Mayor seeks joint meeting to complete Comp Plan mid-term update

In a meeting during which City Engineer Leon Barba presented another update on the road bond projects and which featured a moving Memorial Day resolution and a equally stirring recognition of life saving acts performed by members of the Kyle Police Department, Mayor Todd Webster announced this evening he will seek to hold a one-day City Council-Planning & Zoning Commission joint meeting to complete the mid-term update of the City’s Comprehensive Plan.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing to report about tonight’s Council session was its relative brevity, clocking in at just under two hours — and that included an Executive Session (which mercifully lasted only 21 minutes).

The City decided at the beginning of the mid-term Comp Plan update process it didn’t want to spend the money on consultants to make changes in the Plan the City felt could be made by self-professed planning experts. However, when the assignment came to the Planning & Zoning Commission, it decided right away consultants were required, whether or not the City want to bear the costs for those consultants, and instead of performing the update the Council requested, it drafted a letter to the Council recommending what actions the commissioners felt the consultants should take.

That letter became part of the City Manager’s Report on tonight’s agenda.

"The (P&Z) Commission ultimately determined that certain updates were needed, primarily to the maps section," City Manager Scott Sellers told the Council. "And the letter sent to Council addresses those individual revisions.

"The letter recommended we look at an outside consultant to do the work." Sellers continued. "We may be able to do most of that work in-house, maybe with a little bit of facilitation from outside sources."

Sellers said the letter referenced other plans being worked on, such as the wastewater plan, the Parks Master Plan, etc., and said those plans, when finished, would ultimately be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan and the maps would be adjusted accordingly. He also said "There are some zoning issues we’ll need to look at with a growing city, especially in light of the recent annexations." He then asked for further direction from the council.

That’s when Mayor Webster announced his joint workshop plan "not just to go over the letter but also to be prepared to tackle some of the issues." He did not propose a date for the meeting but said he would set one with Sellers at a time when P&Z members would be available.

"My only issue with consultants is just cost," Webster said.

Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson endorsed Webster’s proposal, saying the ideas contained in the Comprehensive Plan all came from Kyle citizens and all the consultants did was format them. He suggested inexpensive computer software is available today that would allow the City to even handle that formatting internally.

"I would feel comfortable doing it that way and not spending hundreds of thousands on consultants again," Wilson said.

Sellers reminded the Council that this all revolved around a mid-term update, not the mandatory 10-year reformation of the Comprehensive Plan. "The five year update is more basic (than the 10-year review), updating the zoning, updating the maps" Sellers said. "This format (the proposed joint meeting), I think, is appropriate."

Council member Diane Hervol wanted to know about the extent of community involvement in the proposed workshop, which she could be forgiven for asking about because she did not attend the numerous Planning & Zoning Commission workshops on this subject that solicited and included input from Kyle residents. Sellers added additional citizen input could be superfluous because a lot of the items to be discussed during the update "are a little more technical in nature rather than long-term planning in nature."

Barba began his presentation talking about yesterday’s opening of Marketplace Extension, from City Lights to Burleson Road. Barba said there’s still work to be done on the project including "street lights we need to get working," which I was awfully glad to hear because I drove the new road on my way home from this evening’s meeting and it’s dark on that boulevard at night. Real, real dark. It also appeared to me that at the point where the extension merges into the original road, the road striping offers an optical illusion that gave me the impression the road was about to curve to the left when, in fact, it wasn’t.

He also said "improvements" were planned at the roundabout where the extension meets Burleson. He wasn’t specific about what those improvements were, but later, during the public comments section, Dan Ekakiadis, who served on the Kyle City Council from 2005 to 2007, when Wilson took over that seat, complained the roundabout was not safe. He was particularly critical about its height.

Barba said the 13-month construction on the Goforth Road project began March 21. He said the closure on the road will be in place "for another two weeks. The weather and the utilities have delayed us but we are trying to get out of there as fast as we can."

He listed late October as the beginning of construction on the Goforth Road extension. "We think it will take about four months to build that." He said he wants to start construction on Bunton Creek in September and the estimated start date for Burleson is November. "We expect that (Burleson) project to last 18 months," he told the Council. Barba said the estimated start on construction of Lehman is next March "and we’re hoping to try to move that up. We expect that project to last about 15 months, but it could be less than that based on our final plans" that removed the need for a bridge as part of the project.

