Circle C Ranch - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Circle C Ranch is a large master-planned community in southwest Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, USA. Circle C was featured prominently in a long and contentious environmental legal battle regarding Barton Springs

Barton Springs

Barton Springs is a set of four natural water springs located on the grounds of Zilker Park in Austin, Texas resulting from water flowing through the Edwards Aquifer. The largest spring, Main Barton Spring supplies water to Barton Springs Pool, a popular recreational destination in Austin...

and the Edwards Aquifer

Edwards Aquifer

The Edwards Aquifer is one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world. Located on the eastern edge of Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas, it discharges about of water a year and directly serves about two million people...

. The tortuous controversy surrounding its annexation

Annexation

Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...

by Austin was a landmark in municipal annexation rights in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.

Development of Circle C started in 1983 and the first homes were built in 1987. Today, Circle C Ranch includes more than 4,000 homes. Amenities include a 18-hole golf course (The Grey Rock Golf Club) and tennis club, a swim center, a fire station, and over 500 acres (2 km²) of dedicated parkland. The Circle C Swim Center has a year-round, outdoor, Olympic-size heated pool, the only one of its kind in Texas. A second swimming pool complex, complete with new HOA office space and meeting rooms, is currently under construction and is due to be completed December, 2011. The new, recreational pool will be open on a seasonal basis from late May through early September.

Circle C Ranch was developed by Gary Bradley, who was part-owner of the Schlotzsky's

Schlotzsky's

Schlotzsky's is a privately held franchise chain of restaurants, specializing in sandwiches, headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. Schlotzsky's has more than 350 franchised and company-owned locations worldwide...

restaurant chain. The development went into bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

during the savings & loan scandal

Savings and Loan crisis

The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s was the failure of about 747 out of the 3,234 savings and loan associations in the United States...

in the late 1980s, and was made solvent by the U.S. government.

The Circle C area was unincorporated and outside the legal jurisdiction of Austin until December 1997 when it was involuntarily annexed by the City of Austin, in spite of a 1995 state law (HB 3193) which specifically prohibited Austin from annexing the area or imposing city regulations there. Developers and homeowners vehemently protested the annexation. At the urging of Circle C residents, the Texas Legislature

Texas Legislature

The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...

passed a fast-track bill, which was based on another 1995 state law (SB 1017), to delay the Circle C annexation for 20 years and place the area under the protection of a special governor-appointed board. This bill was signed into law by Governor George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

, but was ruled unconstitutional in subsequent lawsuits when HB 3193 itself was ruled unconstitutional by the Texas Supreme Court

Texas Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for non-criminal matters in the state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is the court of last resort for criminal matters.The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices...

.

Following annexation, further litigation ensued involving the Save Our Springs Alliance

Save Our Springs Alliance

Save Our Springs Alliance , originally called the Save Our Springs Legal Defense Fund, was a nonprofit corporation created to protect the citizen-drafted SOS Ordinance of 1992 to conserve Barton Springs in Austin, Texas...

. Development resumed after Texas courts upheld the terms of the final annexation agreement.

The Circle C area is home to the new shopping center, Escarpment Village with a 93000 square feet (8,640 m²) H-E-B

H-E-B

HEB Grocery Company, LP is a privately held San Antonio, Texas-based supermarket chain with more than 315 stores throughout Texas and northern Mexico. The company also operates Central Market, an upscale organic and fine foods retailer.H-E-B ranked No...

grocery store.

Schools within the Circle C area are Bowie High School

Bowie High School (Austin, Texas)

James Bowie High School is a public high school in southwest Austin, Texas. With an estimated student body of 3,000, and a campus sitting on , Bowie is the largest school in the Austin Independent School District and also the largest secondary school in Central Texas...

, Kiker Elementary School, Clayton Elementary School, and Gorzycki Middle School. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

The center currently functions as an Organizational Research Unit of The University of Texas at Austin.The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is a public botanical garden on La Crosse Avenue near the Mopac Expressway, 10 miles SW of downtown Austin, Texas and just inside the edge of the...

and the Veloway are also located in the Circle C area.

The median household income in the Circle C area is $117,584, and 70% of its residents have a college degree.

Sources

External links

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