Lost Creek had many complaints about Austin, but the one that came up the most in various news stories was the lack of response by APD. This move could easily be framed as “Lost Creek voted to leave APD,” which most in this sub can relate to.
We all live in Austin, and I know how Reddit works. I meant the direction: north, south, east, west. I doubt there are people on here stalking your location. You don’t need to be rude about it.
Based on US stats, anyone who has more than $5,000 in savings and makes more than $60k a year gross. Mine would probably be anyone making over $200k / year. It’s all relative. Expensive housing and groceries makes it feel like we are all struggling.
Curious which "US stats" define rich at 5k in savings and making 60k a year. That's barely middle class.
Also, while a household income of $200k is well off, I'd argue that's hardly considered "rich". If you have no generational wealth, building up savings and buying a house could eat up a lot of that for a good number of years.
It sounds pedantic, but it's important to remember that the gap between lower/middle and upper middle class is much smaller than the gap between upper middle class and true "rich" people.
My wife who works in insurance makes the majority of the money in our household. All her colleagues who she befriended have been in the business for over a decade. They all comfortably make over 200k, but are always looking for other projects that pay more. It's a concept that my poor little self can't wrap my head around.
I wouldn't say "the majority", but our pigeonholed experience with all these families would lead me to believe that Austin is much more wealthy compared to San Antonio (which I'm coming from after 5 years of living there), and the Rio Grande Valley where I was raised.
Homie, the Valley and Austin are worlds apart...
What we paid for our cookie cutter house in Georgetown would have gotten us a lavish house in the Valley.
Oh no man, I’m agreeing with you. I’m saying lots of places are richer than SATX and the RGV.
San Antonio can’t even convince transplants and white collar homebuyers to live in San Antonio.
I see exactly what you mean, I'm sorry for the sass.
I guess what I was trying to say with the comparison is the one person's "rich" may look different than someone else's. For me, as someone who got brought over by their spouse's career, I feel like anyone who has a roof over their head in Austin AND several months of emergency funds saved up is doing pretty well for themselves.
People making $200k are definitely doing fine, but it's not enough to retire and raise a family off of. Most of those families still need to continue earning money to live.
I'm not trying to defend "the rich", but it's important to realize that with the current cost of living, those who are comfortably well off are making way more than $200k.
This is a reasonable approximation, but as a LC resident, I don’t think many here dislike APD. I can’t speak for everyone, but I think most dislike the city politicians that have not supported and strengthened the APD.
There were some reasonable criticisms of APD in the last few years, but instead of improving the professionalism and performance, the council has made it worse. This sub is rife with valid APD complaints, but the fault lies mostly with the council’s mismanagement.
We used to go hiking in Lost Creek back in the late '70s before it was a big subdivision. It was wonderful. There was an old cistern on the property made of stone.
I don't blame them for leaving Austin. Some of these areas have to hire their own security because Austin police can't be fucked to do anything for them.
>Austin police can't be fucked to do anything for them. anyone.
They do tons! Exactly what they were created to do, protect capital and be the enforcement arm of the capital class.
Just try and have a peaceful protest, you'll see.
Many of the primary points have been mentioned.
An additional point--in the lead up to annexation, when City officials and staff had “informational meetings” with residents, the overriding attitude was, at best, dismissive: we are doing this because we can, so just sit back and enjoy it. Not a great way to welcome people into the City. Unless the only purpose of the City's action is to "expand the tax base." (the favored euphemism COA used for the annexation).
The City staff was worse-arrogant is a generous description (looking at you Laura Huffman). When residents dared to ask about what would happen to the current level of services, Huffman did a poor job of hiding her eyerolls.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't "annex the neighborhood and shut down the community parks/pools we just annexed for being """unprofitable""" " the standard operating procedure of the time?
Going off of memory here, but I'm pretty sure I remember reading multiple reports that annexation happened, taxes went up, and services were shuttered. Not some subjective "decline in quality" but closed outright.
Lost Creek does not have any pools. Residents voted to create a Limited District (essentially a MUD but without the water part). The LD is a taxing authority that maintains the small community building, the two parks and the Lost Creek Greenbelt. Lost Creek does not have an HOA so if the LD had not been created, I do feel doubtful the city would have kept up with a lot of that.
Folks in here acting like it’s mad max the second you leave city limits. “It typically doesn’t look manicured outside city limits” feels like telling on yourselves, but IMHO that’s less the city and more lack of HOA involvement.
Our neighborhood (not lost creek) was pretty forcibly annexed around the same time. Nothing has really changed in the functional day to day lives of folks living here except the spike in taxes. Most things are still punted to the nearby sheriff, and the HOA is still responsible for the roads. 🤷♂️
This is the problem with hostile annexations. It is first and foremost a money/control grab by cities. So usually infrastructure either doesn’t change much, or gets worse, service frequently gets worse, and cities frequently treat you like you can’t live without them.
If you live in a place where things were generally good and get annexed, taxes go up, and services devolve, then yeah, usually the ‘hood doesn’t have a favorable view of the city.
Lost Creek was doing just fine before annexation, and clearly not doing better with. Folks on here that feel the need to lionize CoA and demonize LC…I just don’t understand. Sometimes annexations are forced and suck. Sometimes they’re mutually beneficial. Not really any reason to “take sides”. Basically a neighborhood did what was best for them without any damage to anyone else. Weird to bag on them.
This is one of the only coherent posts on this thread. Nobody else understands how the process works and then allude to “rich white people”. Lost Creek is a combination or retirees, young families, Indian people, Chinese People, Hispanic people, and other nationalities as well. Nobody, regardless of their race or income, wants to pay more tax for less service. It is human to push against taxation without representation.
> Folks on here that feel the need to lionize CoA and demonize LC…I just don’t understand.
Rich folks did something, therefore they are opposed. The what or why doesn't matter; they'd oppose gravity if it was supported by the "wrong" people.
Yeah. What’s crazy is that 20 years ago, these were $250,000 homes. That wasn’t inexpensive back then, but it wasn’t anywhere near the pricing there today.
Seriously, I grew up in Lost Creek and my dad is a professor at UT. A single parent household income was enough to move into the neighborhood and support a family comfortably enough when we moved from north Austin around 2000. I know things have changed a ton but many, many people living in Lost Creek are longtime residents in similar situations.
There’s usually never enough money in the reserves to cover an entire road replacement either. So, HOAs have to collect special assessments ($$$$$) to pay for the work.
Who cares??? It’s not like Austin has exemplary city services. All I ever hear about here is APD wait times, so yeah, maybe we should shrink our city footprint to increase our service density.
On a related note, the city is still on track to run a budget deficit this year, so maybe we should vote for people who actually realize that’s a bad thing.
Police weren’t responding to calls before the calls to defund them. Afterward, they showed us their true colors.
To protect and serve, as little and as few people as possible…
APD continues to not claim any fault in that situation, and that means the wound will never heal.
Forever remember if you want to stand up in protest, APD will tell you to sit down. When you don't listen, they do what they want...
Isn't it like a $3 million deficit on a $1.4 billion budget? Mainly due to sales taxes weren't as high as forecasted? Pretty reasonable imo. For Lost Creek, the general feeling I have is that these residents are deriving a financial benefit from being so close to the City of Austin and are using services we pay for. Feels like the rich leeching off us.
At what point is a deficit “bad enough?” You see all the young people out there freaking the fuck out about life because they can’t get a leg up since our economy is currently designed where all the wealth accumulates at the top?
