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Fwd: Train Station near Scofield Ridge Pkwy ?
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R. B.
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Aug 06, 2007 07:26 PDT
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I'm reproducing this entire column below since it's a good one.
A newly proposed location of Cap Metro's local rail station is along
the southbound access road to Mopac, between Parmer Lane and McNeil.
Yes, it might add to the congestion along there. But from another
point of view, we in Lamplight Village might walk or bike to the
station...I see this as a net positive that enhances the value of our
neighborhood.
Rick
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From the 8/6/07 Statesman
Much ado about a train station
Monday, August 06, 2007
In this job, you go to a lot of public meetings. But the one last
Tuesday evening was the first I'd covered at which I was smilingly
greeted by the hostess at the door as a guest in her home, ushered into
a kitchen and then treated (along with everyone else) to cookies,
chocolate muffins and popcorn.
But then again, Hidden Estates is not much like any other place in
Austin. The far Northwest Austin neighborhood, snuggled between the new
Loop 1 tollway and the undeveloped expanse of the Robinson Ranch, has
huge wooded lots and no curbs or shoulders on its two-lane main vein of
McNeil Drive. You have to cross Capital Metro's railroad track at the
two entrances into the area, at Howard Lane and along the tollway's
southbound access road. There is a feeling when you're there of having
stepped back in time.
I have passed by hundreds of times on MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) or its
predecessor, FM 1325, and didn't even know that the neighborhood was
there. It is, literally, hidden.
Capital Metro, however, now knows it's there.
The meeting, ginned up in a scant five or six days and attended by an
impressive four elected officials, was occasioned by the neighborhood's
chance discovery that Capital Metro had decided to move a planned
commuter rail station from the corner of Howard and McNeil to the point
where McNeil hits the tollway frontage road. The neighborhood, which
for years has endured speeding cut-through traffic on slender McNeil,
was not at all happy to hear this, and neighbors gave an earful to the
several Capital Metro officials on hand Tuesday.
Gracious as hostess Diane Guccione may have been in welcoming the 100
or so people that stuffed her dining room, kitchen, living room and
front hallway, the 90-minute meeting was, as they say in the diplomatic
corps, a frank and open exchange.
"Even a layman can see this is a tortured layout, long and skinny,"
neighborhood resident Charles Alexander said to the Capital Metro
officials.
"Don't move and ruin this neighborhood to save some money. Don't do
it."
Alexander was referring to an engineering drawing that Capital Metro
officials passed out at the meeting. It shows the proposed station
tucked between McNeil and Scofield Ridge Parkway on the western side of
MoPac. The railroad track parallels the frontage road, and it is just
20 yards or so west of the curb line. Capital Metro plans to squeeze a
95-space parking lot into that slice of land and then put the station
platform on the other side of the track.
The agency would like to acquire some adjacent property and put in a
much larger park-and-ride lot for the train station (as well as for
buses that would stop there) and is in negotiations to buy some. The
officials couldn't say who they're talking to, but logic indicates that
it's one of two properties to the west and south.
Real estate is at the heart of this move. Capital Metro, with the
opening of the 32-mile commuter line a little more than a year away,
ran aground this summer in its discussions with the Robinson family
about having the station on the long-planned and long-publicized Howard
location.
Officials were cagey about the particulars last week. But Austin City
Council Member Mike Martinez, who also serves on the Capital Metro
board, told the Hidden Estates folks that it had to do with the city's
coming annexation of the Robinson Ranch area and Robinson requests for
the city to build infrastructure.
So, faced with diminishing time and a desire to keep costs down,
Capital Metro grabbed the MoPac location a few weeks ago. That spot
also would have the advantage of having a rail station in a prominent
place on a well-traveled road. Free publicity for the commuter line.
But Hidden Estates people said it will be a traffic nightmare, with
southbound car commuters, buses, potential commuter rail customers and
neighborhood folks all converging on the humble corner where McNeil
hits the frontage road. Add a park-and-ride lot, and it will only get
worse, they said.
Capital Metro officials said they'll do what they can and will work
with an ad hoc neighborhood committee. They'll said they'll consider
alternatives. But with time running out and Capital Metro's other
imperatives, it wasn't clear whether the Hidden Estates people have
much chance of change.
The muffins, at least, were tasty.
Getting There appears Mondays. For questions, tips or story ideas,
contact Getting There at 445-3698 or bwe-@statesman.com.
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