The Steiner Ranch Master Association board of directors meeting on Aug. 29.

By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

The Steiner Ranch Master Association board of directors has scheduled two town hall meetings to update residents on their progress regarding Steiner Ranch community management transformation options.

Leading up to these two meetings, information was posted on social media in late August about the possibilities of outsourcing community management and the potential of hiring and firing of community staffers.

At the Aug. 29 board meeting, the board vaguely discussed some of these concerns, saying that some of the information was confidential and too premature to disclose.

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The Steiner Ranch Master Association board of directors meeting on Aug. 29.

Read at the Aug. 29 board meeting at Towne Square

Dear SRMA Board and Fellow Owners,

As a homeowner, and former Board member, I came to (the Aug. 29) meeting to express my opinion on the recent communications regarding the HOA’s consideration of changing management structures. In the various communications that I have seen regarding the change in management structure, the communications from the SRMA Board appear to be misleading, and seemingly attempt to hide what the Board has done and continues to do in non-open sessions.

First, to those who don’t know, whether to change the management structure was put forth to last year’s SRMA Board and was soundly rejected. Without speaking for the rest of last year’s SRMA Board, my opposition was based on the lack of a clearly stated need to change the management structure, the poor comparables to any other similarly-sized community, and failure to survey the community-at-large to understand what service levels the owners expect from the SRMA.

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Brigid Shea

By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

The proposal to build a secondary road to Vandegrift HS is located in Travis County and goes through the Balcones Canyonland Preserve, and Brigid Shea, County Commissioner Precinct 2, said she doesn’t see how the road can happen under the current laws.

Shea said that the Travis County Commissioners, at the time Leander ISD was interested in purchasing the land in the mid 2000s, indicated that “it was not an ideal location (for a school) because of the preserve land around it could not be developed.”

A school was originally not intended for the site, Shea said. The landowner had residential or commercial development in mind at that time of the original proposal with the county.

A deal was struck with that land. “The landowners had to set aside permanent mitigation land in exchange for the land they wanted to develop,” Shea said.

By law, when land is set aside as mitigation land, it is in exchange for the approval to develop other land, Shea said.

“(LISD) purchased land for the school knowing full well that was permanent mitigation land for the preserves and could not be developed,” Shea said. “It was clear at the time, the county staff had those exact communications with staff at school district,” she added.

“The road they want to build through the preserve is permanent mitigation land declared in freeing up land where VHS is now,” Shea said.

Shea does not see how that deal can be undone.

“The swap has been made. Once you make the swap, you cannot go back and undo the swap,” Shea said.

LISD’s reason to buy the land

“In 2006, LISD had an option to bus kids to Cedar Park High School or to build a new school,” said Dan Troxell, superintendent of LISD. He gave the background at the public forum hosted by LISD at VHS on May 30.

LISD made the decision to build a school in the south and 100 acres were needed. The district was considering purchasing the site where Concordia University Texas now sits but the property sold. Continue reading →

The Kingsley’s vehicle in Steiner Ranch was broken into on Sept. 8 at about 1 a.m. and their security camera captured a video of the crime. This is a still frame of the video.

By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

Four Steiner Ranch homeowners reported vehicle burglaries on Sept. 8, and homeowners share some details on what was taken and what the criminal or criminals did afterwards.

The break ins happened on Rippling Creek Court, Country Lake Drive, Wild Canyon Loop and Oxen Way, all in the same general area of Steiner.

Tarren Kingsley’s wife’s vehicle was broken into and their security camera captured a video of the crime on Sept. 8 at about 1 a.m.

The car was in their driveway at their Wild Canyon Loop home.

“They did not take anything that we could tell,” Kingsley said. “In the first part of the video, they (the thief) had their hand or a cell phone up to their face and he had gloves on so they won’t be able to get fingerprints.”

On Tuesday morning, the Travis County Sheriff’s office called Kingsley back about the video.

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