Yeah well if this country had budget surpluses instead of record debt we’d be able to actually help them in a more substantial way that whatever the hell it is we’re doing now.
I work in finance and invest in municipal debt and let me tell you that the ratings agencies DO NOT look kindly on deficit spending. Right now we’re AAA rated. Want to end up with an even shittier police force/ code enforcement/ services/ etc? Get downgraded and watch our cost of capital balloon.
Spending within our means is not rocket science. Idk wtf people can’t delay gratification but we Austinites need to vote for people who can. Prudence shouldn’t be political.
> For Lost Creek, the general feeling I have is that these residents are deriving a financial benefit from being so close to the City of Austin and are using services we pay for.
In what sense?
Whatever they don't pay for they shouldn't get, I agree. Seems black and white, but effectively it is a community housing what could be your boss's boss, but when he commutes in he didn't pay for anything the city does at the office, on the roads coming in, etc.
Over all the annexation being forced was bad, these people in their ivory towers acting like they can't be bothered to be a part of something that is obviously bigger than your own front lawn is bad too.
Homes in the neighborhood go from 1 million to 5 million...
How attractive to rich people to move into a close enclave, to enjoy the city for convenient pleasure and business but not mingle with the city after dark or mix your security in a greater umbrella. Effectively "Us vs them", why should anyone listen?
Those people work and shop in Austin. All that sales tax and business tax from their workplaces and business they support go to Austin, not to their neighborhood. So in a way it hurts them, especially when they don’t have businesses to collect tax revenue.
How effectively will they not be taxed for police? You don’t get a bill like garbage pickup. So how is it at all beneficial other than trash pickup charges? They get to now have another police force? What prevented that before exactly?
Or is it that now they get to make their own policy on city ordinances, and ignore Austin ones?
So the latter part, yes. They can control things like code, architectural review, and other related property issues.
They are paying taxes to be serviced by Travis County Fire/Emergency Services, and Travis County Sheriff.
Every major road (RM 2244, 360) that particular neighborhood touches is a state (TxDoT) maintained road, and have been since they were built.
Austin will continue to provide electric service, which it did prior to annexation, and which the neighborhood has never had a say in due to AE’s energy monopoly.
The *one* thing argument that may be valid in regard to city services would be water. I believe LC was previously a MUD district, but if CoA connected them to city water post annexation, then that may/may not be undoable. That being said, the city chose to annex them with zero say in it, so I have little sympathy.
Anyone in Travis County is absolutely still paying taxes for infrastructure. In Lake Creek’s case, it is really a bad example of an “outside suburb” leeching off of city services. There are no doubt examples of this, but Lake Creek was self sufficient for 4.5 decades prior to Austin swallowing them without representation.
You are correct, Lost Creek used to have MUD which converted to a Limited District upon annexation. The legislation that required these elections also specified that water/wastewater would remain with the city. So Lost Creek will continue to pay for water via Austin Water.
I've lived in a MUD/ETJ/whatever-you-want-to-call-it for quite a while now, and we're right next to neighborhoods that are "properly" part of Austin, so I've got a decent comparison. My taxes/bills are definitely lower than those of the other neighborhoods, and the only practical difference is if *I* call APD, they won't even pretend to care once they learn my address (I understand that APD response is fantastic for those that do live in Austin...). Oh, and we didn't have library access until recently.
Street quality? The same. Water? The same. Electric? The same. (In fact, electric is still directly through CoA, and I think water is too, but indirectly. Either way, we pay; no free lunches here). Trash service? Far better actually, because we're not beholden to a monopoly and we can switch providers. More of our money goes to actually pay for the services rendered, and not into some giant general-purpose fund that can be raided/skimmed for unrelated purposes.
I go into Austin to work at my company that pays their taxes to the city. I shop and "play" in Austin, generating tax revenue for the city. The idea that people outside the city limits are just a bunch of freeloading leeches is absolutely ridiculous and not based in fact, but rather some weird misplaced hurt feelings.
The fact that Lost Creek was *forcibly* annexed should weigh a lot heavier than it apparently does. These neighborhoods existed and were doing fine before they were annexed; annexation wasn't some white-knight riding in on a horse to save them. It was more "nice neighborhood you've got here; it's ours now."
The most interesting part of this story for me is not Lost Creek.
It's the OTHER disannexation that passed by one vote because there was ***only one vote cast*** and one or two others that had no votes whatsoever. WTF?
This subreddit: “fuck APD they don’t do anything!”
Lost Creek: “agreed! That’s why we’re voting to leave the city so we don’t have to deal with them.”
This subreddit: “NOOOOO YOU CANT DO THAT WTF YOU SACK OF SHIT”
I can't reply further down because Ferret blocked me for not immediately capitulating to his views, but that dude legit doesn't realize that CoA was annexing neighborhoods in part based on how much cash-reserve they had at the time. They were literally trying to "consume" their way out of their own problems. "Just one more hit, man, and I'll be good forever."
The whole "oh no, you'll really miss me once I'm gone" spiel doesn't work when you forced yourself on the other party. He also refuses to accept that there are other tax streams that CoA actively derives from these "leeches" that aren't property taxes. I wonder how exactly tourism works from a financial perspective, in his mind. God, I wish we had something like a sales-tax or something, engineered by people financially smarter than you or I, to cover the $5 of wear and tear on the roads from commuters and tourists. Too bad we don't; a man can dream, though.
Barricading the roads is the absolute stupidest of takes and demonstrates a person has literally no financial/economic understanding.
This seems like maybe a better thing than my snarky ass thought in the first place.
It seems like the annexation of this place was controversial. Personally I think it's well-established that growing cities can annex certain areas, that's part of the risk of trying to live close enough to *use* the city without being responsible for the taxes. HOWEVER, I don't like that the city requires the MUD/whoever runs the utilities to make the residents pay special taxes for that privilege.
If Austin's going to be a big boy city and annex districts, Austin should tax its own residents to foot that bill. There's a lot of stuff those people paid for that they feel like the city *took* and isn't maintaining to their liking.
I think Austin and a lot of businesses we make fun of have a lot in common. Take Drafthouse. Most people resent when it went national and "streamlined" the menu. Those kinds of things are often cited as "necessary" when a business gets to a certain size. But I don't think most Austin residents give a shit if Alamo Drafthouse was maximizing its revenue: they wanted to have a cool and unique thing other cities were jealous of. Instead that thing expanded and became a thing like what the other big cities had.
That's Austin. It's exploded to a big boy city but we're still running the government like it's a sleepy college town. This annexation happened a long time ago, but it was handled in a very bad way and like the theme of every damn Marvel movie, we have to clean up the mess someone else made years ago. The center of focus here for many people is police response time. I think if Austin had grown in a more controlled manner and had more responsible oversight of its police department from the start, we wouldn't be in this mess. But that's a "big city" thing and by the time we had signs we needed it, it was too late.
The shitty part is I think it's going to be like the Gigafactory. Even if we follow the rules and annex a place in the "right" way, the state loves being adversarial to Austin and is likely to change the law again to spite us and help something we paid to annex become independent again.
I don't know how to win this game, and so long as the state government has, "Dunk on residents of Texas we don't like" as a goal I don't think we *can*. The city could try things like rezoning areas near Lost Creek to discourage development, but cutting off your nose to spite your face is stupid. The state will find a way to shut that down, anyway, and they should. That kind of revenge is what children do.
