12/08/21 – It’s been a wild ride lately, but we have the most amazing news! In September, as we were looking forward to a groundbreaking, we learned that the Blue Line of the new light rail system would have a bigger impact on the Norwood project than any of us – including PARD – anticipated. The planned Travis Heights rail stop will be located on Riverside Dr. right in front of the Norwood tract, and it turns out the engineering required for the stop means the roadway will have to be altered, and will veer into Norwood Park in a more significant way than initially thought. Kinda sent us back to the drawing board!
To make a long story short, the agencies of Project Connect hopped on this right away on our behalf, and adjusted the layout of the route and the retaining walls to skirt most of our site plan for the venue parking lot. Translation: it works! And we are thrilled to have a light rail stop so nearby. We really want to thank our friends with the Austin Transit Partnership, Cap Metro, and the City who helped us solve this dilemma in only a short few months. As a result, the green lights are back on, and we’re moving forward with dispatch. Very exciting!
With Norwood, we’ve learned to take deep breaths, be patient, and roll with it – but this time it really looks like there’s nothing more to prevent a groundbreaking by late February or March. We’ll stay positive while we thank all of our longtime supporters for hanging in there with us. Have a wonderful holiday, and we’ll see you in the new year!