Public commenters urge protection for Montopolis and call for fuller review of MoPac South

Two public speakers at the April 15 Environmental Commission meeting urged officials to take action on separate but related land‑use and transportation issues.

Susanna Almanza asked the commission to support a city purchase of roughly 10 properties in Montopolis to preserve single‑family zoning. Almanza said the neighborhood already contains more than 3,744 apartment units and cited high impervious cover (about 80% in places), downstream erosion into the Colorado River, a heat‑island effect and a 33% neighborhood poverty rate. She told commissioners preserving single‑family zoning is an environmental issue and requested the item be placed on a future agenda for further consideration.

Bobby Levinsky of the Save Our Springs Alliance urged commissioners to oppose the MoPac South draft environmental assessment and called for a full environmental impact statement. Levinsky described the project as an eight‑mile expansion that would add about 110 acres of impervious cover, clear trees within 35‑foot easements, and approach mapped recharge features and springs; he listed several species that could be affected and criticized some proposed water‑quality treatment technologies as inadequate.

Craig Naser of the Sierra Club also spoke during the public hearing, warning that administrative permitting processes can enable heritage‑tree removal without adequate public scrutiny; he urged careful review to avoid unintended environmental harm.

Why it matters: These public comments highlight neighborhood and watershed concerns — impervious cover, canopy loss, recharge‑zone protection and species impacts — that commissioners considered during their ordinance deliberations on Project Connect permitting and water‑quality compliance.