As regular readers are well ware, I am no friend of Kyle’s PID policy, but I have absolutely no problem with this proposal. Let me see if I can explain why. First, let me tell you why I oppose, generally speaking, Kyle’s way of handling these funding mechanisms. As already noted in the first paragraph, the "I" in "PID" stands for "Improvement." Kyle, however, employs PIDs, for the most part, to help finance developments, not improvements. The way a PID is created is quite simple. The owners of the majority of the properties wishing to have a PID for a specific project must formally approve its creation, knowing that by approving it they are pledging to pay for the bonds sold to finance the project as well as the interest on the bonds. Usually they are committing to pay these costs in monthly installments over the life of the PID. However, when it’s used to finance a new development, there is usually just one, perhaps two, owners/stakeholders who agree that a PID should be created, but it’s repaid, not by those original owners/stakeholders, but by all the individuals who purchase homes in the development and had absolutely no voice in the creation of the PID. That’s why I have claimed Kyle’s PID policy amounts to taxation without representation.
But this PID is different — markedly different. First, and most important in my mind, is the fact that the most of the money derived from this PID will be used for improvements, not development. Specifically, it will be spent on widening and improving Roland and Opal lanes from the entrances to the development across the railroad tracks. It will also be used to improve drainage in the immediate neighborhood of the development. But even more important than that, the PID will be used to finance the installation of quiet railroad crossings on Roland and Opal Lanes. Those installations, combined with the city-financed quiet crossings at Center and South streets, will eliminate the need for trains to sound those irritatingly loud horns anywhere in the city of Kyle, thus drastically improving the quality of life here. I hope readers noticed I many times I used a form of the word "improve" in this paragraph.
Here’s the second reason I can support this PID. Because of changes to Kyle’s PID policy instituted by council member Travis Mitchell (who joined the council after the original PID policy was adopted) anyone purchasing a home in this development must be made aware, before that purchase, that they are also committing to pay an additional $120 a month — in addition to their mortgage payment, in addition to any homeowners association fees, in addition to their property taxes — as a PID assessment. If that home buyer agrees to that, then that, to me, is tantamount to voting for the creation of the PID in the first place.
Now, why do I say that this planned public hearing "if recent history is any indication, will attract a number of persons who will talk about everything but the subject of the public hearing." It’s because, within the last eight days, two different city panels, the Planning & Zoning Commission and the City Council, had items relating to this development on their respective agendas that attracted individuals who came to talk on a subject that had nothing to do with what was on those agendas. So I don’t see why this Saturday’s meeting should deviate from that norm. On Oct. 10, the Planning & Zoning Commission’s agenda included an item for the commissioners to consider a preliminary plan for the development and to possibly suggest changes to that plan that didn’t violate the Development Agreement already in place for the development but possibly aligned it more closely with the recently approved Design Guide. A number of speakers, most of those living near the planned the development, came to the meeting wanting the commissioners to stop the development, a subject that was not up for discussion. During last night’s city council meeting that contained an item to consider accepting the PID application and petition (by the majority of stakeholders, which, in this case, was one) to create the PID, most of these same individuals who showed up at P&Z the week before came to the council to voice their complaints, not about the PID, but by the proposed density of the project and the fact that it will include (horror of horrors!!!) a multi-family component. Again, not the subject of the agenda item.
So I’m predicting (although I really do hope I am wrong about this) many of these same folks will find the willpower to get to City Hall early on the first Saturday in November to complain some more. Here, however, is why I hope I am wrong. How can anyone in their right mind oppose road improvements, drainage improvements right outside their homes that they don’t have to finance through their own tax dollars? How can they oppose making their community eminently more peaceful by eliminating trains blaring their horns right outside their doors that they don’t have to pay for out of their tax dollars either? But I’m predicting they will. I could even foresee one city council member arguing against it. But their only arguments have to be off the subject, because arguing on the subject simply doesn’t make any sense. At least, as far as I can see. All those coming to speak against the likely agenda item on Nov. 4, regardless of the words that come out of their mouths, will be those still arguing not to locate the development there and refusing to accept the reality of the situation which is, frankly, that ship has sailed, that subject has been off the table for quite some time now. Sisyphus lives in Kyle.
