Update on a City of Austin program. I am more here to inform discussion than take passionate positions. Excerpt below from what I posted to a neighborhood distribution list and local Nextdoor feed today to meet notice expectations.
Please note that RPP citizen zone coordinator volunteers will no longer collect forms, process them, and deliver permits, as has been done since program inception. Instead residents will work directly with the City of Austin
Zone 7 residents (aka “Judges Hill” or “West End”) who were eligible for permits in 2017 will be eligible for them in 2018, those who were not will not.
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What do yall think would be a good way to get a moratorium and/or kill RPPs?
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@chris78701, I bumped into Mary Ingle at the store before posting in December. We discussed RPP with our heads nodding in the same direction, which is a bit different than yours, but worth noting in and of itself. Seemed like a relatively safe place to try and find common ground between the three or more perspectives. Maybe we are too close to February 12th to do anything now, maybe it could be a piece of the puzzle.
My neighborhood issues are first and foremost related to equity access to the program, although I now also understand that the programs existence, which was a local trade-off of safety for convenience, also has some unfortunate unintended consequences.
Specifically:
(1) An area apartment’s residents are no longer allowed access to RPP, even though it is on the curb adjacent to their building. A blatant violation of the program intent.
(2) Some condominium residents are no longer allowed access to RPP despite being parking starved, whereas other condominiums with a parking bounty are eligible against guidelines because they look more like single family, and I will bite my tongue instead of continuing on demographics.
(3) Royal Co-op, with 16 residents, gets 4 passes. Two wealthy STR owners get 8 passes each. I can live with the later, but in combination with the former it is an equity issue.
(4) Getting to the common ground - starting this year the program is being largely managed by paid COA staff instead of community volunteers. Loss of local control / awareness is a real concern as is that someone has to pay for it. If we have extra money many would rather see it go to other civic needs. This looks like another silo decision.
Open to suggestions on how to either move forward or not.