In other action this evening:

• Library Director Paul Phelan and Lehman High School Principal Michelle Chae announced a joint all-ages Summer Reading Program that will take place from noon to 4 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays during June and July.
• The council passed a resolution approving the canvass of the May 7 City Council and charter referendum elections and set June 11 as the date for the Council runoff between Hervol and business owner Travis Mitchell, whose first matchup ended in a tie vote. The council amended the original ordinance for the runoff to add an extra day of early voting on Saturday, June 4, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Unanimously passed on first reading a pair of zoning requests, one which will pave the way for an inspection station to be located on Beebee Road at the far eastern edge of the city and another to allow for a "community commercial" development on the southwest corner of Porter and Cockerham streets. The unanimous votes removed the need for a second reading of the two proposed changes. Incidentally, the community commercial development is only a few blocks from the site of a proposed townhome development that raised such consternation from those living in a nearby subdivision that the Council killed it. Not a soul spoke at the public hearing attached to this plan, however.
• The Council voted 5-2 to amend the City’s "let’s screw potential homeowners" PID policy. According to Sellers, the changes to the ordinances would mean "The City Council would not be incentivizing residential development strictly through PIDs," which makes sense because PIDs are supposed to be financial mechanisms, not incentivizing tools. "A PID is for a larger commercialized development that may have a residential component but is not to be used to incentivize residential," Sellers said. "That was clear originally a year ago but through additional conversations we just needed to add that clarifying language." The second change, Sellers said, allows the City "to use up to 10 percent of any PID bond for PID related expenses that were outside the PID boundary"such as "wastewater improvements to the collection and the treatment system, water system improvements to get additional water capacity, drainage improvements, road improvements and other potential offsite PID impacts." Sellers said those amounts would be determined before the bonds are sold. Hervol and council member Daphne Tenorio voted against the amendments, not because they had anything against the amendments, per se, Tenorio told me, but because they were generally opposed to the "let’s screw potential homeowners" PID policy.

City Council caves to NIMBYs

The Kyle City Council, with explanations that, for the most part, if they are to be believed would bring all development in the city to a screeching halt, voted 5-1 last night to deny a request for a townhouse development located only a half a mile from City Hall.

Council member Shane Arabie was the only council member to vote in favor of the zoning request, although Mayor Todd Webster, whose explanation for opposing the measure was the only one that made any sense, seemed to vote no quite reluctantly. When his name was called during the roll call vote, he sat silently for a relatively long time before voting "nay" in way that made his vote sound more like that last name of this comedian whom I remember from the old Steve Allen Sunday night television show. Council member Daphne Tenorio did not attend last night’s meeting.

But, at least, Mayor Webster’s opposition seemed to make some sense. He voiced concern over the cost that would need to be borne by the city to upgrade what are now comparatively narrow streets near the site — specifically Cockerham, and possibly even Live Oak and Porter streets — upgrades that would be required to handle the traffic from the development that could potentially have been the site of 150 townhomes.

Here’s the rub, however. Without any zoning changes whatsoever, at least 90 single family homes could be located on the property and Planning Director Howard Koontz cited studies that proved that single family residences generate three times as many car trips as townhomes do. In addition, the parcel of land south of the property in question last night is already zoned for townhomes so they could be built there without needing any new zoning requests and that property is a lot closer to Cockerham and Porter streets than the ones under discussion last night.

Webster seemed to realize this and it was this dilemma, I am convinced, that resulted in his hesitancy in announcing his vote.

The other reasons given by council members, however, bordered on the goofy, none more than the one offered during the debate by council member Damon Fogley who said he opposed the rezoning because he didn’t want to add any more residential areas to the city’s tax rolls when homeowners currently bear the major burden of city property taxes. Perhaps he simply didn’t grasp that the lots already had residential zoning attached to them and the question before the council was simply whether to change the type of residential zoning. But, to be honest, I think that was Fogley’s excuse for casting a no vote, not his reason. The proof of that will come the next time a big developer comes along with a project to develop a major subdivision on land presently zoned agricultural. I’m betting Fogley will be tugging at his leash to approve it even if it will be far less sustainable than the issue on the table last night.

Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson along with council members Diane Hervol and Becky Selbera did not voice a reason for voting against the measure during the debate, so I had to approach them for their reasons at the conclusion on the council’s meeting. By that time, Selbera had bailed, but Hervol told me she opposed the development because "of the effects it will have on our wastewater, flood control and roads. The effect it’s going to have on our wastewater plant is very crucial." That’s possibly very well true, but it is also true for every single new development that plans to come to the city of Kyle. New developments inherently will have an effect "on our wastewater, flood control and roads." So, if she really believes what she was telling me, she will want all development in the city to stop. So, just to clarify, I asked her specifically if it was only the cost of needed infrastructure improvements in the immediate area that concerned her, She replied: "We’re already well on our way to improving the wastewater treatment plant, but the impact (of this development) concerns me." Again, it will be interesting to see if she voices similar concerns for any other proposed new developments within the city limits.

Wilson said he voted against because of "infrastructure in that area and safety. We don’t have the infrastructure to handle it and we already have people from new subdivisions cutting through on those roads." But, as mentioned earlier, development could proceed on the property without any zoning changes that would precipitate far more traffic.

Let’s be honest here. The only reason this zoning wasn’t approved was because the council withered in the face of the vocal opposition of a few selfish NIMBY residents of an adjacent subdivision who are opposed to any change and are hoping this piece of property in downtown Kyle will stay undeveloped forever. The problem is so few people vote in Kyle city elections, a small handful of irate, self-centered residents such as these could possibly tip an election and that scares the bejeezus out of these entrenched power-mad politicians who desperately want to hang on to their fiefdoms.

Arabie wisely recognized this fact when he said the residents of the Silverado subdivision may rue the day they opposed this development when they suddenly find themselves rubbing shoulders with a big warehouse development on the property that could have contained some nice, attractive townhomes.

The applicant himself, whose name I failed to capture, was stunned by the outcome. The opposition from the NIMBYs was just as loud — perhaps even louder — at the most recent Planning and Zoning Commission hearing, yet those commissioners displayed some backbone and ultimately unanimously approved the rezoning of the larger of the two parcels in question. The applicant said he had no idea what his next steps would be. "I am just going to have to sit back and regroup," he told me outside the council chambers.

For what it’s worth, here’s what I would do if I was in his shoes. Like I said, two parcels of land were proposed to be rezoned from single family residential to townhome residential. One of the parcels was 1.3 acres, the second was 14.083 acres. The council only voted on the smaller parcel; the applicant pulled his application on the larger one before council could vote on it. The applicant must now wait one year to apply for the same zoning change again on the 1.3 acres. However, he doesn’t have to wait at all on the much larger parcel.

I would begin holding small, informal meetings with residents of the Silverado subdivision to see what kind of compromises would need to be made to make them more favorable to the development. The major concern voiced by the NIMBYs was the increased amount of traffic that would flow through their subdivision. There is a small nub of a street, the name of which I can’t determine, located off San Felipe Drive between Salado and Remington drives that, at the present time, is the only visible access to the property. That is the route the NIMBYs voiced concern about – that all traffic to and from the subdivision would have to go down that nub and, thus, wind through Silverado. The applicant plans to construct roads to the southwest connecting to Cockerham and perhaps one to Live Oak, which he envisions as the main access to the site. One compromise I would seriously consider would be to construct a blockade that would prohibit traffic from entering Silverado from the townhome development.

The second thing I would present to the homeowners would be studies which prove that such a development adjacent to their property will actually increase their property values. There are plenty such studies to draw from.

The third thing I would do would be to present drawings and models to show the homeowners exactly what the proposed development would look like when it was finished, complete with all the additional roadways. Which brings me back to that 1.3 acres that can’t be rezoned residential townhome for at least another year. Work with the city to determine exactly what use he could do with that acreage. I’m thinking of a downtown 1.3-acre community leash-free dog park, complete with a splash pond. To me, that would be a wonderful addition for that part of downtown. I say "community"dog park because it would be open to all pet owners, not just those who live in the townhome development.

Fourth, as I presented all these ideas to the those NIMBYs in Silverado and others near the property, I would ask them to sign a petition indicating they favor the proposal under the compromises, the studies and the plans that I have displayed with them.

Fifth, and this could be the most difficult of all, I would try to form a PID (one designed to be used the way PIDs are envisioned to be used) whose boundaries would begin at the edge of Silverado, and stretch all the way to Rebel Drive that could be used to offset much of the cost of any needed infrastructure improvements.

And then I would bring all that back to City Council and again ask for the residential townhome zoning on only the 14.083 acres that was not voted on last night.

