oakhillgazette.com
July 11, 2013 Volume 18, No. 13 Southwest Austin’s Community Newspaper Since 1995
City pulls plug on ballfield lights subsidy City move will cost Oak Hill Youth Sports $40,000 a year by Ann Fowler
“As a last resort, we will need to cut down on our night games” — Stephan Bega, OHYSA president
Gazette: Will Atkins
More than 1,250 youngsters play ball on the Oak Hill fields in the spring, 900 in the fall.
OAK HILL - The City of Austin has decided to phase out a significant utility subsidy to the Oak Hill baseball and softball complex because it is on private property. The Oak Hill ballfields are located at Joe Tanner Lane and U.S. Highway 290 West. Also losing subsidies are the Balcones Youth Sports, the North Austin Optimists and the West Austin Youth Association—all located on private grounds. Stephen Bega, president of the Oak Hill Youth Sports Association (OHYSA), has been associated with the group for ten years. He said OHYSA purchased the property because the City had no space in the area for kids to play America’s pastime. Bega added, “This is the only facility in Oak Hill that allows youth to play organized baseball and softball. There are no close alternatives for kids in this area of Austin. City officials said the closest Cityowned sports park is the Lonestar Circle C park on Slaughter Lane, which has soccer fields but none for baseball or softball. Garrison District Park on Manchaca is the next closest, with one softball and See CITY on back page
Neighborhoods like new development plan better by Bobbie Jean Sawyer A new plan to develop one of the Oak Hill area’s last large urban infill tracts—a natural meadow where horses once grazed—has won over some neighborhood residents who were previously against develop-
ment plans for the tract. The 17-acre tract of land between Oak Boulevard and Oakclaire Drive is owned by the Whitfield Company, an Austin-based commercial real estate company. The company has proposed the construction of
a single-family residential project targeting empty nesters—predominantly older couples without children—developed by David Weekley Homes. The land, which is known as Harper Park, is currently zoned as
limited office (LO) but the Whitfield Company will request to amend the existing base zoning to add a mixeduse (MU) combining district, which would allow for a single-family residential development, at the July 23 Planning Commission meeting.
Multifamily residential, duplex residential, two-family residential and group residential uses will be excluded from the mixed-use zoning. See NEIGHBORS on page 13