Finding Arens Heating and Cooling is not an easy task for the non-native today, but once the city vacates Third Street SE it will become even harder.

Thursday, May 11, 2000

Finding Arens Heating and Cooling is not an easy task for the non-native today, but once the city vacates Third Street SE it will become even harder. That would turn the street into a dead-end road, one that ends at Steve and Penny Arens’ business at 103 Third St. SE.

The Arenses aren’t happy with that prospect. Wednesday they asked the city Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board whose future Courtyard II apartment building is the reason behind the proposed road vacation – to help find a workable solution.

"We’re the only business that would be affected by that dead end," Steve Arens said. "There’s no one to stand up with us."

Currently, the road runs north across Oakland Avenue past what used to be the license branch and ends at First Avenue NW. Once the Courtyard II apartments are up, plans are to close that road and have green space where the road now runs between the bridge over Oakland and First Avenue. The Austin City Council authorized city staff to begin the process of vacating the road at their last meeting, but the process is a lengthy one.

"We were shocked to hear that the plan was to vacate the street," Steve Arens said at Wednesday’s HRA board meeting. "We’d like to discuss some alternatives."

Alternatives mentioned by Steve Arens included putting a cul de sac at the end of the road, trading right-of-way land with the city or, one that he admitted would be a massive project, bringing Oakland Avenue up to the level of the land next to it and getting rid of the bridges that now span the busy street.

"There will be public hearings during the vacation process," HRA Director Kermit Mahan explained, "but we should be able to seek some kind of solution that will work for you."

The matter was referred to the City Council’s street committee and the Arenses were told that City Engineer Jon Erichson would be their best liaison throughout the process.

In other business, Mahan reported the following to the board:

n The affordable housing project known as Murphy’s Creek could go forward to other funding sources within the month, if both APEX Austin and the Hormel Foundation approve the project.

n The groundbreaking ceremony for phase II of the Courtyard apartments is set for 11 a.m. Monday and bond sales for the project will be complete Tuesday.

n The application for a $500,000 grant to clean up the former Milwaukee Railroad yard is in, and Mahan expects to know whether the city will get the grant within two or three weeks.

n The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved the final specifications on the city’s plans to change the former St. Paul’s Lutheran Church into a park shelter; next the plans will go to the state Department of Natural Resources. Mahan said he hoped work on converting the building could start by the end of this year or early 2001.