Voters reject annexation issue
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, November 8, 2000
When news that Austin residents had voted more than two-to-one against the annexation reached Bobee Jo’s bar on the East Side of Austin, the crowded bar room erupted in cheers.
Wednesday, November 08, 2000
When news that Austin residents had voted more than two-to-one against the annexation reached Bobee Jo’s bar on the East Side of Austin, the crowded bar room erupted in cheers.
Tuesday’s wasn’t a typical crowd for bar owner and Third Ward Council member Dick Lang, but nor was it the usual meeting place for the people there. For the last six Thursday nights running and less often in the months before, the 20 to 30 have gathered in the basement of the Interpretive Building at the J.C. Hormel Nature Center.
The months of meeting and collecting signatures and knocking on doors paid off though – the group of citizens opposing the annexation won an overwhelming victory on Tuesday. The vote was 6,914 against the annexation to 3,135 in favor.
Anti-annexation group spokesman Dr. Mark Reeve was at City Hall when the voting results were called in. As the results came in, he said, his mood went from "pretty high, to higher, then higher yet."
"I had a really positive feeling going in, but it was nice to see that so many people from all over the city felt the same way we do," he said. "I would credit this group of people," he added, gesturing at the folks sitting at the tables around
him at Bobee Jo’s. "They are a darned good group of people who wanted to make this work and they did."
"You have to give them credit," Lang, standing at the end of the bar, said. "They worked awful hard. This proves the government still belongs to us."
Those sentiments were echoed throughout the room.
"This is a prime example – you can fight City Hall," Vikki Zook said. "The little people can win."
"This referendum was very positive for Austin," Fran Skinness said, "because people know we have control of our destiny all together. If the city does something we don’t like, we have the power to change it."
Not everyone in the city was as thrilled with the overwhelming "no" vote. George Brophy, the director of the Development Corp. of Austin and an outspoken advocate of annexing the land, was at City Hall when the first results rolled in from Ellis Middle School, Third Ward, Second Precinct. The vote there was 440 "yes" votes vs. 1,095 "no" votes.
"I expected to see these results," Brophy said. "And I think folks are terribly concerned about the natural environment. I respect that, although I don’t think the proposed houses would have had a negative affect on the nature center … It was a terrific opportunity to place homes for working people, working families, in a beautiful location."
Developer Rick Kahn was disappointed and skeptical.
"We would consider other land, but we’re skeptical that there is any land already in the city that would allow us to build in that price range," Kahn said. "We looked before."
Brophy was ready to move on, stating that the next challenge is to find "ways and places" for affordable new housing that Austin could agree on.
Developer David Wellstone wasn’t sure that Family Place Home Builders was ready to move on – in Austin, anyway.
"The people spoke pretty loudly," Wellstone said. "We’ll cancel our agreement on that piece of land and move on – my guess is that any development for us in Austin is a longer shot. We certainly wouldn’t proceed on any land that wasn’t already in the city. We don’t want to go through this kind of process again."
At Bobee Jo’s, even while savoring their victory and a few celebratory drinks, the group of determined residents were plotting the next step, with their eyes firmly focused on the 55 acres of land west of the nature center. A 7:30 p.m. meeting on Nov. 16 in the Interpretive Center, a few phone calls to be made, absent group members to reenlist now that the politics of the annexation are over.
"Now our focus has to be on purchasing that property, raising the funds to do that, and involving a government agency to look after it," Dean Dykeman said. "We need to keep that land for everyone forever."
Walking out of Bobee Jo’s, nature center assistant Julie Champlin was elated.
"The people spoke and they were heard … resoundingly," Champlin said. "This is what my grandfather fought for. This is democracy."