Official PublicatiOn Of PembertOn HeigHts neigHbOrHOOd assOciatiOn June 2013, VOl iV, issue Vi
The Pemberton JournalNeighbors open their gardens
for the first annual “behind the Garden Gate” garden open house!
Betty Trent, AIA LEED APOn April 28th, Pemberton residents Sarah Anderson, Linda Benge, Jenny
Johnson, Nancy Robinson and Betty Trent opened their gates to their gardens for neighbors to see and enjoy. On a beautiful, sunny spring day, neighbors were also treated to refreshments by Teddy Kinney and Diane Umstead as they strolled through Pemberton enjoying the spring blossoms.
Roses, irises and columbine, along with numerous other native flowering shrubs were at their best against backgrounds of evergreens which included live oak, japanese yews, clumping bamboo, sweet olive and yaupon. Neighbors saw five different styles of gardens from tradition flower gardens to gardens utilizing mainly native, low water using plants. Neighbors exchanged information on what works well in the area and how much maintenance certain plants require.
Linda’s garden featured a pool surrounded by flowers and plantings and every golfer’s dream, a putting green! At Sarah’s garden, neighbors were awed by the lovely fountains and urns dripping with scented geraniums. At Jenny’s garden, metal work was featured along with succulent plantings. Jenny also graciously provided neighbors a list of plant names to keep. At Betty’s garden, neighbors were surprised to see a modern, minimalist garden featuring low maintenance artificial grass, sustainably made from recycled plastic. At Nancy’s garden, lush plantings of natives were beautifully mixed with an assortment of tropicals including ginger, palms and Japanese maples.
Many attendees have been inspired and already made treks to garden stores to find their new discoveries to add to their gardens. Hopefully those new plants will inspire others to be part of the “Behind the Garden Gate” open house next time.
Thanks to Loretta Fischer for organizing and doing so much work to make this first garden open house a success!
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The Pemberton JournalSidewalks and Traffic Calming issues to be discussed at the Neighborhood
Lunch Meeting June 28
Come discuss various neighborhood and government issues in Pemberton. If you cannot attend, email Betty at the address below or any Board member about any neighborhood issues you may have. This month we will discuss options and requests for sidewalks and traffic calming elements.
The monthly lunches are an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with your neighbors on a casual basis and talk about issues of interest to Pemberton Heights.
WHERE AND WHEN:The June lunch will be Tuesday the 25th Time: 11:45. Place: Russell’s at Kerbey LaneCost: Each attendee pays for their own lunch by separate check.Contact: Betty Trent at [email protected] to rsvp. You are welcome to come without rsvp, just ask the hostess for the PHNA table.
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A fun standard for a walkable neighborhood is the “five-minute popsicle test” – is it a place where a child can safely walk or bike to a nearby store for a treat? City of Austin regulations can help to realize this goal -- by providing zoning and design standards, and “complete street” standards, that make our suburban neighborhoods as friendly to people (e.g. a tween skateboarding to a neighborhood park) as they are to cars. The rules and standards for how land is subdivided, and where and how streets are built, also are part of the basic “DNA building blocks” of cities. To help ensure that new subdivisions match the Imagine Austin vision, the City is concurrently revising its rules for how new neighborhoods will be designed and built (the Subdivision Regulations in the Land Development Code) and for how street networks will be designed and built (the Transportation Criteria Manual).
Based on a study of best practices from around the country, City planning and public works staffers are currently hard at work drafting coordinated revisions. Community stakeholders and a cross-departmental technical advisory group are providing input. Drafts of both updated documents will be ready for public review later this year.
Like other U.S. cities, Austin had adopted car-centric rules since the
1950’s. But now the pendulum is swinging back toward the wisdom of traditional neighborhood design -- which offers numerous health, safety, and quality-of-life benefits. For example, neighborhood streets built for slower traffic reduce injuries and deaths from car crashes; providing sidewalks and bike lanes encourages daily exercise.