Perhaps as many as three members of the council thought last night’s meeting might be their final one as a member of the council and, in somewhat of an ironic twist, the Nov. 4 meeting adds one more to their list. But Mayor Todd Webster believes it isn’t an added burden.
"My goal in these last few city council meetings is to complete all those projects we started," he told me "That’s why there have been what might be viewed as a large number of items on these recent agendas. "This next meeting will complete those projects.".
The following also happened during last night’s council meeting.
- Of the 20 agenda items the council voted on, 19 of them passed unanimously. However, those unanimous votes were 6-0 because council member Daphne Tenorio, who obviously was suffering from something health related, said at the beginning of the citizens comment period she had just been released from a hospital only hours before the meeting began and was "in a great deal of pain." She asked to be excused from the remainder of the meeting, a request the rest of the council readily agreed to. However, before she left, she said she would have opposed two items related to improvements and changes in the Cool Springs subdivision (although one of those items was the only one on the agenda that received a dissenting vote), all the proposed zoning changes and "the Plum Creek business parks." She was not clear on which of two items involving development in Plum Creek she was referring to, but I’m going to naturally assume it was the one to approve a plat for two commercial lots and not the one involving an agreement with the Plum Creek Development Partners, Ltd., that will save the city close to $10 million.
- It is also worth noting that one of the rezoning items — to allow for RV zoning — was denied by a unanimous vote so her opposition to that proposed change would have made the final tally 7-0 instead of 6-0.
- The city formally accepted the Police Department Audit and I learned the Operations Review Committee will meet at 1 p.m. Monday to decided which one of the audit’s recommendations should be implemented. "We are very excited about the opportunity to discuss and implement the recommendations they brought forward," Police Chief Jeff Barnett told me after the council meeting adjourned at 11:59 p.m. "Because I truly believe all the recommendations can improve our operations, we’re excited about any all of them that will come out of that committee."
- City Manager Scott Sellers made a special presentation to "allow the council to reflect on three great years" and "what we have accomplished together" in that time, before reading from a lengthy and impressive list of those accomplishments. Sellers concluded by telling the council members the city staff had willingly bought into "four core values that truly guide us in all that we do. And those core values spell the word "Kyle" — Knowledge, Yes Attitude, Leading Edge, Employee Accountability. We live by our core values. They are hung in our departments. We wear ‘Team Kyle" wristbands. It is something we live and we’re happy to live it. It has shaped the way our citizens feel about living in our city — they are proud to live in the city of Kyle. All of our new employees quickly learn about our fantastic culture here and that culture is set from the (city council) dias. We couldn’t be happier for the progress we have made or the direction we have received for the tasks and the great projects we have been able to carry through together under your guidance and leadership. And I want to thank your for that. And I want to thank the staff that’s worked tirelessly to bring all that about over the last three years."
- After the vote to deny the RV zoning on Dacy Lane, council member Shane Arabie sharply criticized certain comments made during the public hearing on the item. "Every time we’ve had something come in front of us that somebody didn’t like it was always the sex offender talk or it increased the crime rate. And that’s with every piece of property somebody didn’t like next to them. It’s not about ‘I don’t like it in my back yard," because that doesn’t give you the right to say what can go there. They own that property. Not you. You didn’t buy the property. They bought it. Just like you bought your home and you can decide what to do with it." After mentioning he currently resides in an RV Park, along with a close friend "who makes six figures a year," Arabie told the audience ‘So every time you say there’s a sex offender living there, look at me, because I’m the person that going’s to be living in these upscale, nice RV parks. So remember, when you put that picture out there, you’re talking about me and my friend that works in the physics department whose making the part that works in almost every piece of electronics you hold in your hand — people who I guarantee are among the top 1 percent educated on this planet. So just be mindful of who you’re talking about when you talk about this,"
- After the council heard a presentation that the city can save as much as 75 percent on vehicle maintenance costs and 25 percent on fuel costs, the council voted to implement a one-year pilot program to turn over the city’s acquisition and maintenance of its non-heavy vehicle fleet to Enterprise.
- The council also authorized the purchase of five gateway signs and at least 16 wayfinding directional signs.
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