Tuesday, April 9, 2013

ATXBPSC needs your help! 
There is currently an opportunity to piggyback on a project being developed by the city to possibly re-purpose a building that is part of the Holly Shores compound into a multi-use hard court covered surface. The next meeting for the Holly Shores Redevelopment Program is May 20th, 2013. We need to put in feedback on the draft master plan ASAP in order for our voice to be heard as well as those of other alternative amateur recreational sports. 
There is a SPECIFIC survey that needs to be filled out here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1QFgo8Oe_A9ioQOLUzhbDtRPz3azWTOQlzFzwgZQUF2U/viewform

You can find the Draft Master Plan here: http://austintexas.gov/hollyshoresmasterplan
 Below are my suggestions on how to answer all of the questions. Please take a moment of your time to fill out the survey and tell everyone you know that supports Austin Texas Bike Polo about it too. If you have connections to roller derby, hardcourt soccer, unicycle football, etc please get them to fill it out too. We need all the support we can get to hopefully make it into this project!

Which amenity, idea or concept is your favorite and why? *

I represent the Austin Texas Bike Polo Social Club. We are an amateur alternative sports club that plays hardcourt bicycle polo. We support the re-alignment of the Holly Street wall to open up the space leading into Metz park. We currently play at the tennis/multi-purpose court and opening up the park would help us, as well as other amateur alternative sports clubs (i.e. roller derby, hardcourt soccor, street/roller hockey, unicycle football) gain more exposure within the community. We talked to Chris Yanez at the February meeting about our need to either update our current location or if there were any other options for us available in the redevelopment. He stated there was a building being considered for open-air and re-purposing for possibly a roller rink or multi-use, walled in, hard court surface. If this is the case, it would be a perfect opportunity to accommodate our club as well as these other clubs mentioned above.

What are the strengths of your favorite amenity, idea or concept? *
An enclosed, hard court, covered surface would not only provide and adequate constant use practice space, but could also serve as a special event location for tournaments, scrimmages, demonstrations, half-time shows. These events could bring exposure to the park as well as money in terms of rental fees. We currently rent out an alternative park for our tournaments, but it would be ideal to have a covered/maintained space for these events.

What are the weaknesses of your least favorite amenity, idea or concept? *
We are concerned with the projected solution to the current sewage small permeating Metz Park and community at large. I think it would benefit everyone if this issue was resolved.

Which area of the park is most in need of improvement? *
It seems the still waters (i.e. lagoon) could use improvement. We support the projected plan of opening up these waters to create more water flow.

What area of the park has the most impact for you and why? *
Metz Park and/or the proposed building to be converted impact us the most. We have played at various parks around the city, but only now have we found a park where we have developed a good relationship with the Community Center. We'd like to call this park our home, with adequate facilities to develop as strong players and as a club, to be able to compete among other top clubs around the world. We have volunteered with the community center and are interested in participating more in this effort and within the community. We are well known among the cycling community and this will only continue as our club continues to grow.

What is missing or what issue has not been addressed in the concept? *

The draft master plan did not mention re-purposing the old building into a multi-use hard court space. As stated earlier, we talked to Chris Yanez separately who mentioned this space to us.

Please provide general comments on the preliminary concept.
Overall the preliminary concept seems good. We support incorporating edible plants into the landscape, although we are confused in how this will work in conjunction with the local community garden.

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