In an October 2008 community meeting, I asked Pastor Phillips and the management team for his church when they came up with their plan, and when they made the decision to buy the property on Hwy 71. I was told that the site plan was developed long in advance of the purchase of the property.

I then asked them why they chose to buy a lot that was zoned in direct opposition to their planned uses. The answer? “Because it was a good buy.”

Shortly thereafter, the three surrounding neighborhoods issued statements of opposition to the amphitheater being included in the Dream City site plan. OHAN then issued a statement of support, also opposing the amphitheater. Not the church, not the hike and bike trail, nor any other aspect of the development. Just the amphitheater. That remains the only bone of contention between the surrounding neighborhoods and the church.

When I chose to build my home in 1995, the zoning of the area, and the protection it offered from exactly this type of commercial development, was a major consideration. I know for a fact that many of my neighbors chose to live here for the same reason. We like the peace and quiet of living in a Rural Residential area.

So when you advise someone to “move west”, perhaps you should direct the advice to Pastor Phillips. There’s already an outdoor performance venue right down the road that he can lease for his Christian Rock concerts. It’s called The Backyard, and the traffic and parking woes associated with The Backyard’s operation are no more welcome in Oak Hill than they are in Bee Caves.

As far as the other performing arts presentations, they can all be held in the church’s primary building. The church would lose nothing by dropping the amphitheater from its site plan, other than the ability to impose their sound pollution on the surrounding neighborhoods.

Ok: enough of that. Will the venue reduce property values and or downgrade the quality of life in the adjacent neighborhoods? Well; I was subjected, as were my neighbors, to a musical outdoor assault by Buddy’s corner store, who got a permit, and hired bands to Play LOUD enough so I could make out the lyrics in my home. I actually looked for real estate about 3/4 mile further away from that venue on HWY 290, closer to Hwy 71. I found a nice house, but then I realized how close I’d be to “scream-dream city” and I will not be buying that house.
The quality of life will be severely compromised for almost all of you by hearing christian rock music inside your homes w/ the doors and windows shut. Your real estate values will drop. Personally; knowing the formulaic calculating money machine that is christian contemporary music: it’d annoy me in the extreme to hear ANY noise from that venue.
There are lawsuits that can be brought for nuisance and depletion of property value, as well as deprivation of enjoyment of your home, and increases in stress levels leading to health issues. I suggest to all of you that will be effected by this venue to get together and get some lawyers working on it in advance. You can bet the
D-city folks have their lawyers on this already.

D/C ( dream city) is always going to try to put a good light on themselves. In an Austin Chronicle article Phillips is quoted: “The community will love it,” he ( Phillips) says with the ready confidence of a true believer.
( Is he so arrogant as to “know” what the community will love?)
“The Dream City amphitheatre, he explained, will serve as an integral part of the community, providing a place for graduation ceremonies, recitals, ballets, family movie nights, jazz concerts, and other events. The church’s intent is to build a nondisruptive state-of-the-art facility, he said. “We are designing our amplification systems and natural berming to enclose sound.”Moreover, he said, “We will make our calendar of events known to the neighborhood representatives and encourage their input in events they would like for us to provide.

Well; “What are they going to say?? … “We DON’T hope the community will use us as a resource”? PULEEZ!!
SURE; they want your business!
Also, having built indoor and outdoor sound systems, I can tell you that that “natural berming” as sound abatement does NOT work worth a darn close to adjacent neighborhoods. D/C is spouting a lot of hooey driven by greed. These people are among the most cowardly of criminals. They don’t even steal from you or screw up your life openly: They put a Christian face on it.

“Still, Richardson saw big benefits in moving the creek: “The upside is reduced impact on Williamson Creek. It has the added benefit of eliminating the third level direct connect at the ‘Y’ by merging 71 and 290 at Joe Tanner in the eastern segment of the road improvement. In so doing, this keeps 71 more of a local road through Oak Hill. ROW [right of way] alignment with a future [FM] 1826 extension needs to be included in the plan, but it has merits overall.”

The Jacobs plan proposed leaving the creek where it is and re-aligning SH 71 ROW north over the old race track (owned by Freescale) and land near the Freescale detention ponds. That proposal WOULD merge SH 71 with US 290 east of Wm. Cannon towards Joe Tanner. The Jacobs plan WOULD eliminate the third level direct connect. This was not made clear in the article.

The Jacobs plan does have a problem (as drawn) in that it eliminates commercial access to the commercial property on the south side of 290 near the Y. A viable plan must maintain connectivity with Hill Oaks and Wolf Creek Pass with the East Bound 290 frontage road.

The LID design suggestions may be able to reduce the scale of the detention ponds proposed by TxDOT thereby permitting the shift north of the 290 main lanes along the bluff below Convict Hill Neighborhood. That is an engineering question I can’t respond to.

Overall these are tweaks. The LJA proposal retains the TxDOT plan which has noise and scale problems identified by Oak Hill residents. The Jacobs proposal offers a viable solution to residents problems with the TxDOT 290 schematic but adds a requirement to condemn Freescale property. Tolls would be a viable solution to the added costs associated with condemnation of additional ROW from Freescale.

I heartily applaud these efforts.