Approval by the Austin City Council on Monday of appraisal and acquisition contracts for the Austin Municipal Airport expansion project means the residents of Burrwood Addition may be done waiting very soon.

Wednesday, June 07, 2000

Approval by the Austin City Council on Monday of appraisal and acquisition contracts for the Austin Municipal Airport expansion project means the residents of Burrwood Addition may be done waiting very soon.

It also means the city saves more than $200,000 over the estimate given by the previous consulting firm for the same work.

"When the first company came back with costs of more than $500,000 to do consulting on land purchasing, it seemed a little high," Dick Chaffee, council airport and trails committee chairman, said. "We thought we should take a look at our No. 2 and 3 options."

No. 2 on the city’s list was W.D. Shock, a nationwide firm that specializes in acquisition and relocation. W.D. Shock estimated their costs at $177,000, less than half the final bid of $395,000 by the original firm of ACSG consulting services.

Briggs Appraisal and Consulting will be doing the appraisal work on contract with the city for $100 an hour.

City Engineer Jon Erichson said a kick-off meeting with the appraiser and the acquisition firm was set for Thursday.

"We’ll probably send something out to the residents after Thursday," Erichson said. "Both companies indicated that they had someone who could start work as soon as the contract was approved, so we should be able to get started almost immediately."

Council and committee member Dick Lang was concerned about the delay caused by the change of consulting firm, but was assured that at the maximum two weeks had been lost.

However, the speed and cost of the acquisition process also depends on whether or not any of the landowners contest the city’s offer, which sends the two parties to court and increases costs substantially, Erichson said.

Chaffee said he thought the residents of the 17 homes that have to be acquired by the city for the expansion probably could move as quickly as they wanted.

"People who have something arranged probably will be able to move almost immediately," he said, adding that the residents will be entitled to a relocation fee as well as the fair value of their property.

Kermit Mahan, director of the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority, will be acting as a local liaison for the acquisition firm. Mahan has extensive experience with acquisition because of the aggressive flood relocation program pursued by the HRA.