Shade Proclaims Austin Should Negotiate Away Barton Springs

by: Mark Duncan

Wed Apr 23, 2008 at 00:17 PM CDT

Transcript of Randi Shade's statement at the Thursday, April 17 Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA) Candidate Forum

Question: You told Brian Rogers that we should have negotiated SOS instead of passing SOS. Why do you feel this way?

"Well, I don't think that's exactly what I told Brian Rogers, but I don't know. Is he here? What I talked to him about was my viewing of the movie "The Unforseen" which I highly recommend you all see if you haven't.

It's been showing at the Alamo Draft House for about a week now. Alamo Draft House South. What I told him was how sad it made me to see it result in legislative action. That the will of the citizens was ... of Austin was basically taken by legislative process. And that there wasn't a better compromise that made everybody a winner. Because really when you saw the original proposal less land would have been developed than what ultimately did get developed. And I just ... You know I think that was what I was talking about, the importance of compromise. It was in the context of the Domain subsidies discussion that we were having."

Environmental leaders from Austin have written an open letter criticizing Shade for her openness to compromise away Austin's commitment to protect Barton Springs.

Former Mayor Gus Garcia, former councilmember Brigid Shea, Bill Bunch, Ann Kitchen, and Robin Rather released an open letter to the Austin public today criticizing city council candidate Randi Shade for recent comments that the city should have compromised with developers on the SOS ordinance.

"Ms. Shade's statement that we should have negotiated with developers shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the situation the Austin community was faced with," the letter says.  Ms. Shade made comments at the Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA)  last Thursday that Austin had made a mistake by not compromising with developers instead of passing the SOS ordinance.

The Save Our Springs Alliance was born in 1990, when Freeport McMoRan, a mining company, threatened to develop 4,000 acres (16 km²) of land it owned along Barton Creek. When it came time for City Council to approve the development, though, an all-night meeting ensued wherein citizens decried the company's actions and professed their love of Barton Springs, what many refer to as the "Soul of the City."

The Save Our Springs Ordinance was a community driven effort launched in 1992.

This ordinance was put on the ballot by citizen initiative after decades of attempted negotiation with the developers who were building over the watershed. After developers negotiated away more and more protections and a pro-development council sided with business interests over community interests, it was clear the negotiation failed.

As the letter states, "The community made clear its will with the overwhelming passage of the SOS ordinance that the Springs were to be protected, not bargained away."

The full letter can be read here.