In February of this year, 30 people gathered at the Ruby Rupner Auditorium of the Jay C.

Thursday, November 02, 2000

In February of this year, 30 people gathered at the Ruby Rupner Auditorium of the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center to protest the annexation into the city of land just west of there.

The odds were against them. As group spokesperson Dr. Mark Reeve said, stopping the annexation and subsequent development of land into a housing addition, would be like "stopping a speeding locomotive."

"Basically, the only thing that may stop it is public outcry," he said at that meeting in February.

Nine months and many media appearances later – after gathering more than 1,000 signatures, writing letters, making phone calls – the annexation by ordinance of 55 acres of land west of the nature center is on the Nov. 7 ballot as a referendum.

"We often wondered how we were going to accomplish this, but here we are," Reeve said, on the brink of the election. "Now we just want the public to make an educated vote."

The reasons Reeve thinks an educated public will vote "no" – against the annexation – are many.

"The biggest reason we’re encouraging people to vote ‘no’ is because once that land is gone, it’s gone," he said. "You can’t say, ‘oops, we made a mistake,’ 10 years down the road and undo what has been done."

He points to the number of people who use the nature center, estimated at more than 30,000 per year. He talks about a soil study done several years ago that shows the land across the street as "marginal" for housing, but an excellent place for habitat. Green space aside, he also believes planting permanently on the land will help stop the water runoff that contributes to flooding in the Dobbins Creek area now.

Reeve stresses that the group is not opposed to housing, just that they don’t want to see housing go next to the nature center.

"There are 300 acres of land already annexed into the city of Austin that developers could build on," he said. "I know of three people who have tried to contact this development company to show them different properties – they get no reply.

"If there really is such a need for housing, then the city should be actively seeking out developers and connecting them to the land that’s already in the city: behind Ellis Middle School, on the Kehret farm behind Target, southwest of town. There’s enough land available now to build 700 more homes at the density that they’re talking about across from the nature center."

If the annexation is denied by the people in Tuesday’s vote, Reeve said, his group has more volunteers standing by to take the dream of an additional 55 acres of habitat to the next level. He isn’t pushing for the city to make any financial contribution.

"If the annexation doesn’t go through, the land stays in Lansing Township," he said. "That’s where we’d like to see it stay. Once we and other people raise the funds to purchase the land, we can see turning it over to the Department of Natural Resources. Then the city wouldn’t have any additional financial burden except maybe grooming a couple extra trails."

He was disappointed that the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce made a statement, because as a chamber member, he didn’t agree with their position.

"I’ve been a business person here for more than 20 years," he said. "I want Austin to grow, and I want a healthy economic environment. But sometimes we have to protect our environment at the same time.

"The nature center is such a tremendous environmental asset to the residents of Austin and the surrounding area," he said. "That land to the west has acted almost as an extension of the nature center for years, especially when part of it was set aside for natural growth. What we’d like to see on that land is homes for the wildlife and a connection to Todd Park. It would be an additional place people could go to simply enjoy being out in nature."

Reeve’s group of concerned citizens meets at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the basement of the Interpretive Building at the nature center. If anyone has more questions or would like to help the group in its efforts, Reeve said the meeting is open to the public.