.co m Y o u m u st b e a m em b e r o f th e G ra n a d a H O A in o rd e r to b e co m e a m em be r o f th e P o o l. Granada Hills & Estates Neighborhood Newsletter - January 2010
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