More than 400 people were on hand for the first Envision Central Texas Community Stewardship Awards Luncheon Wednesday, May 17 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Pictured at left (from L to R) are co-chairmen of the event Tom Yantis, City of Georgetown, and Jay Hailey, Locke, Liddell & Sapp, LLC; winner of the 2006 Pioneer Award Sinclair Black of Black/Vernooy Architects and The University of Texas who is holding his Damian Priour sculpture; and, ECT Chairman Fritz Steiner, dean of the UT School of Architecture. The recipients of the other 2006 Community Stewardship Awards were: New Development - Plum Creek; Redevelopment - Saltillo Lofts; Public Policy and Planning - Leander TOD; Raising Public Awareness - Greater Edward's Aquifer Coalition and the W. Neal Kocurek Legacy Award - Patricia Hayes, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Seton Healthcare Network.

Pictured at right are representatives from the City of Leander who were the recipients of the 2006 Community Stewardship Awards for Public Policy and Planning. From left are Leander Councilmembers Vic Villarreal, Iris Davis, and Kirsten Lynch, Mayor John Cowman, and Councilmember Dave Siebold. Leander councilmembers John Perez and Jimmy Tyree were not able to be in attendance.

ECT, along with nine other Central Texas community organizations, co-sponsored "The Impact of Regional Rail," a rail education seminar on Tuesday, April 25 at the Austin Convention Center. The keynote speaker was Cal Marsella, general manager of Denver's Regional Transportation District. The event also included a panel discussion about the pros and cons of building additional rail capacity in Central Texas. Panel members included ECT Board Members Lee Walker, Capital Metro; Texas Representative Mike Krusee; Austin Mayor Will Wynn and, Jim Skaggs;as well as Todd Hemingson, Via Metropolitan Transit; Sid Covington, A-SA Intermunicipal Rail District; and, moderator Max Sherman, former dean of the UT Law School. Also participating in the program were Greg Marshall, executive director of the Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce, and John Langmore, co-chair of ECT's Transportation and Land Use Committee. Additional rail education events are being considered for the fall.

Carol Barrett, senior planner for the City of San Marcos, shown at left, has recently been selected as the new co-chair of the ECT Density and Mixed Use Committee. She will join co-chair Jim Walker, executive director of the Central Texas Sustainability Indicators Project, in guiding the committee. Polo Enriquez, executive director of the Hutto Economic Development Corporation, was also recently chosen to serve as the new co-chair of the ECT Economic Development Coordination Committee. He joins Co-Chair Barbara Mink, chair, Austin Community College, as leaders of the group.

We are pleased to announce that Toni Nelson Herrera has joined the ECT staff as Administrative Coordinator. Toni will assist with the ECT Implementation Committees as well as with other ECT events and projects. She has a Bachelor's and Master's degree in history and has a special interest in Mexican-American studies. Toni has lived in Austin since 1992.

Utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG) developed a comprehensive inventory of existing vacant land in Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson Counties. Partially funded by the Capital Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), the Vacant Land Inventory (VLI) will serve as an input to CAMPO's growth concept work, as well as the work of ECT's Open Space Funding Plan Committee. Additionally, this public domain dataset can support a variety of land use related analysis. You can read more about this process or visit www.capcog.org to explore their Information Clearinghouse and view the VLI data on their Interactive Mapping Site.