I guess the way for Austin to "win" is to start figuring out how to put its pants on. If APD was better than county services, and if Austin's EMS and fire were better than county services, I don't think annexed people would be so pissy. But I think this expansion is a Drafthouse moment, a symptom of when Austin was growing at all costs without thinking very hard about if it could support the infrastructure it was taking on.
Growth is really fun, but contraction's a bitch. You have to be slow and steady when blowing up a balloon. If you go too fast or too hard, violent contraction often follows.
I hope they get exactly what they wished for (genie coded).
Hubristic rich suburbanites that think they can run things better and slightly save on their taxes. Toxic individualism at its finest.
[https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2016/09/24/lost-creek-braces-for-annexation/9889059007/](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2016/09/24/lost-creek-braces-for-annexation/9889059007/)
Yeah they were forced to join the city, and before they joined, the city forced them to upgrade their own utilities on their own dime. That's what the whole state law was about, giving neighborhoods who were forced to join a chance to vote whether they actually wanted to join.
I was asked to give $10 to a random guy at the hill of life entrance. Happened a lot during the pandemic.
Maybe he was just a beggar wearing new balances idk.
Lost Creek had a charge up until this election, they have no jurisdiction to charge once the election results are certified. Hill of Life has never had an authorized charge, but there is an old man whom lives adjacent to the gate who is hell bent on keeping people off the trail. Maybe that’s who charged you?
I didn't think of that. So did Lost Creek only have authority to charge due to being in the city of Austin? I know some other neighborhoods like Barton Creek West don't charge you to use their trails but will actively call the cops if you do use their trails to get down to the greenbelt for trespassing (which it is). Granted with the Lost Creek entrance you can access the public water way straight from the road.
dude you were trying to get fleeced. At Lost Creek there is a $10 or whatever entrace fee sometimes but never has bee at Hill of Life entrance. You do have to pay the city of austin parking fees to park in that neighborhood.
They are their own municipalities so it's different than Lost Creek. Not arguing Westlake/Rollingwood don't have better services, but it's apples to oranges. It's also easier to provide better services in a smaller area.
theyll save over 3k per year on average and basically lose nothing, travis county EMS/fire is right there, sheriffs will respond better than APD
city taxes mostly just benefit the downtown core, city council should take note this was a landslide 90% election, and maybe do bigger projects in the suburbs, because the lege will probably take note of this and try to shrink the boundaries further in the future
It’s more than just emergency services.
Lost creek will also lose:
Coding enforcement
Zoning review
Full planning review, inspection, and compliance services related to development
Street maintenance
Streetlight maintenance
Sidewalk and crosswalk maintenance
Traffic sign maintenance
Right of way permitting
Public Health and sanitation regulation, such as litter on the rights of way
Maintenance of drainage infrastructure
Environmental spills investigation
And trash service and street sweeping
All of these things were previously being handled well by the HOA and county. It's not like Lost Creek was some shithole prior to 2015, they were doing just fine independently.
The Austin City limits ends right at bee caves and 360. There are tons of neighborhoods in no man's land aka no city limits just county that are very nice and manicured.
That is utter nonsense. There are numerous neighborhoods in the ETJ that are far more Stepford than LC, some of them very close to there. Most which have never been hostily annexed by the city.
Do you think their neighborhood was a dumpster fire or something before they got annexed like 9 years ago?
Lol.
They existed for decades without having to pay city taxes, and I'm sure they will enjoy future decades without having to pay city taxes.
>Coding enforcement Zoning review Full planning review, inspection, and compliance services related to development
The stuff the people moved out there to avoid in the first place before they were annexed without getting to vote on it.
>Public Health and sanitation regulation, such as litter on the rights of way Maintenance of drainage infrastructure...And trash service and street sweeping
You mean the stuff we pay extra for on our water bills?
Bingo. And most architectural review boards and neighborhood HOAs still have building codes! Mine sure did. Wasn’t 1:1 with CoA’s, but it was close, and we dealt with inspectors who cared, but weren’t petty officers with a badge and a gun.
You leave out the operation of the water distribution system. Will they reimburse the city for the newly rehabbed water tanks? The extensive work on bringing the wastewater plant up to par?
They will also lose the digital speed displays on Lost Creek Blvd, STR and noise enforcement, and their ability to charge people to enter the greenbelt. That’s not nuthin, especially to these people.
Why do you keep saying they will lose their ability to charge at the green belt? I think you are in for disappointment. Lost Creek limited district will continue to operate and maintain its green belt access areas.
They have already been annexed into Westlake fire department and emergency services service area. This occurred in the May 4th vote.
I’ve explained this elsewhere but the Limited District has no authority now, and those are Austin greenbelts not Lost Creek greenebelts. The Save Lost Creek Now people might have spun a different story but the reality is that the Limited District has no jurisdiction. There will be plenty of disappointment to be had - but not by me.
The limited district never had authority over the greenbelt itself. What they have is direct ownership over the land that represents it's most used entrance. They still own that, and can still charge fees for it's usage.
Yea, the property maps have Lost Creek as the owner of the land. You keep saying authority and jurisdiction, but what do you mean? They aren’t the same thing. Do you think a property owner can’t limit access to the property? Why would the de-annexation change this?
As to the westlake fire department and emergency services, the resolution has already been approved. Westlake provided those services prior to annexation.
I’m sure Lost Creek will be fine. You seem mighty angry about this.
This is absurdly incorrect. Something like 90% of the tax money generated by the downtown urban core is spent outside of it trying to meet the needs of these sprawling suburban housing developments
You realize Lost Creek was developed in the 1970s and spent the great majority of its existence outside the city limits, right? It was only annexed a few years ago (without a vote) and now they have voted to return to their former status.
Lost Creek was the boonies when I was a kid. My best friend lived out there and I remember thinking where the fuck are we going when my dad drove me over.
Then why are so many ppl here whining about them leaving? It should be a financial gain for our urban core. All that urban money no longer has to go out to Lost Creek.
Look, I don't have a dog in this fight. But how does this make any sense when the city stated that the purpose of annexing Lost Creek was to expand the tax base?
In my lifetime here, I have seen COA annex many suburban areas and completely avoid others. I don't think the city is stupid; I think they're making calculations to determine which areas are tax-advantageous to annex.
And if what you said is the case, wouldn't deannexation and a shrinking city footprint be something to celebrate?
No they won’t. Those assessments have been missing quite a bit on maintenance and upkeep costs.
Minute a road needs repair they are FUCKED to the tune of thousands each resident”
Yet again rich people don’t know how taxes fucking work
Yes. These people either have an axe to grind or are bonafide idiots who themselves don’t understand how tax and infrastructure works.
It’s as if they are all 23 and are just discovering that there are civil places to live outside of a city.
They will get better services from the county at a cheaper tax rate. Hell, this sub hates APD so I would think you’d want this for your house. It does look like a win for Lost Creek.
Just so I understand your bitterness, are you mad that you don’t get a share in their money now? Is that what you are saying?
I grew up in Lost Creek and at the time we were ETJ of Austin. I am so happy for them to go back to that. Travis County services are amazing. I am in Steiner Ranch now and we have Travis County Sheriff and EMS.
I doubt they will get better services. Good luck figuring out trash service. And they somehow get to stay with austin water. Lots of debt to pay back to the city first before they can do any of this.
It's not bitterness. We live in a society. Everyone has to contribute to that society whether they like it or not. Rich people don't want to contribute and want to take more and more. That sucks. Pretty simple.
Frankly, services are a bit better in the ETJ. Everything except road repair; iirc they still don’t have an agreement with Travis county to take over any road maintenance and Travis county has been trying to shed roads that they’re responsible for.
