If there is any doubt Kyle is growing quickly as a residential community, consider this: The City Council heard this evening from two separate developers looking to add 3,773 single family homes and 2,112 apartment units to the city’s inventory, the overwhelming majority of them on the east side of Interstate 35.
The largest of the three planned developments, called Pecan Woods, would be located on 763 acres situated on the north side of FM 150, immediately west of Simon Middle School. It would, according to its developers, the Walton Corp., consist of 1,835 single family homes, 1,320 multi-family units and 16 acres of commercial development which Walton spokesman Adam Scott said would consist primarily of office space.
The second largest of the three developments, also planned by Walton, would be called Kyle Estates and would be located on 640 acres about 2 miles southeast of Lehman High School near where Goforth Road becomes Bunton Lane. This could be the most controversial of the developments because only about half of it would fall within the Kyle city limits. It would contain 1,608 single family homes, 792 apartment units and 15.7 acres of commercial development.
The developers asked the city council to look into the creation of Public Improvement Districts (PIDs) for both developments to fund their needed infrastructure improvements. PIDs are special assessment areas within a specified district in which owners inside that district pay special assessments in addition to their regular city taxes to pay for the district’s infrastructure needs. The theory behind PIDs is that the cost of improving an area will be borne exclusively by the owners within that area and not spread among all the city’s taxpayers. I had two problems with the PID as described by Walton spokesperson Steve Metcalf. First, he said the PID would be paid by a one-time assessment, that could be paid in one lump sum or over time, by the homeowners in the two developments. My question is why aren’t these costs somehow shared by the multi-family and commercial property owners as well. Perhaps they are and Metcalf just didn’t say, but in his presentation to the council he only said the assessment would be levied against homeowners. Second, he didn't mention a termination date for the PID. Normally they only are in effect for three to five years.
The council appeared to have way too many concerns about PIDs in theory as well as in practice to advance this discussion to any lengths beyond the developers’ initial presentation. In fact, the feeling I got listening to this entire discussion was that the city, as yet, hasn’t developed any policies concerning PIDs and Mayor Todd Webster indicated the council should conduct a workshop on PIDs before discussions on these developments progress any further.
Council members also expressed concerns about the multi-family units with Mayor Pro Tem Diane Hervol and District 6's Tammy Swaton stressing that any apartment bordering on a single-family residence be limited to two stories. District 4's David Wilson said he thought recently constructed apartments constructed on the north side of San Marcos along Interstate 35 looked cheap, while he admired apartments he said he saw on a recent trip to the Dallas suburb of Frisco that were made of "rock and stone."
"I want apartments in Kyle to look more like Frisco and less like San Marcos," Wilson said.
The third development the council heard about was not nearly as ambitious but was received more enthusiastically. It involved a 130-acre development of 350 residential lots inside the "Y" that’s formed by the intersections of W. Center Street, Old Stagecoach Road and Cypress Road. The developer said at least 25 percent of the lots would measure 80-by-130 feet to accommodate homes in the mid-$400,000 range. (Fifty percent of the development would have 65-by-120 foot lots and the other 25 percent would have 55-by-125 lots. The homes in the area, according to the developer, would start in the mid-$200,000s.)
"It’s great that we have affordable housing here, it’s just that we need step-up housing like this," Mayor Webster told the developer. "It allows us to keep those people in Kyle who are looking to step up in their housing and I think you are the first to offer this alternative."
The one concern with the development was its name. The developers want to call it "The Woodlands at Center Street." It turns out the city already has a subdivision called The Woodlands and the council said this could cause some confusion, especially when first responders are being summoned in an emergency, Interim City Manager James Earp told the council he had already cautioned the developers about the name and had not given up hope that it might be changed.
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