CCHOA email by Jim O'Reilly

Mar 14, 2003
Dear Circle C Homeowners March 14, 2003

Your CCHOA has received several dozen complaints from residents who have been harassed by people asking them to sign a petition that would undo part of our legally binding Settlement Agreement between the CCHOA and the City of Austin, negotiated in 2000. Further, parts of this Settlement Agreement also tie to the Stratus Agreement which was negotiated last year in dozens of public meetings with homeowners.



We strongly oppose this petition and believe it would be very harmful to most Circle C Residents. We believe it is important that our residents express themselves politically as long as they don?‚t harass or annoy you. We are concerned that our neighborhood activists, as well intentioned as they are, are giving out false information and not understanding the full implications of their actions.



The CCHOA exists only to serve you. If we fail to address your needs or represent you properly before civic bodies in matter affecting you, you should replace us. Over the years we have done our best to represent all homeowners. We have held numerous CCHOA public meetings and met informally with individual residents on items that concern them. We believe most of our homeowners have been very satisfied with the job we have done.



Here is a dilemma we face. Because Circle C is a great place to live its population has nearly doubled in the last two years. Some of our newer residents formerly lived in neighborhood associations, such as some in Austin, that are largely debating societies that get involved in every local issue. This may work in smaller neighborhoods, but with 7000 residents, we believe the wishes of a dozen activists should not override the desires of you and 7000 other residents. We have been very successful with various bodies from the Austin City Council to the Texas Legislature due to our unified approach.


Do you really want the major decisions facing Circle C in the future to be made by a dozen activists with time on their hands? They are very sincere. But we believe that your interest will be better served by well planned neighborhood meetings, such as we held for all of the Settlement agreements, which all interested neighbors can attend, as opposed to decision-making by a small group of motivated individuals who may not have the full picture and may be misleading you. We have worked hard to secure the master plan for Circle C Ranch, and protect your lifestyle and property values through a methodical and public approach.

Your homeowners Association has, with your approval, entered into several legally binding agreements. These agreements reflect what you wanted as expressed in many open public meetings.
Every time there was consensus and support for entering into these agreements from hundreds of homeowners who attended and corresponded with the Association. At the time of the 2000 Settlement Agreement, there was near unanimous support for the extension of Escarpment to SH 45. If we were to block the extension of Escarpment it is likely the entire Settlement agreement will come unwound. We could be faced with several more years of litigation and unremitting City Council disputes over everything in Circle C, at a great cost to the Circle C Homeowners Association and the homeowners in Circle C Ranch.


(continued in next posting)

Jim O?‚Reilly

President

CCHOA presidents email (part II)

Mar 14, 2003
(part 2 of March 14, 2002 CCHOA email)

The people opposed to extending Escarpment to SH 45 are using false arguments to get people to sign their petition. We believe Circle C will be a safer place to live with the extension. Not having an extension will severely limit the time it takes emergency services to reach Circle C homeowners both now and in the future.

Current homeowners at the southern end of Escarpment utilize inner neighborhood streets such as Gorham Glen to exit Circle C, causing a great burden on homeowners in these areas. Circle C is designed as a master planned community. The major streets such as Escarpment, LaCrosse, Barstow, and South Bay have no front yards or driveways exiting onto these streets. They are designed to be the major traffic collectors and routers. The traffic experts who have reviewed the Escarpment extension estimate a significant reduction in inner neighborhood traffic once it is open.

Extending Escarpment will reduce traffic within Circle C and therefore increase safety. Escarpment will never become ''another Brodie.'' Any Austin driver headed south will use either MoPac or 1826. No driver will use a one lane residential road with a 35 to 40 mile per hour speed limits, reduced to 20 during school times, that has several traffic lights and stop signs as a shortcut. Escarpment is a right of way owned by the City, however in the Stratus Agreement, Escarpment, both to the north and the south is designed as one lane with a bike lane. The design of Escarpment will not change, and if there were any attempt to do so, the CCHOA would fight this vigorously.

The activists are also claiming that current CCHOA V-President, Steve Bartlett wants the extension because he owns land on the southern side. Steve does not own any land in Circle C Ranch. Steve has in the past and currently participates in land development in Circle C Ranch. He serves as an officer of one land owner. At the time of the Settlement Agreement between the Circle C Homeowners Association and the City of Austin, during which the extension of Escarpment was adopted as part of an amendment to our annexation services plan, Steve recused himself from participating in these negotiations. They were done for homeowners by homeowners in conjunction with the Circle C master plan and as part of a Settlement Agreement in which the homeowners gained numerous concessions and benefits from the City. The entire agreement is posted on the Circle C website at www.circlecranch.com , along with a summary of meetings and approvals.

Because the petitioners will be trying to back the claim they made at the last Council meeting that they represent all the homeowners of Circle C we request that you e-mail to us your support either of extending Escarpment, or, if you feel you don?‚t have the information to make a call on that issue, that you will support the CCHOA to make the best decision for all homeowners. We will forward your comments to the Council. You can contact us at info@circlecranch.com.

Please let us know if you have any further questions regarding this and any other matter.

Sincerely,

Jim O?‚Reilly
President

Please email Jim today !!

Mar 14, 2003
Please forward you own comments and thoughts to CCHOA today. I would suggest writing to info@circlecranch.com and CC hoa@circlecranch.com when you do write.

Email is easy and it is effective.

I am not looking forward to the March 26th annual meeting - I think it's going to be noisy and it might get ugly, but that's how democracy works.

I know it's easy to critize and I don't peronally agree with all the CCHOA decsisions, but I also don't know much about the reasons they take their positions, and that is their fault for not communicating better and there is no excuse for not listening and responding to the community in a more timely manner.

I created and ran the Crestview Neighborhood Association in north Austin, and I know that it doesn't have to be this way. Legal and binding contracts are one thing, but the authrority and legitamacy of the CCHOA board is in question today, only because they are unresponsive and defensive. Instead of working with us, I think that they have succumed to the temptations of office holders.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely (isn't that what were learned from history ?)