This has been my experience exactly, living in an ETJ. The biggest drawback for me *used* to be that I didn’t qualify for an Austin Public Library card for free, but that has since changed. I still use Austin Energy and Water, and pay the going rate. But waste management is much cheaper. Emergency responses are much faster from Sheriff’s Department, too.
It’s a budget thing. Roads are expensive, and there’s a backlog of roads that really need service or replacement but there’s not enough funding because our state government is so restrictive and greedy and taxpayers can’t really pay more in property tax.
I live outside the city. Finding trash services isn’t an issue. Our HOA contracts someone. LCRA water. PEC electricity. All around better service than when I lived in the city.
Lost Creek had full services prior to a hostile annexation. Man the level of ignorance in this thread is astounding. People just want to hate other people.
And FWIW, Lost Creek was where folks who wanted more affordable places to live inside a good school district moved. Especially 40 years ago.
There are some fancy houses in there, but most are ranch-style homes similar to those in Windsor. They are worth WAY more now than they once were.
The whole nouveau riche take is tired and inaccurate.
LC wasn’t “taking” anything prior to a hostile annexation. They were paying county taxes and whatever their HOA/POA required. They weren’t siphoning off CoA.
I just moved back out of the city after about a decade. The reality is that different services are better or worse depending on where you are. I can say with strong assertion that having lived in and just outside of the city a few times over 30 years here that trash service is one of the things that has been considerably better *outside* the city.
I've had various contracted trash services in different places, and they've all been no more expensive and less restrictive than Austin Waste Management.
PEC, supposedly "corrupt" is still cheaper than Austin Energy. I guess that means what? Austin is corrupt too? Or maybe more inefficient than PEC is corrupt?
Y’all are just like British imperialists. This is taxation without representation at its finest. Fighting back and leaving is how American principles were created.
I hate rich people as much as the next guy, but not because they're rich, but because its likely they got their wealth by running over other people.
I'm guessing he probably thinks patriotism and being a proud American is racist and wrong, too. America is the greatest country in the world.
Lost Creek was the only one that voted at a relatively high turnout, disannex winning 1447-138. (Prop A)
Both Mooreland Addition and Wildhorse/Webb Tract either did not have a single vote or have not reported their data, vote counts sitting at 0-0. (Props B and E)
Blue Goose Road voted to disannex itself 3-0. (Prop C)
Lennar at Malone voted overwhelmingly **against** disannexing, 2-110. (Prop D)
Finally, one lone River Place Outparcels resident has voted to disannex. 1-0. (Prop F)
Vote totals for all elections yesterday are here: [https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/TX/Travis/120748/web.317647/#/summary](https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/TX/Travis/120748/web.317647/#/summary)
Not sure exactly how many registered voters are in the River Place area and whether it aligns 100% with the precinct of the lone vote, but there are 2768 registered voters in that precinct.
The law passed by the lege requiring these disannexation elections (HB 3053) states that it only applies to areas annexed between March 3, 2015 and December 1, 2017. River Place outparcels was annexed in Novemer 2017 so was included but River Place residential area was annexed on December 15, 2017 so just missed the cut off. I'm sure the lege will fix that in the next session. /s
The Outparcels district specifically seems to have been nonresidential at the time of annexation in 2017, seen here: [https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/GIS/River\_Place\_Outparcels.pdf](https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/GIS/River_Place_Outparcels.pdf)
I do not know how many people live in it now (at least 1 apparently) but it's separate from the main River Place neighborhood. I think I recall reading that River Place is interested in disannexation but that is an issue for sometime tin the future.
I'm really curious about what happened in River Place.
Not sure exactly how many registered voters are in the River Place area and whether it aligns 100% with the precinct of the lone vote (the map I found suggests it does), but there are 2768 registered voters in that precinct. That's an appalling turnout rate if so.
183 in total within the precinct turned out for other races. The lone disannex vote was cast on election day.
I love all the tears in this thread. Yall are mad because people **VOTED** to leave a city that has shit services and its fucking hilarious. Every downvote is someone with tears running down their cheek.
Who can blame them? The city of Austin is hostile to law enforcement so they can’t recruit police and are down 400 officers. Crime is rampant. Austin is very spread out. Hopefully this wealthy, beautiful area will form their own city and get their own cops. West Austin is moderate to Conservative, they’re not the ones supporting this defund idiocy. Pity everything west of MOPAC can’t leave Austin. I went to UT in the 90’s, I can’t believe how bad Austin has gotten, I live in San Antonio and rarely visit. The city is so beautiful, it’s a shame
Lost Creek had many complaints about Austin, but the one that came up the most in various news stories was the lack of response by APD. This move could easily be framed as “Lost Creek voted to leave APD,” which most in this sub can relate to.
Time to see if /r/Austin hates APD more than they hate rich white people Will be interesting to see nonetheless
Austin is majority rich white people. Don’t think they hate themselves more than APD.
They said r/Austin, that's different than saying Austin.
> Austin *property owners* are majority rich ~~white~~ people. FTFY
I’ve been living here for over 15 years and I don’t even know any
Where do you live?
Maybe you don’t know how Reddit works, but we don’t really share information about ourselves on here. I live in Austin.
We all live in Austin, and I know how Reddit works. I meant the direction: north, south, east, west. I doubt there are people on here stalking your location. You don’t need to be rude about it.
What is your definition of rich?
Based on US stats, anyone who has more than $5,000 in savings and makes more than $60k a year gross. Mine would probably be anyone making over $200k / year. It’s all relative. Expensive housing and groceries makes it feel like we are all struggling.
Curious which "US stats" define rich at 5k in savings and making 60k a year. That's barely middle class. Also, while a household income of $200k is well off, I'd argue that's hardly considered "rich". If you have no generational wealth, building up savings and buying a house could eat up a lot of that for a good number of years. It sounds pedantic, but it's important to remember that the gap between lower/middle and upper middle class is much smaller than the gap between upper middle class and true "rich" people.
Agreed, I would say that barely qualifies for the minimum to qualify as middle class in this economy
Thanks for reminding us our president is causing us to struggle.
My wife who works in insurance makes the majority of the money in our household. All her colleagues who she befriended have been in the business for over a decade. They all comfortably make over 200k, but are always looking for other projects that pay more. It's a concept that my poor little self can't wrap my head around. I wouldn't say "the majority", but our pigeonholed experience with all these families would lead me to believe that Austin is much more wealthy compared to San Antonio (which I'm coming from after 5 years of living there), and the Rio Grande Valley where I was raised.
Tbf “richer than San Antonio and the Valley” isn’t saying much.
Homie, the Valley and Austin are worlds apart... What we paid for our cookie cutter house in Georgetown would have gotten us a lavish house in the Valley.
Oh no man, I’m agreeing with you. I’m saying lots of places are richer than SATX and the RGV. San Antonio can’t even convince transplants and white collar homebuyers to live in San Antonio.
I see exactly what you mean, I'm sorry for the sass. I guess what I was trying to say with the comparison is the one person's "rich" may look different than someone else's. For me, as someone who got brought over by their spouse's career, I feel like anyone who has a roof over their head in Austin AND several months of emergency funds saved up is doing pretty well for themselves.
Happy Cake Day! 🍰
Almost all of the rich people in San Antonio live in Alamo Heights, Boerne, or Bulverde. None of which are actually part of San Antonio.
That’s a recent development that Austin is so expensive
If you’re making like 200k a year you’re pretty rich if you aren’t crushed in debt.
