{"id":50233,"date":"2019-12-16T17:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T22:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=50233"},"modified":"2024-11-15T17:09:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T22:09:00","slug":"acc-hears-from-the-community-about-the-future-of-pinnacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/12\/16\/acc-hears-from-the-community-about-the-future-of-pinnacle\/","title":{"rendered":"ACC hears from the community about the future of Pinnacle"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2024\/11\/Pinnacle-Community-Conversation_exercise-2.jpg\" alt=\"Two females and one male participate in brainstorming exercise applying colorful stickers and notes to wall posters \" class=\"wp-image-50234\" style=\"width:672px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2024\/11\/Pinnacle-Community-Conversation_exercise-2.jpg 750w, https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2024\/11\/Pinnacle-Community-Conversation_exercise-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/81\/2024\/11\/Pinnacle-Community-Conversation_exercise-2-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Austin Community College held two Community Conversations in southwest Austin in December to provide updates on the college&#8217;s Districtwide Campus Master Plan (DCMP) and let the community weigh in on the future of its 58-acre Pinnacle Campus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dozens of community members attended the discussions, which included a brief presentation by college leadership and Pfluger Architects \u2014 the firm hired to lead the DCMP process \u2014 and a community exercise to gain feedback and generate ideas for a future campus on site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;ACC is not leaving southwest Austin. There is going to be a future campus at Pinnacle. We have nearly 50 acres of current green space, but we don&#8217;t want to move forward without first hearing from those who live and work here,&#8221; says Dr. Richard Rhodes, ACC president\/CEO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The college is currently in the research phase of developing plans for a future campus on 49-acres of current green space at Pinnacle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I would be thrilled if I could stand out on my deck and look out over a campus serving this whole area. My neighbors are excited, too. We see the need and the opportunity that it provides \u2014 bridging high school to the four-year university and the certifications and skilled trades areas,&#8221; says Karon Rilling, southwest Austin resident whose property backs up to the Pinnacle property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s critical to any community to have access to a community college. People want something that eliminates the barriers,&#8221; says Rich DePalma, a southwest Austin resident and co-chair of ACC&#8217;s South Regional Advisory Committee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The college <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/pinnacle-campus-closure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">closed the Pinnacle building in 2018<\/a> to evaluate needed repairs and renovation and in April 2019, the ACC Board of Trustees <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/news\/2019\/04\/acc-evaluate-selling-portion-pinnacle-campus-property\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">declared the building<\/a> and egress and ingress land as surplus property that no longer met the standards and mission of the college and would be too costly to renovate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;When Pinnacle closed, I had to start traveling twice as far to get to the classes I need,&#8221; says Christina Horak, ACC student. &#8220;I was really excited to have a chance to share my thoughts. The campus was so important to me. To know that (the college) is deciding what to do with it; I feel like I have power being in on this conversation about what should happen because it&#8217;s my future, and it&#8217;s my education. I think it&#8217;s important.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An update on the process is on the agenda for the February 2020 ACC Board of Trustees work session. A copy of the presentation and handouts from the Community Conversations, as well as event photos, can be found on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/pinnacle-campus-closure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pinnacle Next Steps webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Austin Community College held two Community Conversations in southwest Austin in December to provide updates on the college&#8217;s Districtwide Campus Master Plan (DCMP) and let the community weigh in on the future of its 58-acre &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/12\/16\/acc-hears-from-the-community-about-the-future-of-pinnacle\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,15,17],"tags":[3776,3525,3241,1877,3522],"class_list":["post-50233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-and-community","category-current-students","category-facstaff-news","category-news-and-announcements","tag-community-conversations","tag-community-input","tag-districtwide-campus-master-plan","tag-pinnacle-campus","tag-regional-advisory-committees"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}