Council to vote on becoming part of low income housing grant program

CDBG grants, one of the longest-running programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), can be used for a number of purposes, but they are most often associated with affordable housing and anti-poverty programs. CDBG funds may be used for community development activities (such as real estate acquisition, relocation, demolition, rehabilitation of housing and commercial buildings), construction of public facilities and improvements (such as water, sewer, and other utilities, street paving, and sidewalks), construction and maintenance of neighborhood centers, and the conversion of school buildings, public services, and economic development and job creation/retention activities. CDBG funds can also be used for preservation and restoration of historic properties in low-income neighborhoods. The stated goal of the Texas CDBG program "is to develop viable communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment as well as by expanding economic opportunities, principally for persons of low-to-moderate income."

Kyle is hoping to throw some of this grant money down the sewer.

OK, I’m being somewhat cute with that previous sentence, but the reality is that Kyle is planning on a major new commercial development coming to the city. To prepare for that, Tuesday’s city council agenda contains a number of items designed to win $975,631 in CDBG grant money that would be used for the construction of wastewater collection system improvements, specifically an interceptor sewer from Southlake Sewer Lift Station to Bunton Creek Sewer Lift Station.

"City of Kyle, Texas is working with a company that wishes to locate a plant facility in Kyle and will be a relatively large user of water and sewer service," according to material that’s part of Tuesday’s council agenda. "The anticipated sewer flows are estimated at 115,000 GPD to 140,000 GPD. There are some wastewater collection capacity issues caused by a bottleneck in the existing collection system that must be addressed through additional public infrastructure (sanitary sewer construction). To avoid overloading the existing Southlake Sewer Lift Station the construction of new interceptor sewer main is proposed. The proposed interceptor sewer will be installed so as to bypass the Southlake Lift Station and transport wastewater via gravity sewer to the Bunton Creek Sewer Lift Station."

The company " that wishes to locate a plant facility in Kyle and will be a relatively large user of water and sewer service" is the same one I wrote about on Aug. 31 when I said "City manager Scott Sellers told the city council tonight he would like to apply for a $1 million grant that would help lure an economic development project to Kyle that could mean at least 66 new jobs."

What’s on the council’s agenda Tuesday is the process for obtaining that grant. The other associated items include one to hire an outfit out of Tyler, Texas, Traylor and Associates, that has expertise in applying for CDBG grants of this sort; approving the necessary application with the Texas Department of Agriculture to be eligible for CDBG money; and a resolution outlining the requirements to participate in the CDBG program.

It should also be noted CDBG moneys normally require budget considerations separate and apart from the city’s regular budget process.

Other items on Tuesday’s agenda include:

• Two public hearings, one to get input on the proposed impervious cover ordinance changes and the second regarding the revamped landscape ordinances that were forwarded to the council earlier this week from the Planning & Zoning Commission.
• The possibility of spending $10,000 to be part of a Hays Caldwell Public Utility Agency’s study into the feasibility of locating a new wastewater treatment plant to serve the area in the vicinity of the Kyle-San Marcos border.
• An agreement to provide water and wastewater services, at out-of-city rates, to the proposed Anthem Development, after Anthem constructs and installs all the required delivery mechanisms.
• The first reading of an ordinance designed, in the city’s words, to even "the playing field and equally placing the roughly proportional cost of utility extensions on all new development, not just the market leaders as is the practice today." According to Assistant City Manager James Earp "Up until now, the city has allowed development to connect to lines built by other developers or the city, or a partnership of both, without having a way to collect the pro rata share of the infrastructure that the latter development requires to use. This results in earlier developers having a higher barrier to entry, than projects that follow and can benefit from the utility work that another developer was required to provide, sometimes at the additional expense of the city utility."
• A consent agenda item that, if approved, will annex into the city 51.48 acres of land near the intersection of Jack Hays Trail and FM 1626 that is unoccupied except for a rather prominent radio tower. However, the property was recently purchased by Lennar Homes and is adjacent to a much larger area of land in the Plum Creek MUD that is also owned by Lennar, so one should expect it won’t be vacant for too much longer.
• Another consent agenda item that seeks to make the Planing & Zoning Commission double as "the Impact Fee Advisory Committee for water and wastewater impact fee study and update." One can only hope P&Z can handle this assignment better than the last one they received from the council, i.e., to provide a mid-term Comprehensive Plan update. But after witnessing first-hand the reaction from P&Z commissioners when they were told this week they were getting this assignment, I’m not overly optimistic. In fact, P&Z Chair Michael Rubsam said "I hope they are also going to provide us with extensive training on how to do this."
• Another consent agenda to accept a grant of $99,899.20 to cover the two-year salary for a victim services coordinator at the Kyle Police Department, As far as I know, this is the first time this subject has been discussed since February’s tragic murder of Samantha Dean, the last person to hold this position.

Here is the complete agenda.