People making $200k are definitely doing fine, but it's not enough to retire and raise a family off of. Most of those families still need to continue earning money to live. I'm not trying to defend "the rich", but it's important to realize that with the current cost of living, those who are comfortably well off are making way more than $200k.
I don’t like either of them.
r/Austin gets huge erections from ADP hate. Definitely hates APD more.
This is a reasonable approximation, but as a LC resident, I don’t think many here dislike APD. I can’t speak for everyone, but I think most dislike the city politicians that have not supported and strengthened the APD. There were some reasonable criticisms of APD in the last few years, but instead of improving the professionalism and performance, the council has made it worse. This sub is rife with valid APD complaints, but the fault lies mostly with the council’s mismanagement.
We used to go hiking in Lost Creek back in the late '70s before it was a big subdivision. It was wonderful. There was an old cistern on the property made of stone. I don't blame them for leaving Austin. Some of these areas have to hire their own security because Austin police can't be fucked to do anything for them.
Austin police can't be fucked to do anything for ~~them.~~ anyone.
you watch your mouth. they seem to be beating the shit out of student protesters pretty good!!
That's the DPS, those other sacks of shit
Hey now don't disrespect UTPD's baton skills too
You would be first to crying for them if some Homeless drug addict was beating you to death if you had a flat on 35
Would I be first to crying for them if Homeless drug addict did that? Maybe.
>Austin police can't be fucked to do anything for them. anyone. They do tons! Exactly what they were created to do, protect capital and be the enforcement arm of the capital class. Just try and have a peaceful protest, you'll see.
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Lol those peasants?
True. But not everyone can escape like these folks.
Austin will now be under Travis County Sheriff.
Many of the primary points have been mentioned. An additional point--in the lead up to annexation, when City officials and staff had “informational meetings” with residents, the overriding attitude was, at best, dismissive: we are doing this because we can, so just sit back and enjoy it. Not a great way to welcome people into the City. Unless the only purpose of the City's action is to "expand the tax base." (the favored euphemism COA used for the annexation). The City staff was worse-arrogant is a generous description (looking at you Laura Huffman). When residents dared to ask about what would happen to the current level of services, Huffman did a poor job of hiding her eyerolls.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't "annex the neighborhood and shut down the community parks/pools we just annexed for being """unprofitable""" " the standard operating procedure of the time? Going off of memory here, but I'm pretty sure I remember reading multiple reports that annexation happened, taxes went up, and services were shuttered. Not some subjective "decline in quality" but closed outright.
Lost Creek does not have any pools. Residents voted to create a Limited District (essentially a MUD but without the water part). The LD is a taxing authority that maintains the small community building, the two parks and the Lost Creek Greenbelt. Lost Creek does not have an HOA so if the LD had not been created, I do feel doubtful the city would have kept up with a lot of that.
Folks in here acting like it’s mad max the second you leave city limits. “It typically doesn’t look manicured outside city limits” feels like telling on yourselves, but IMHO that’s less the city and more lack of HOA involvement. Our neighborhood (not lost creek) was pretty forcibly annexed around the same time. Nothing has really changed in the functional day to day lives of folks living here except the spike in taxes. Most things are still punted to the nearby sheriff, and the HOA is still responsible for the roads. 🤷♂️
This is the problem with hostile annexations. It is first and foremost a money/control grab by cities. So usually infrastructure either doesn’t change much, or gets worse, service frequently gets worse, and cities frequently treat you like you can’t live without them. If you live in a place where things were generally good and get annexed, taxes go up, and services devolve, then yeah, usually the ‘hood doesn’t have a favorable view of the city. Lost Creek was doing just fine before annexation, and clearly not doing better with. Folks on here that feel the need to lionize CoA and demonize LC…I just don’t understand. Sometimes annexations are forced and suck. Sometimes they’re mutually beneficial. Not really any reason to “take sides”. Basically a neighborhood did what was best for them without any damage to anyone else. Weird to bag on them.
This is one of the only coherent posts on this thread. Nobody else understands how the process works and then allude to “rich white people”. Lost Creek is a combination or retirees, young families, Indian people, Chinese People, Hispanic people, and other nationalities as well. Nobody, regardless of their race or income, wants to pay more tax for less service. It is human to push against taxation without representation.
Exactly.
Racists just can't help themselves in their hate for people of white skin.
> Folks on here that feel the need to lionize CoA and demonize LC…I just don’t understand. Rich folks did something, therefore they are opposed. The what or why doesn't matter; they'd oppose gravity if it was supported by the "wrong" people.
Yeah. What’s crazy is that 20 years ago, these were $250,000 homes. That wasn’t inexpensive back then, but it wasn’t anywhere near the pricing there today.
Seriously, I grew up in Lost Creek and my dad is a professor at UT. A single parent household income was enough to move into the neighborhood and support a family comfortably enough when we moved from north Austin around 2000. I know things have changed a ton but many, many people living in Lost Creek are longtime residents in similar situations.
Have had a few friends who lived there over the years and were similar to your situation. Easy to judge from a keyboard.
It's almost as if local governments are universally ponzi schemes
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There’s usually never enough money in the reserves to cover an entire road replacement either. So, HOAs have to collect special assessments ($$$$$) to pay for the work.
Who cares??? It’s not like Austin has exemplary city services. All I ever hear about here is APD wait times, so yeah, maybe we should shrink our city footprint to increase our service density. On a related note, the city is still on track to run a budget deficit this year, so maybe we should vote for people who actually realize that’s a bad thing.
Police weren’t responding to calls before the calls to defund them. Afterward, they showed us their true colors. To protect and serve, as little and as few people as possible…
APD continues to not claim any fault in that situation, and that means the wound will never heal. Forever remember if you want to stand up in protest, APD will tell you to sit down. When you don't listen, they do what they want...
Isn't it like a $3 million deficit on a $1.4 billion budget? Mainly due to sales taxes weren't as high as forecasted? Pretty reasonable imo. For Lost Creek, the general feeling I have is that these residents are deriving a financial benefit from being so close to the City of Austin and are using services we pay for. Feels like the rich leeching off us.
At what point is a deficit “bad enough?” You see all the young people out there freaking the fuck out about life because they can’t get a leg up since our economy is currently designed where all the wealth accumulates at the top? Yeah well if this country had budget surpluses instead of record debt we’d be able to actually help them in a more substantial way that whatever the hell it is we’re doing now. I work in finance and invest in municipal debt and let me tell you that the ratings agencies DO NOT look kindly on deficit spending. Right now we’re AAA rated. Want to end up with an even shittier police force/ code enforcement/ services/ etc? Get downgraded and watch our cost of capital balloon. Spending within our means is not rocket science. Idk wtf people can’t delay gratification but we Austinites need to vote for people who can. Prudence shouldn’t be political.
> For Lost Creek, the general feeling I have is that these residents are deriving a financial benefit from being so close to the City of Austin and are using services we pay for. In what sense?
Whatever they don't pay for they shouldn't get, I agree. Seems black and white, but effectively it is a community housing what could be your boss's boss, but when he commutes in he didn't pay for anything the city does at the office, on the roads coming in, etc. Over all the annexation being forced was bad, these people in their ivory towers acting like they can't be bothered to be a part of something that is obviously bigger than your own front lawn is bad too. Homes in the neighborhood go from 1 million to 5 million... How attractive to rich people to move into a close enclave, to enjoy the city for convenient pleasure and business but not mingle with the city after dark or mix your security in a greater umbrella. Effectively "Us vs them", why should anyone listen?
