Cactus Rose

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Sabino Pio Renteria
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 11:03 am

Cactus Rose

Post by Sabino Pio Renteria »

Dear colleagues,

You have all received correspondence from the President of the Cactus Rose Neighborhood Association, Mr. Saúl Madero, and Ms. Susana Almanza. In order to comply with the Open Meetings Act, I am posting my response to their most recent letter in which they request expedited zoning in order to create a community land trust at Levander Loop.

Thank you for your patience and concern for the residents of Cactus Rose.

Pio

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Dear Ms. Almanza and Mr. Madero,

Thank you for your advocacy on behalf of the residents of Cactus Rose. I appreciate the time and energy you have given to support and amplify the voices of families being impacted by the proposed redevelopment of this mobile home park in the Montopolis Neighborhood.

As you may be aware, I authored a Council-approved resolution directing the City Manager to develop a program dedicated to providing assistance to tenants undergoing displacement. I also authored a resolution that included the specific inclusion of mobile home residents in this program. That program is being finalized by City staff and will be presented to Council for consideration within the next few months. Additionally, I co-sponsored an item, also approved by Council, calling for the allocation of general obligation funds toward developments that provide permanent affordability, including CLTs.

My staff has been exploring a community land trust (CLT) option specific to Cactus Rose since we first presented the idea at our initial meeting with the leaders of the Cactus Rose Neighborhood Association, the Montopolis Neighborhood Plan Contact Team, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid at the Dan Ruiz Library in March. At the time of that initial meeting, the CLT option was tabled as an attempt was made to restart the negotiations between Oden Hughes and the residents. Recently however, at your request, my staff has pursued this option once again.

I am very supportive of your call to develop the property at 7201 Levander Loop as a CLT site and to expedite the corresponding rezoning and permitting processes. In fact, my office has been working on this for months. We reached out to the City Manager’s office and the Director of the Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department (NHCD) to seek their assistance in moving forward with a CLT. In exploring this option, as my staff has made you aware, NHCD has identified several challenges with severe implications.

Now, with full and proper knowledge of these limitations, we must carefully decide how to move forward, because families’ homes and lives hang in the balance. I will continue to be as transparent as possible with the residents, their advocates, and all other parties involved. More importantly, I will continue to prioritize the safety, health, and well-being of the families in District 3, including the families of Cactus Rose, who like all people, deserve to have access to stable, secure, and affordable homes. My approach will remain unchanged.

Knowing that we share this conviction, I would appreciate your counsel in order to follow the course of action that most responsibly serves the interests of Cactus Rose families and respects their autonomy.

My office and the Assistant City Manager’s office have already communicated to you the challenges a CLT creation process presents, but I believe it may be helpful to outline them here again.

Oden Hughes has indicated that, due to their contract with the property owner and other considerations that under their most delayed timeline the longest they could allow residents to remain would be 21 months. Now, as mentioned above, my staff and I have been working closely with City staff to establish a realistic timeline for the creation of a mobile home CLT at 7201 Levander Loop. According to NHCD, optimistically, the fastest this process could be completed would be 41 months.

Therefore, though I am willing to expedite every process within my legal ability as your Council Member to achieve the creation of a CLT as soon as possible, it is important to consider that these timelines do not align and the implications of that fact. My staff has extended an invitation for you to join us at our next discussion with the appropriate Assistant City Manager and the executive staff of the relevant City Departments, in order to have an open discussion about the projected timeline for the creation of a CLT.

In addition to the many concerns that City staff has raised, there are other factors to consider.

I remain one vote in a Council of eleven. I can commit to advocating fiercely with my colleagues for the creation of a CLT and championing an expedited process. I will also continue to work to create a robust relocation assistance program that will help protect mobile home residents. Unfortunately, none of that guarantees the approval of either proposal by a majority of the Council.

Yet, the biggest factor to consider is that the Montopolis Neighborhood Plan Future Land Use Map already offers a host of entitlements to the Cactus Rose Mobile Home Park property owner for redevelopment, without requiring any manner of Council action on a zoning and land use change. To ignore the volatile circumstances of the impending zoning and land use application case would put the residents in a very vulnerable position and expose them to harm beyond what they are currently facing.

I have worked to postpone this case for months at a time to provide the residents and the developers more time to converse and negotiate an agreement. Though Mayor Adler and I have attempted to bring all interested parties together, I have been informed that the negotiations have ceased. Alarmingly, I was made aware by both residents and the developers that the residents do not have legal representation, even though Texas RioGrande Legal Aid was previously providing their services and continues to offer them to the Cactus Rose Neighborhood Association. I would encourage you to ensure that this changes soon.

For the sake of transparency and with the highest respect for the self-determination of the families of Cactus Rose, I want to be unequivocal in my stance:

If Cactus Rose families, united, submit a request that I vote to deny the zoning and land use change application, I will.

However, I will only do this if the creation of a CLT cannot be achieved, if the residents are unable to negotiate a relocation package that they can accept, and if the families of Cactus Rose make this request with the understanding that under the current Montopolis Neighborhood Plan and Future Land Use Map and their month-to-month rental agreements under Texas law, they are granted virtually no recourse or protection – that there is no legal mechanism I’m aware of to prevent the property owner from declining to renew the residents’ leases and profitably developing the property using his current entitlements.

I hope to hear back from you soon and I invite you to continue to provide your input so that we can work together to do what’s best on behalf of Cactus Rose families.

Sincerely,

Council Member Sabino “Pio” Renteria
Austin City Council, District 3
Council Member District 3