Westside Residents Turn to Lege to Escape From Austin
Homeowners living in some of the city's priciest lakeside properties are banking on anti-Austin sentiments at the Capitol to let them ditch the city's tax roll. Lake Austin shoreline homeowners, recently un-exempted from city taxes, want to remove themselves from the city by petition (Senate Bill 659 and House Bill 1653); the West Rim neighborhood is taking a second run at the same petition process (HB 2776); and the Lost Creek neighborhood wants the Texas Legislature to remove it from the city straight away, with no petition or Council vote (SB 1499 and HB 3827).
With so much anti-Austin sentiment out there, it's hard to believe a major employer like Tesla or Apple would ever choose to move to town, a point made by Mayor Steve Adler during a Tuesday Council work session. People choose to move to Austin because Austin is unique, he said. "If they don't come to Austin, it's not like they go to Houston or to Dallas. They go somewhere out of state. Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Ft. Worth, Corpus Christi, El Paso – all wonderful cities, but all are very different, and in that difference there is real strength."
Lost Creek residents who want to be disannexed – and this is a subdivision that spent $400,000 and a decade losing its annexation fight against the city – argued that fire and police services have decreased since annexation. Residents say they rarely see police officers patrolling their 1,200-home neighborhood, and they fear the potential for homeless encampments near schools. "I'm here today because I feel like the city of Austin is ultimately stealing from us. They have no problem taking our taxes. But they have a problem protecting us," Brittany McFarland testified during a House committee hearing on April 6. "I've lived in the neighborhood for five years, and I have not once seen an [Austin Police Department] officer."
Other women testified – sometimes quite emotionally – to robberies and burglaries that had occurred in their homes, and the traffic that had sped down their streets. Their sentiments resonate with right-leaning, freedom-loving lawmakers from out of town, who have deplored Austin's homeless encampments and scorned its approach to public safety.
Read more: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2021-04-09/westside-residents-turn-to-lege-to-escape-from-austin/
Sen. Dawn Buckingham's SB 1499 would allow the Lost Creek neighborhood to disannex itself from Austin (Photo by David Brendan hall)
= new reply since forum marked as read