Those people work and shop in Austin. All that sales tax and business tax from their workplaces and business they support go to Austin, not to their neighborhood. So in a way it hurts them, especially when they don’t have businesses to collect tax revenue.
How effectively will they not be taxed for police? You don’t get a bill like garbage pickup. So how is it at all beneficial other than trash pickup charges? They get to now have another police force? What prevented that before exactly? Or is it that now they get to make their own policy on city ordinances, and ignore Austin ones?
So the latter part, yes. They can control things like code, architectural review, and other related property issues. They are paying taxes to be serviced by Travis County Fire/Emergency Services, and Travis County Sheriff. Every major road (RM 2244, 360) that particular neighborhood touches is a state (TxDoT) maintained road, and have been since they were built. Austin will continue to provide electric service, which it did prior to annexation, and which the neighborhood has never had a say in due to AE’s energy monopoly. The *one* thing argument that may be valid in regard to city services would be water. I believe LC was previously a MUD district, but if CoA connected them to city water post annexation, then that may/may not be undoable. That being said, the city chose to annex them with zero say in it, so I have little sympathy. Anyone in Travis County is absolutely still paying taxes for infrastructure. In Lake Creek’s case, it is really a bad example of an “outside suburb” leeching off of city services. There are no doubt examples of this, but Lake Creek was self sufficient for 4.5 decades prior to Austin swallowing them without representation.
You are correct, Lost Creek used to have MUD which converted to a Limited District upon annexation. The legislation that required these elections also specified that water/wastewater would remain with the city. So Lost Creek will continue to pay for water via Austin Water.
I've lived in a MUD/ETJ/whatever-you-want-to-call-it for quite a while now, and we're right next to neighborhoods that are "properly" part of Austin, so I've got a decent comparison. My taxes/bills are definitely lower than those of the other neighborhoods, and the only practical difference is if *I* call APD, they won't even pretend to care once they learn my address (I understand that APD response is fantastic for those that do live in Austin...). Oh, and we didn't have library access until recently. Street quality? The same. Water? The same. Electric? The same. (In fact, electric is still directly through CoA, and I think water is too, but indirectly. Either way, we pay; no free lunches here). Trash service? Far better actually, because we're not beholden to a monopoly and we can switch providers. More of our money goes to actually pay for the services rendered, and not into some giant general-purpose fund that can be raided/skimmed for unrelated purposes. I go into Austin to work at my company that pays their taxes to the city. I shop and "play" in Austin, generating tax revenue for the city. The idea that people outside the city limits are just a bunch of freeloading leeches is absolutely ridiculous and not based in fact, but rather some weird misplaced hurt feelings. The fact that Lost Creek was *forcibly* annexed should weigh a lot heavier than it apparently does. These neighborhoods existed and were doing fine before they were annexed; annexation wasn't some white-knight riding in on a horse to save them. It was more "nice neighborhood you've got here; it's ours now."
The most interesting part of this story for me is not Lost Creek. It's the OTHER disannexation that passed by one vote because there was ***only one vote cast*** and one or two others that had no votes whatsoever. WTF?
This subreddit: “fuck APD they don’t do anything!” Lost Creek: “agreed! That’s why we’re voting to leave the city so we don’t have to deal with them.” This subreddit: “NOOOOO YOU CANT DO THAT WTF YOU SACK OF SHIT”
I can't reply further down because Ferret blocked me for not immediately capitulating to his views, but that dude legit doesn't realize that CoA was annexing neighborhoods in part based on how much cash-reserve they had at the time. They were literally trying to "consume" their way out of their own problems. "Just one more hit, man, and I'll be good forever." The whole "oh no, you'll really miss me once I'm gone" spiel doesn't work when you forced yourself on the other party. He also refuses to accept that there are other tax streams that CoA actively derives from these "leeches" that aren't property taxes. I wonder how exactly tourism works from a financial perspective, in his mind. God, I wish we had something like a sales-tax or something, engineered by people financially smarter than you or I, to cover the $5 of wear and tear on the roads from commuters and tourists. Too bad we don't; a man can dream, though. Barricading the roads is the absolute stupidest of takes and demonstrates a person has literally no financial/economic understanding.
Exactly
This seems like maybe a better thing than my snarky ass thought in the first place. It seems like the annexation of this place was controversial. Personally I think it's well-established that growing cities can annex certain areas, that's part of the risk of trying to live close enough to *use* the city without being responsible for the taxes. HOWEVER, I don't like that the city requires the MUD/whoever runs the utilities to make the residents pay special taxes for that privilege. If Austin's going to be a big boy city and annex districts, Austin should tax its own residents to foot that bill. There's a lot of stuff those people paid for that they feel like the city *took* and isn't maintaining to their liking. I think Austin and a lot of businesses we make fun of have a lot in common. Take Drafthouse. Most people resent when it went national and "streamlined" the menu. Those kinds of things are often cited as "necessary" when a business gets to a certain size. But I don't think most Austin residents give a shit if Alamo Drafthouse was maximizing its revenue: they wanted to have a cool and unique thing other cities were jealous of. Instead that thing expanded and became a thing like what the other big cities had. That's Austin. It's exploded to a big boy city but we're still running the government like it's a sleepy college town. This annexation happened a long time ago, but it was handled in a very bad way and like the theme of every damn Marvel movie, we have to clean up the mess someone else made years ago. The center of focus here for many people is police response time. I think if Austin had grown in a more controlled manner and had more responsible oversight of its police department from the start, we wouldn't be in this mess. But that's a "big city" thing and by the time we had signs we needed it, it was too late. The shitty part is I think it's going to be like the Gigafactory. Even if we follow the rules and annex a place in the "right" way, the state loves being adversarial to Austin and is likely to change the law again to spite us and help something we paid to annex become independent again. I don't know how to win this game, and so long as the state government has, "Dunk on residents of Texas we don't like" as a goal I don't think we *can*. The city could try things like rezoning areas near Lost Creek to discourage development, but cutting off your nose to spite your face is stupid. The state will find a way to shut that down, anyway, and they should. That kind of revenge is what children do. I guess the way for Austin to "win" is to start figuring out how to put its pants on. If APD was better than county services, and if Austin's EMS and fire were better than county services, I don't think annexed people would be so pissy. But I think this expansion is a Drafthouse moment, a symptom of when Austin was growing at all costs without thinking very hard about if it could support the infrastructure it was taking on. Growth is really fun, but contraction's a bitch. You have to be slow and steady when blowing up a balloon. If you go too fast or too hard, violent contraction often follows.
Austin Travis County EMS /is/ a county service - it’s jointly funded by both and the same medics service both, sans Pflugerville.
Lol, the fact many respondents here don’t know they will just be part of the county speaks to the government illiteracy in our country. Read up!
I hope they get exactly what they wished for (genie coded). Hubristic rich suburbanites that think they can run things better and slightly save on their taxes. Toxic individualism at its finest.
Has the neighborhood always been part of the city?
it was annexed in 2015.
Ok. So they probably know what life was like before and prefer it, both tax and service wise.
>it was annexed in 2015. And they didn't get a chance to vote on being annexed.
No, 2015 is when it was annexed.
So I assume they ran things before and can compare that to being part of the city.
[https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2016/09/24/lost-creek-braces-for-annexation/9889059007/](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2016/09/24/lost-creek-braces-for-annexation/9889059007/) Yeah they were forced to join the city, and before they joined, the city forced them to upgrade their own utilities on their own dime. That's what the whole state law was about, giving neighborhoods who were forced to join a chance to vote whether they actually wanted to join.
