Overgrown lot owned by City of Austin trimmed after months of 311 requests

AUSTIN, Texas - A lot in Central Austin was overgrown for months. An HOA president says 311 requests to the city yielded no results, until 7 On Your Side stepped in.

The backstory:

Mike Dawson is the HOA president at Cascade Condominiums. The lot at Lamar Blvd. and 25th Street is owned by the City of Austin.

FOX 7 first spoke to Dawson on June 1. He says he and other community members have filed multiple 311 requests to have the lot maintained.

"It's been overgrown for the past, let's say, six to seven months. We tried to get the city to come out. We've had code inspectors out to actually try to inspect the lot. They have, but they can't do anything with it. They're actually locked out. They are saying, basically, call our city councilman," Dawson said. "We have lots of different taxpaying residents. We're just trying to get this field taken care of. It's city-owned. We'd like them to come take care of it."

Dawson says the brush, some of it five to six feet tall, was a safety hazard. Many students live in the area.

"With all the rain, we've had a lot of growth, and when you get this, it becomes a driving hazard. We find all kinds of remnants out here, garbage, suitcases, from some of the homeless population that lives here in the area," he said.

He says last year, he even paid to have the lot maintained.

"It cost over a couple of thousand dollars to have it actually mowed and trimmed up," he said.

Dig deeper:

After FOX 7 spoke to Dawson on June 1, he says the lot was trimmed on June 5. That's also when his most recent 311 request was closed. 

Austin 311 confirmed that the requests were submitted.

FOX 7 asked the Development Services Department (DSD), which Code Compliance is part of, why Dawson was told the city couldn't do anything about the issue.

"Our Code Compliance Team is committed to providing clear guidance and connecting people with the right resources. We have spoken with the code inspector involved, and it appears there may have been a miscommunication. We have since clarified," DSD said.

DSD also said during their follow-up inspection on June 5, they confirmed the lot has been mowed and cleared, and the associated code violation cases will be closed. We asked if Dawson could be reimbursed for paying to have it maintained in the past, and they deferred to Austin Parks and Recreation, which manages the property. This article will be updated if Austin Parks and Recreation provides a response.

FOX 7 caught up with Dawson again on June 9.

"The community here is incredibly grateful to FOX 7 for giving us a voice," he said. "We're happy that we had an immediate outcome that was positive. The safety hazard's gone. The neighborhood looks the way it should."

He says he wants to focus on improving the process going forward.

"It's unfortunate that it took us doing this, having to get you involved. We're grateful. The community is grateful. We appreciate it. After 10 tickets and multiple calls and almost six to eight months of going back and forth, we actually got this done, and we can't say thank you enough," he said.

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