As businessman Michael Heise predicted two weeks ago, the tabling of the council vote on the Eighth Street NW project didn’t make any difference.

Tuesday, May 02, 2000

As businessman Michael Heise predicted two weeks ago, the tabling of the council vote on the Eighth Street NW project didn’t make any difference.

The Austin City Council still voted in favor, with no changes and no concessions, and Heise still is looking at an estimated bill of $82,000 for the work on the part of the road that will run past his property north of 18th Avenue NW. According to his wife and business partner, Jenny Heise, that’s more than double what the property is valued.

"I’m still on the hook, no one else is," he told the council. "It’s a road to nowhere, that serves no public purpose. A driveway for a business that gets the land and the improvements for a dollar for moving here from Brownsdale. I read in the Austin Daily Herald that you’re laying off 23 teachers here in town, but you’re willing to spend $500,000 on a road to nowhere … The business that benefits should pay for the cost of the improvements."

During the meeting he questioned the route of the road, which curves over past his property rather then simply running straight up to the future Cooperative Response Center site.

"There’s no reason for that curve, they just came up with it so they could assess my property," Heise said.

Specifically, Heise is questioning the extension of Eighth Street NW to the north side of 18th Avenue. Essentially, the road is being extended to service the city’s most recent Tax Increment Finance District, No. 11. However, Heise owns about 6 acres, including the Wagner’s True Value site, west of the TIF district and the proposed road would run up a portion of the east side of his property to CRC.

The primary reason for TIF No. 11’s creation was to help CRC relocate into Austin. The city will sell a little more than 2 acres of the TIF land to the CRC – for $1 instead of its market value of $200,000 – once the city has completed the process of renovating the property. As it stands, plans show the tax increments on the CRC’s proposed million-dollar building paying the city back both for its land investments and for the road assessments.

While most of the land around the road is owned by the Austin Port Authority, the city’s business arm, which will pay the bulk of the improvement costs, Heise’s share has been estimated by the city at $82,000. He doesn’t think that’s fair and he is going to continue to fight. The assessment hearing will be in the fall.

Outside of Council Chambers, Heise disputed the city’s claim that they were willing to negotiate but couldn’t reach Heise.

"We talked," he said, "but there were no negotiations. They didn’t come with any offers."

Just before the Austin City Council voted 5-1, Lang dissenting, of the street and services extension, Heise handed City Attorney David Hoversten a piece of paper. On it was a description of a court case, Anderson vs. City of Buffalo, in which a court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, who claimed the improvements did not increase the value of his property, as claimed by the city.

"They know there’s a precedent, maybe they just choose to ignore it," Heise said.

In other matters, the council:

n Adopted a resolution approving and adopting the assessments for those residents who initially opposed, but now have withdrawn their objections, on a street project from last year, Fourth Avenue SE from Ellis Middle School to Highway 218.

n Transferred ownership of two lots to the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority for the next phase of the Courtyard Apartments. HRA director Kermit Mahan said he’s hoping the project will break ground around May 17.

n Passed a resolution that will eliminate all parking on Main Street South between Third Avenue and Ninth Place SW once construction is started this summer.