We are trying escape from Austin's ETJ and incorporate as a city! Preserve Hudson Bend!

If you haven't been able to make any of the meetings thus far, we encourage you to listen to at least the Q and A portion of the meeting at Travis County Precinct #2, found below, which will answer most or all of your questions about the topic. You can get unbiased answers to most of your questions about the law and the politics of the situation directly from our four guest speakers. It's well worth the time spent. We always recommend, of course, listening to the latest meeting for the most current information on the subject.

The meeting at the Yacht Club on 09/19/2015 was exciting, but went well enough. I heard that someone counted 140 in attendance.

We will continue with our weekly or bi-weekly small, informal meetings at which we will continue to spread the word on a more personal level than the bigger meetings make possible. Watch here, on Facebook, on NextDoor, or in your email for the locations and times of these get-togethers, and feel free to sign up for our email list if you're not on there already.

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Interesting Links

A list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) can be found here.

Here is our handout from meeting 4, which contains varying levels of detail in a spreadsheet format: Meeting 4 handout

There is a good Q and A on the subject of annexation held recently by the Texas Public Policy Foundation here. It is worth noting here that the legislative solution may only benefit areas which have not already fallen into an ETJ.

The Zucker Report is a fairly damning paper on Austin's Planning and Development Review Department: The Zucker Report

Because it was discussed at the Sept. 19th meeting at the Yacht Club, here is the obligatory letter we sent to the City of Austin several months ago: HBIC letter requesting release from ETJ

And here is Austin's response letter: Austin's response letter

Downloadable City of Austin annexation history from 2000 on: COA Annexation History

Some local tax rates: Local tax rates

State laws on annexation and incorporation: Texas Local Government Code

Austin's web page on annexation and ETJs: COA Annexation and ETJs

And their latest map; note where they have annexed along the waterfront and across the dam, here in yellow: COA map

News articles

There was a story in the Four Points News about us on August the 8th: Four Points News article

And one in the Community Impact paper, which is somewhat less encouraging: Community Impact article #1

Here is the follow-up article to the previous one: Community Impact article #2

Lost Creek's annexation woes

Some discussion out of Steiner Ranch: Steiner Ranch blog

Lost Creek Braces For Annexation: Lost Creek article #1

A sad story of two annexations: Lost Creek article #2

Committee members, roughly in order of tenure

Alton Moore, Chair, 5407 Phillips Circle, aomoore3@gmail.com, 956-581-5577 (10am-10pm)
Patricia Manning, Treasurer, pmbookkeeping@att.net
Vic Manning, vicmanning@att.net
Barbara Ancona, barbara_ancona@hotmail.com
Bernie Groveman
Dianne Bartlett, 5601 Lands End, dbmaxvalue@gmail.com, 512-266-2606
Jay Fox, jfox@landman-environmental.com
Gary Paisley, 6402 Hopkins Dr., Austin, Texas 78734
Paolo Busatta, 5514 Westbeach Circle, boeings4me@hotmail.com, 512-266-3588 cell
Gilbert Franco, 17019 Rocky Ridge Rd., francosourceone@yahoo.com, 512-797-0508 cell
Patrick Johnston, pat.johnston@hushmail.com, 512-925-9792
Linda Nowlin, 512-266-9521 home (President of Vista Grande HOA)
Kay Smith-Wenzel, ks1665@gmail.com, 512.765.6345

Meeting History

Hudson Bend Community Meeting, held September 19th, 4-6pm

Austin Yacht Club, 5906 Beacon Drive

There were 140 attendees at this meeting, although a fair number wandered off a little bit before 6pm to watch the Cowboys play. ;-) Our speakers were: A recording of this meeting is available here.
The handout spreadsheet, with the facts and figures, is here.

Hudson Bend Community Meeting, held May 28th, 7pm-9:30pm

Travis County Precinct #2 West offices, 4501 RR 620 North

There were about 100 attendees at the high point of this meeting, but about a quarter of them filtered out at the posted ending time of 9:00pm, and by the time the meeting wrapped up at 9:30pm, we were down to about 75 people left. Listening to the audio recording of this meeting is the next best thing to being there! There is a lot of information from our four speakers:

You may download the meeting audio here. The meeting proper starts at 18:25, the Q&A session starts at 1:06:16, and Q&A ends at 2:42:35 and pretty much ends the meeting.

Dianne's recording is somewhat shorter and more to the point: alternate recording

Here are some pictures from the meeting: Meeting 3 pictures

Also, here is the document which was passed out at the meeting, courtesy of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The "Liberty City" concept, with less government rather than more, is basically what we are shooting for, so it's nice to see that others are working toward the same goals elsewhere in the state: TPPF Liberty City PDF

Hudson Bend Community Meeting, held April 30th, 7pm-9pm

WCID 17 meeting room, Eck Lane

Commentary and minutes in PDF format: Meeting Minutes

Speakers:

Our guest speakers answered questions from the roughly thirty attendees. This is a good introduction to the subject of incorporation, although most of the material covered here is also covered in the subsequent meeting on May 28th.

You may play the recording in the player below, or download it here: Meeting Audio

Donations are now being accepted.

We held off on accepting donations for a couple of months, until we thought it was appropriate. Well, we're far along enough now to where we think it's appropriate, and have received various monetary and in-kind donations.

Many of you are familiar with our Treasurer, Pat Manning, from her work with the Austin Yacht Club and various other organizations. Any monies that you might contribute will certainly be in good hands, safe in our bank account. The postcard mailing has been the greatest expense thus far, at $755, with meeting room costs and meals for our invited speakers being the only other expenses of any note, totaling about $130. We have also put some money on deposit with our attorney, and this should be the main expense over the long run.

Checks may be made out to "Hudson Bend Incorporation Committee", and sent to: 


Hudson Bend Incorporation Committee
c/o Patricia Manning
5805 Lakeside Trail
Austin, TX  78734
We can now accept donations via Paypal!

Any unused donations will be returned on a prorated basis. Any questions or comments, feel free to contact me or Pat Manning: 

Alton Moore
aomoore3@gmail.com
956-581-5577  cell/SMS  10am-10pm

Pat Manning
pmbookkeeping@att.net