|
Zilker Neighborhood Association AMD Letter
Zilker Neighborhood Association Letter to AMD
May 20, 2005
Mr. Hector Ruiz
President and CEO, Advanced Micro Devices
One AMD Place
P.O. Box 3453
Sunnyvale, California 94088-3453
Dear Mr. Ruiz,
On April 25, the general membership of the Zilker Neighborhood Association voted to oppose the AMD proposal to build offices in the Barton Creek watershed. ZNA joins with other concerned Austinites in asking you to reconsider your site selection and "appoint a committee of AMD employees to serve on a task force with environment, neighborhood, and City of Austin representatives to carefully review all of the relevant issues concerning water quality, traffic, AMD business needs, and secondary considerations with the goal of finding the best site possible for AMD and Austin."
AMD's plan to build new office space in the sensitive Barton Springs watershed would reverse more than 30 years of city policy directing major employers away from that area and toward downtown, the Desired Development Zone, and population centers to the north and east that are in need of jobs and economic revitalization. The move would add more than 2,000 commuters to the traffic and pollution problems already facing Southwest Parkway and South MoPac, simultaneously undermining the existing and future public transit system serving AMD's current locations, endangering the progress that our South Lamar neighborhoods have made in improving South Lamar Boulevard, and increasing the pressure to divert hundreds of millions of dollars in scarce infrastructure funding to road expansion in the watershed.
Zilker residents have repeatedly voiced their strong support for the principles of the SOS ordinance and sound urban planning, all of which are violated by AMD's proposal. ZNA requests that the management of AMD and the City of Austin work together to find a more appropriate site for AMD's offices.
Yours faithfully,
Lorraine Atherton
President, ZNA
May 20, 2005
Mr. Hector Ruiz
President and CEO, Advanced Micro Devices
One AMD Place
P.O. Box 3453
Sunnyvale, California 94088-3453
Dear Mr. Ruiz,
On April 25, the general membership of the Zilker Neighborhood Association voted to oppose the AMD proposal to build offices in the Barton Creek watershed. ZNA joins with other concerned Austinites in asking you to reconsider your site selection and "appoint a committee of AMD employees to serve on a task force with environment, neighborhood, and City of Austin representatives to carefully review all of the relevant issues concerning water quality, traffic, AMD business needs, and secondary considerations with the goal of finding the best site possible for AMD and Austin."
AMD's plan to build new office space in the sensitive Barton Springs watershed would reverse more than 30 years of city policy directing major employers away from that area and toward downtown, the Desired Development Zone, and population centers to the north and east that are in need of jobs and economic revitalization. The move would add more than 2,000 commuters to the traffic and pollution problems already facing Southwest Parkway and South MoPac, simultaneously undermining the existing and future public transit system serving AMD's current locations, endangering the progress that our South Lamar neighborhoods have made in improving South Lamar Boulevard, and increasing the pressure to divert hundreds of millions of dollars in scarce infrastructure funding to road expansion in the watershed.
Zilker residents have repeatedly voiced their strong support for the principles of the SOS ordinance and sound urban planning, all of which are violated by AMD's proposal. ZNA requests that the management of AMD and the City of Austin work together to find a more appropriate site for AMD's offices.
Yours faithfully,
Lorraine Atherton
President, ZNA