The Transportation Criteria Manual governs all the elements that go into each street – such as the dimensions and locations of car lanes, bike infrastructure, sidewalks, and medians. (To learn more about its update, contact [email protected].) The Subdivision Regulations govern issues like block size and requirements for street network connections, and also contain rules for pedestrian and bicycle easements, lot access, and so forth; they can require land dedication for parks, schools and recreation, and have provisions for solar-power access as well. (For update information, contact [email protected], or visit the Subdivision Regulations page link at www.austintexas.gov/newLDC.)
Once updated, both sets of city rules will better support the Imagine Austin comprehensive plan -- which calls for a more compact and connected city to better serve people of all ages, incomes, and abilities. Copied from COA Imagine Austin website
These are the little honeys you’ve been waiting for. Two sweet kittens
are looking for a “forever” home. Right now they’re in foster care with Sasha over on Wooldridge Drive.
“Holly” is the 8 month old tabby. She’s reserved (except when food is involved), soft and playful. A bit shy at first, she’s very clean, calm and quiet. Her manners are impeccable.
“Funny Girl” is a younger kitten. She’s about 4 months old, a classic “tuxedo” black & white. Out-going, curious, and playful, she enjoys curling up on your lap (or shoulders) to watch TV with you. Intrigued by computers, she particularly likes to follow the cursor when it moves around the screen! Definitely ready to be a real companion. No lonely days when she’s around.
Both of these kittens are house trained and both are spayed and up to date on shots.
Holly and Funny Girl are adoptable through Austin Pets Alive! David and Sasha would love to keep these kitties in our
neighborhood. They will even help kitty-sit anytime you’re traveling and they’re in town.• The adoption fee for both is $125. • That’s the fee for both cats. So, it’s a 2 for 1 deal.
Why not take these angels home for a trial run to see if they fit into your household?
If you know anyone who would be interested in these kitties, please forward them this information.
I’m Veronica, the lady Dachshund who lives on Wooldridge. Go ahead and laugh; I’ve heard it all: “Ooooh, look at that long, fat, funny dog!” “Look, it’s a stretch limo with feet!” “Hey, she’s built like a hotdog!” Some 17th-century hunter thought it would be clever to breed a dog low enough to crawl into burrows after baggers and rabbits, so here I am: a long-bodied and short-legged dynamo. But I’m also a woman, a woman with feelings. I may not be statuesque like a Greyhound—who, incidentally, couldn’t make it into a rabbit burrow if her life depended on it—but I’ve attracted my share of dogs.
Every once in a while a Bulldog or a Labrador steps paw on my territory and assumes that because I’m short that I have no real authority. I’ve got possession of every square inch of my yard, and I let them know it right off the bat. I’m not afraid to run right up to a Great Dane and give her a piece of my mind. When you’re a woman, and a short woman at that, you can’t afford to act delicate and diplomatic. You have to establish your dominance from the outset or those behemoths will take advantage. Fact is, they respect me for it.
I pride myself on my sense of discipline: I lay off the dog treats (it’s so easy to let yourself go and the next thing you know, you’re a knockwurst). Yet, much as I work to stay trim and attractive, people feel obliged to remark about my shape, my stature, and my stubby feet. Snicker if you must. I’m a tender and sensitive soul, and my family loves me to pieces. I love them even more.
Do your neighbor’s night light fixtures shine into your windows? Or worse, do yours shine into theirs? Is your house a Night Sky Polluter?
Night sky pollution is the term for having night lighting that shines up and out away from the fixture. Such fixtures keep us from seeing those bright stars of song. Glare and reflection are the most obvious culprits and new methods of lighting will control the beam of a fixture so that the light goes only down and onto the ground, thus allowing more stars to be seen in the night sky.
If you are considering adding to or replacing your exterior light fixtures, consider using ones that only shine down or have a shield to keep the light bulb from being seen.
Look for fixtures labeled as fully shielded and “dark sky” compliant.
Every light polluting fixture that gets replaced with a shielded fixture will help to allow the stars to shine bright again in Austin!
SudokuThe challenge is to fill every row across, every column down, and every3x3 box with the digits 1 through 9. Each 1 through 9 digit must appearonly once in each row across, each column down, and each 3x3 box.