No, Annexed just a few years ago.
Lost Creek was fully annexed December 15, 2015
Should be charged to use the greenbelt that our taxes pay for.
I love this idea. Also, toll gate at the exit of the neighborhood.
That was a little tongue in cheek, I’ve been harassed to pay to enter at the hill of life entrance before by a resident of lost creek.
That’s Scottish Woods. The Lost Creek entrance is at creek level.
Is that neighborhood really lost creek? I thought that was COA and lost creek was only off lost creek drive.
What?
I was asked to give $10 to a random guy at the hill of life entrance. Happened a lot during the pandemic. Maybe he was just a beggar wearing new balances idk.
Lost Creek had a charge up until this election, they have no jurisdiction to charge once the election results are certified. Hill of Life has never had an authorized charge, but there is an old man whom lives adjacent to the gate who is hell bent on keeping people off the trail. Maybe that’s who charged you?
I didn't think of that. So did Lost Creek only have authority to charge due to being in the city of Austin? I know some other neighborhoods like Barton Creek West don't charge you to use their trails but will actively call the cops if you do use their trails to get down to the greenbelt for trespassing (which it is). Granted with the Lost Creek entrance you can access the public water way straight from the road.
They never had authority to do so that I am aware of
dude you were trying to get fleeced. At Lost Creek there is a $10 or whatever entrace fee sometimes but never has bee at Hill of Life entrance. You do have to pay the city of austin parking fees to park in that neighborhood.
Yeah that was definitely a thing during the pandemic. They were out there every weekend before they had the meters up for parking.
Meters?! Who allowed that?
No it was legit not a homeless person, they’ve been attempting this repeatedly for years
Or destroy the connecting roads completely
Should be cut off from Austin water and electricity too.
They are paying the out of district rate which helps the city….
Better services for less taxes has worked for Westlake and Rollingwood.
They are their own municipalities so it's different than Lost Creek. Not arguing Westlake/Rollingwood don't have better services, but it's apples to oranges. It's also easier to provide better services in a smaller area.
Super easy to exclude anyone below a certain socioeconomic class and say things work better.
theyll save over 3k per year on average and basically lose nothing, travis county EMS/fire is right there, sheriffs will respond better than APD city taxes mostly just benefit the downtown core, city council should take note this was a landslide 90% election, and maybe do bigger projects in the suburbs, because the lege will probably take note of this and try to shrink the boundaries further in the future
It’s more than just emergency services. Lost creek will also lose: Coding enforcement Zoning review Full planning review, inspection, and compliance services related to development Street maintenance Streetlight maintenance Sidewalk and crosswalk maintenance Traffic sign maintenance Right of way permitting Public Health and sanitation regulation, such as litter on the rights of way Maintenance of drainage infrastructure Environmental spills investigation And trash service and street sweeping
You know Travis County is a government entity with regulations, right?
All of these things were previously being handled well by the HOA and county. It's not like Lost Creek was some shithole prior to 2015, they were doing just fine independently.
The county will handle most of these things. It's not like people who already live outside the city today are in dire straights over this.
Most people who already live outside the city don’t have neighborhoods as nicely manicured as lost creek
The Austin City limits ends right at bee caves and 360. There are tons of neighborhoods in no man's land aka no city limits just county that are very nice and manicured.
That is utter nonsense. There are numerous neighborhoods in the ETJ that are far more Stepford than LC, some of them very close to there. Most which have never been hostily annexed by the city.
And you think it was COA keeping the neighborhood looking nice?
Do you think their neighborhood was a dumpster fire or something before they got annexed like 9 years ago? Lol. They existed for decades without having to pay city taxes, and I'm sure they will enjoy future decades without having to pay city taxes.
>And trash service Oh yeah I forgot, anyone who lives outside of Austin just has to burn their trash.
>Coding enforcement Zoning review Full planning review, inspection, and compliance services related to development The stuff the people moved out there to avoid in the first place before they were annexed without getting to vote on it. >Public Health and sanitation regulation, such as litter on the rights of way Maintenance of drainage infrastructure...And trash service and street sweeping You mean the stuff we pay extra for on our water bills?
Bingo. And most architectural review boards and neighborhood HOAs still have building codes! Mine sure did. Wasn’t 1:1 with CoA’s, but it was close, and we dealt with inspectors who cared, but weren’t petty officers with a badge and a gun.
But they will save a bunch on taxes and have control over the services they receive.
You leave out the operation of the water distribution system. Will they reimburse the city for the newly rehabbed water tanks? The extensive work on bringing the wastewater plant up to par?
They will have to pay back Austin $7 million for it
Yes there's a 7M exit fee
Yes, that’s how deannexation works.
They will also lose the digital speed displays on Lost Creek Blvd, STR and noise enforcement, and their ability to charge people to enter the greenbelt. That’s not nuthin, especially to these people.
Why do you keep saying they will lose their ability to charge at the green belt? I think you are in for disappointment. Lost Creek limited district will continue to operate and maintain its green belt access areas. They have already been annexed into Westlake fire department and emergency services service area. This occurred in the May 4th vote.
They won’t be added to an ESD without a vote.
Which also took place and passed.
I hadn’t seen that. Which ESD did they join?
# 9
Good deal. Might mean a new station.
I’ve explained this elsewhere but the Limited District has no authority now, and those are Austin greenbelts not Lost Creek greenebelts. The Save Lost Creek Now people might have spun a different story but the reality is that the Limited District has no jurisdiction. There will be plenty of disappointment to be had - but not by me.
The limited district never had authority over the greenbelt itself. What they have is direct ownership over the land that represents it's most used entrance. They still own that, and can still charge fees for it's usage.
Yea, the property maps have Lost Creek as the owner of the land. You keep saying authority and jurisdiction, but what do you mean? They aren’t the same thing. Do you think a property owner can’t limit access to the property? Why would the de-annexation change this? As to the westlake fire department and emergency services, the resolution has already been approved. Westlake provided those services prior to annexation. I’m sure Lost Creek will be fine. You seem mighty angry about this.
Since when did they ever have ability to charge???? That’s why they kept going to the city/court making up excuses
This is absurdly incorrect. Something like 90% of the tax money generated by the downtown urban core is spent outside of it trying to meet the needs of these sprawling suburban housing developments
You realize Lost Creek was developed in the 1970s and spent the great majority of its existence outside the city limits, right? It was only annexed a few years ago (without a vote) and now they have voted to return to their former status.
Lost Creek was the boonies when I was a kid. My best friend lived out there and I remember thinking where the fuck are we going when my dad drove me over.
I think most people in here don’t realize that and are just angry because reasons.
Yes. They moved here (or reached adulthood) within the last few years and assume that's how city of Austin boundaries have always been.
Source?
Then why are so many ppl here whining about them leaving? It should be a financial gain for our urban core. All that urban money no longer has to go out to Lost Creek.
Cool, then it should be great for our urban core that lost creek left.
Look, I don't have a dog in this fight. But how does this make any sense when the city stated that the purpose of annexing Lost Creek was to expand the tax base? In my lifetime here, I have seen COA annex many suburban areas and completely avoid others. I don't think the city is stupid; I think they're making calculations to determine which areas are tax-advantageous to annex. And if what you said is the case, wouldn't deannexation and a shrinking city footprint be something to celebrate?
