Lake Travis | Westlake

Wildfire evacuation concerns spark action from community

In December, several residents of Steiner Ranch registered the area as a neighborhood association with the City of Austin under the name Steiner Ranch Neighborhood Association—separate from the Steiner Ranch Homeowners Association.

Concerns leading to the formation of the SRNA stemmed from wildfires that spread in the Steiner Ranch area last fall as well as new developments coming to the area.

“It’s been a culmination of six months or so of work,” Communications Chair for the SRNA Paul O’Brien said. “[There was] a lot of concern and frustration over safety in evacuation of the fires, some questions about future development plans for Steiner Ranch, and over the past six months, a few of us have talked and debated how to make a difference. It finally dawned on us there isn’t a single unified voice for the entire community.”

Boundaries

Despite its name, the neighborhood association’s boundaries are greater than Steiner Ranch, reaching from Lake Travis to Lake Austin to Love Bird Lane.

“One of the challenges in Steiner Ranch is simply the fact that there are a few different HOAs,” O’Brien said. “Our greater concern is the fact that those homeowner associations cater exclusively to homeowners, so it ignores any of the renters, it ignores people across [RR] 620 who are affected by Quinlan Crossing, it ignores people at the end of the peninsula that extends beyond Steiner Ranch.”

In addition to non-homeowner residents, a neighborhood association can also include business owners or workers who live in Steiner Ranch who may be affected by what is happening within the community.

Wildfire concerns

O’Brien said that while he and some other residents had already begun discourse on how to best unite the area, the wildfires struck up even more conversations.

“First and foremost, our greatest concern was it took a few hours to evacuate,” he said. “There’s really only one way to get in and out of the community. As the community grows, that’s a significant concern.”

In the master-planned section of Steiner Ranch, more than 10,000 residents reside on about 4,600 acres

Steiner Ranch has two entrances from RR 620 that then meet up as Quinlan Park Road and winds through the neighborhood until it reaches Lake Austin.

A number of residents living in Longhorn Village, a retirement community within Steiner Ranch, also have concerns with safety during emergency evacuations. In November, William Schulte wrote Travis County Precinct 2 Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt about residents’ concerns.