How to Fight Your 2012 Tax AppraisalWhen Austin homeowners receive their annual “Notice of
Appraised Value” from the Travis County Appraisal District, sixty-thousand of them will file protests in an effort to lower
their property valuation and consequently their tax bill. Some hire agents and consultants to take their case before the
Appraisal Review Board, but with sufficient preparation and an understanding of which arguments carry the most weight, anyone
can present a persuasive argument. Protesters should start by requesting two items from the County
Appraisal District (CAD): a Field Card, which is a data sheet for their property, and an Evidence Packet, which tells them how CAD arrived at the assessed value. Value is determined by examining either sales of comparable properties, or equity among houses that said to be comparable.
Assess the rationale CAD used to arrive at your home’s value. District appraisers choose four homes in the area, look up what they sold for, and extrapolate to other homes in the same neighborhood. Mistakes are common in an area like central west Austin, where houses differ markedly in age, size, and quality of construction. In today’s market, a house purchased in October of 2012 should be
appraised lower than one purchased the following February. Are the houses CAD used to place a value on your home truly comparable? A Neighborhood Detail Value Report, available at TCAD, will help you to select “comps” that are more favorable to your position than those selected by the appraiser. Houses of similar age in the same subdivision with the same square footage may differ significantly in value if one is on a busier street, has fewer shade trees, or no view.
Rather than asking, “What is valuable about my property?” ask “What flaws does it have that an appraiser observing it only on Google-Map wouldn’t notice?” District appraisers know far less about your house, your street, and your neighborhood than you do, and it is your goal to educate them about every factor that reduces your home’s value. Do you have a cracked slab? A choppy floor plan? Old-fashioned bathrooms? Take pictures—they don’t have to be fancy, just clear—and collect data: if your wiring is from the 1940s, get an estimate on how much it would cost to replace it.
For more detailed information on how to successfully present your case before the Appraisal Board, see the blog on the PHNA website on How to Fight a Tax Appraisal.
5 years ago this month, Colin Holst tragically and silently drowned at the age of 4.10 Texas children have already drowned this year.
Be a Water Guardian and help prevent children from drowning.Ongoing: Volunteers needed to stu� and distribute water safey packets [email protected]: Colin's Hope Athlete Ambassadors needed! http://www.tinych.org/signupNow-June 18: Discount Schlitterbahn Tickets for sale. http://www.tinych.org/ticketsJune 18: World’s Largest Swim Lesson at Schlitterbahn Waterpark New BraunfelsJuly 1: Colin’s Hope Got2Swim Lake Austin 4 Miler (solo or relay) http://www.tinych.org/got2swim4July 21: Colin’s Hope Kids Got2Swim Pure Austin Quarry Lake http://www.tinych.org/got2swimkids
ACROSS1. Unrefined metal 4. Young pigeons 10. Gender 11. Australian 12. Alternative (abbr.) 13. Climbing 14. China stone 16. Hoopla 17. Shaft 18. Teacher's assistant, for short 20. Doctor 22. Believe 26. Terminal abbr. 29. Skin problem 31. Infamous Nazi concentration
camp 33. Tear 34. Wring 35. Sick 36. Work fussily 37. Hurricane center
ACROSS1. Unrefined metal 4. Young pigeons 10. Gender 11. Australian 12. Alternative (abbr.) 13. Climbing 14. China stone 16. Hoopla 17. Shaft 18. Teacher's assistant, for short 20. Doctor 22. Believe 26. Terminal abbr. 29. Skin problem 31. Infamous Nazi concentration
camp 33. Tear 34. Wring 35. Sick 36. Work fussily 37. Hurricane center
DOWN1. Nativity scene piece 2. Competition at the Greek
games 3. Capital of the Ukraine 4. Symbol 5. Expression of surprise 6. Emblem 7. Pickle juice 8. A ball out of bounds (2 wds.) 10. Twist violently 14. Ripper 17. Strums 18. Slough 19. Ross ___, philanthropist 20. Gods 23. Brand of sandwich cookie 24. Seaweed substance 25. Cabana 27. Blue
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