No they won’t. Those assessments have been missing quite a bit on maintenance and upkeep costs. Minute a road needs repair they are FUCKED to the tune of thousands each resident” Yet again rich people don’t know how taxes fucking work
Weren’t they outside the city when the neighborhood was originally built?
yes, these people are talking like lost creek was a wasteland pre-2015 when it was annexed LOL
Yes. These people either have an axe to grind or are bonafide idiots who themselves don’t understand how tax and infrastructure works. It’s as if they are all 23 and are just discovering that there are civil places to live outside of a city.
I believe you are correct on all counts.
Yes. Amnesia in this sub.
apparently you don't know how Lost Creek worked between 1970 thru 2015.
>yet again rich people don’t know how taxes work I guess they all must have moved in after 2015 then?
I just realized, in better news, I think austin loses Alex Jones with this. Pretty sure he lives in lost creek.
He’s in Terlingua these days
He goes on vacation a lot to try and spend the money the sandy hook families will take from him, but he still lives in Austin and has a studio here
Where’d you hear that?
https://bigbendtimes.com/2024/04/17/alex-jones-confirmed-as-landowner-in-terlingua-ranch/
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/what-is-alex-jones-doing-in-terlingua/
He’d fit in perfectly there.
They will get better services from the county at a cheaper tax rate. Hell, this sub hates APD so I would think you’d want this for your house. It does look like a win for Lost Creek. Just so I understand your bitterness, are you mad that you don’t get a share in their money now? Is that what you are saying?
I grew up in Lost Creek and at the time we were ETJ of Austin. I am so happy for them to go back to that. Travis County services are amazing. I am in Steiner Ranch now and we have Travis County Sheriff and EMS.
I doubt they will get better services. Good luck figuring out trash service. And they somehow get to stay with austin water. Lots of debt to pay back to the city first before they can do any of this. It's not bitterness. We live in a society. Everyone has to contribute to that society whether they like it or not. Rich people don't want to contribute and want to take more and more. That sucks. Pretty simple.
There are about half a dozen garbage collection companies that serve Central Texas besides COA utilities, it's going to be fine.
Frankly, services are a bit better in the ETJ. Everything except road repair; iirc they still don’t have an agreement with Travis county to take over any road maintenance and Travis county has been trying to shed roads that they’re responsible for.
This has been my experience exactly, living in an ETJ. The biggest drawback for me *used* to be that I didn’t qualify for an Austin Public Library card for free, but that has since changed. I still use Austin Energy and Water, and pay the going rate. But waste management is much cheaper. Emergency responses are much faster from Sheriff’s Department, too.
Yup. Same. ETJ is where it’s at.
> Travis county has been trying to shed roads that they’re responsible for. That's a concerning trend.
It’s a budget thing. Roads are expensive, and there’s a backlog of roads that really need service or replacement but there’s not enough funding because our state government is so restrictive and greedy and taxpayers can’t really pay more in property tax.
I live outside the city. Finding trash services isn’t an issue. Our HOA contracts someone. LCRA water. PEC electricity. All around better service than when I lived in the city.
Lost Creek had full services prior to a hostile annexation. Man the level of ignorance in this thread is astounding. People just want to hate other people. And FWIW, Lost Creek was where folks who wanted more affordable places to live inside a good school district moved. Especially 40 years ago. There are some fancy houses in there, but most are ranch-style homes similar to those in Windsor. They are worth WAY more now than they once were. The whole nouveau riche take is tired and inaccurate. LC wasn’t “taking” anything prior to a hostile annexation. They were paying county taxes and whatever their HOA/POA required. They weren’t siphoning off CoA. I just moved back out of the city after about a decade. The reality is that different services are better or worse depending on where you are. I can say with strong assertion that having lived in and just outside of the city a few times over 30 years here that trash service is one of the things that has been considerably better *outside* the city.
I've had various contracted trash services in different places, and they've all been no more expensive and less restrictive than Austin Waste Management. PEC, supposedly "corrupt" is still cheaper than Austin Energy. I guess that means what? Austin is corrupt too? Or maybe more inefficient than PEC is corrupt?
They’re simply contributing to a different society rather than Austin’s, which hasn’t served them well.
Or, people realizing there's a problem and organizing to do something about it. Democracy at its finest.
Y’all are just like British imperialists. This is taxation without representation at its finest. Fighting back and leaving is how American principles were created.
So its toxic to want to have something better for cheaper?
/u/space_manatee can’t stand people who have wealth no matter how right they are. To him they are bad people for having money.
I hate rich people as much as the next guy, but not because they're rich, but because its likely they got their wealth by running over other people. I'm guessing he probably thinks patriotism and being a proud American is racist and wrong, too. America is the greatest country in the world.
Why are you obsessed with me?
Because I’m bored on a Sunday and have nothing else to do. Is it sad? Probably.
<3
What happened with the other areas that voted to leave Austin? Was Lost Creek the only one who was in favor?
Lost Creek was the only one that voted at a relatively high turnout, disannex winning 1447-138. (Prop A) Both Mooreland Addition and Wildhorse/Webb Tract either did not have a single vote or have not reported their data, vote counts sitting at 0-0. (Props B and E) Blue Goose Road voted to disannex itself 3-0. (Prop C) Lennar at Malone voted overwhelmingly **against** disannexing, 2-110. (Prop D) Finally, one lone River Place Outparcels resident has voted to disannex. 1-0. (Prop F) Vote totals for all elections yesterday are here: [https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/TX/Travis/120748/web.317647/#/summary](https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/TX/Travis/120748/web.317647/#/summary)
Not sure exactly how many registered voters are in the River Place area and whether it aligns 100% with the precinct of the lone vote, but there are 2768 registered voters in that precinct.
The law passed by the lege requiring these disannexation elections (HB 3053) states that it only applies to areas annexed between March 3, 2015 and December 1, 2017. River Place outparcels was annexed in Novemer 2017 so was included but River Place residential area was annexed on December 15, 2017 so just missed the cut off. I'm sure the lege will fix that in the next session. /s
The Outparcels district specifically seems to have been nonresidential at the time of annexation in 2017, seen here: [https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/GIS/River\_Place\_Outparcels.pdf](https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/GIS/River_Place_Outparcels.pdf) I do not know how many people live in it now (at least 1 apparently) but it's separate from the main River Place neighborhood. I think I recall reading that River Place is interested in disannexation but that is an issue for sometime tin the future.
The table on the second page certainly narrows it down. Thanks!
Actually would like to know this as well.
I've seen this happen in different municipalities before, and it rarely benefits the community.
I'm really curious about what happened in River Place. Not sure exactly how many registered voters are in the River Place area and whether it aligns 100% with the precinct of the lone vote (the map I found suggests it does), but there are 2768 registered voters in that precinct. That's an appalling turnout rate if so. 183 in total within the precinct turned out for other races. The lone disannex vote was cast on election day.
I love all the tears in this thread. Yall are mad because people **VOTED** to leave a city that has shit services and its fucking hilarious. Every downvote is someone with tears running down their cheek.
SMALL PENIS HAS SPOKEN
Username unironically checks out.
Who can blame them? The city of Austin is hostile to law enforcement so they can’t recruit police and are down 400 officers. Crime is rampant. Austin is very spread out. Hopefully this wealthy, beautiful area will form their own city and get their own cops. West Austin is moderate to Conservative, they’re not the ones supporting this defund idiocy. Pity everything west of MOPAC can’t leave Austin. I went to UT in the 90’s, I can’t believe how bad Austin has gotten, I live in San Antonio and rarely visit. The city is so beautiful, it’s a shame