But that’s me.

In other action last night, the city council:

• Heard from Kay Johnson, chair of the Kyle Depot Board, with an update on the Kyle Visitor Center and Museum, which will be located in the depot. She said "a soft opening of this important, historical building" is planned for Saturday, Jan. 23, from 10 a.m. to noon. "We are placing period furniture pieces into the train master’s office next week and preparing displays for our exhibition panels." She said an audio-visual system is being installed that, among other things, "will allow an announcer to be distinctly heard that the next train to San Antonio should be ready to board within in the hour." She also said the Hays County Historical Society is providing copies of a book detailing the history of Kyle and a book signing will be part of the soft opening ceremonies. The proceeds from the sale of the book will be "donated to the continued upkeep of this magnificent depot." She informed the council a formal "grand" reopening of the depot will be announced "at a later date."
• Listened to the details of what was labeled a Transportation Plan but what was actually nothing more than a road construction plan whose brain-numbing, head-scratching conclusion was that the No. 1 road construction priority for Kyle was a two-lane divided Beebee Road, with the division being either a median or a center turn lane, between I-35 and State Highway 21, a project the plan’s presenters estimate would cost $57 million or more than 1.5 times the cost of all the city’s five current road bond projects. And that’s in 2016 dollars — no telling how much more expensive this would be if and when the city actually decided to undertake the project. To be fair, these guys said the city should only be on the hook for $17.5 million, but somehow we would have to sweet talk the county into coughing up the other $39.5 million. Hey, I travel that stretch of road a lot, for reasons I won’t go into here, but I also travel the far more congested 1626 between here and Manchaca quite regularly and, what with the plans to extend the 45 Tollway from the southern tip of Mopac in Austin to 1626 near the Hays County line, to me the area’s No. 1 priority is the widening of 1626 between 2770 and 967. Once that tollway link is complete, 1626 will compete with I-35 as the main conveyor of automobiles to and from Kyle and Southwest Austin. And that project should be entirely on the county’s tab. Hopefully, one day the city will quit wasting taxpayer money on road construction plans mislabeled as transportation plans and actually find someone willing to develop a comprehensive transportation plan. And why, pray tell me, are we getting different plans from CAMPO and this outfit, Lockwood, Andrews and Newnam? (Actually, I know the answer: LAN employees donate heavily to city council election campaigns.)
• Approved a request from the Hampton Inn to build a hotel next to the Hays Surgery Center that would exceed the 45-foot height limit for buildings in that zoning. The Hampton’s plans call for it to be 59 feet high.
• Unanimously granted a waiver to a proposed Sonic Drive In that allows it to build more parking spaces than its specified in the city’s code. After all, the Sonic is, as the name suggests, a drive-in and most of its patrons consume their food in their cars and not inside the restaurant. And if you don’t believe me on this, just look at all those stupid Sonic television commercials that always show the two friendly jerks in their car at the restaurant.
• Went through a series of shenanigans that allowed for ex-officio members on city boards and commissions, the first of which were four such members named to the Economic Development & Tourism Board. Mayor Webster cast the lone vote against the first in the series of shenanigans when he learned the new rule applied to all boards and commissions and not just to the Economic Development & Tourism Board.
• Unanimously approved an agreement that will allow the Kyle Police Department to install license plate recognition products in three department vehicles. These products would give police officers the ability to spot and stop cars with outstanding warrants for unpaid fines on already adjudicated traffic violations. It would also allow the drivers of such vehicles the opportunity to pay that outstanding fine on the spot with a credit card. Police Chief Jeff Barnett told me after the item was approved that the city is currently looking at between $4 and $5 million in outstanding such fines owed to the city. That’s almost enough to fund 25 percent of the head-scratching, brain-numbing Beebee Road boondoggle.

Webster, Wilson work to improve charter changes

Mayor Todd Webster and Mayor Pro Temp David Wilson successfully proposed two major changes to the proposed city charter during last night’s City Council meeting — one, if approved, would increase participation in municipal elections while reducing their costs and another which restored the manner in which council members are remunerated, before the council voted to send the proposed changes to the electorate next May.

Personally speaking, Webster’s and Wilson’s efforts transformed the proposed document from one I could not support to one I can now enthusiastically endorse.

Another significant change made to the document that was recommended by the Charter Review Commission, a change engineered chiefly by council member Daphne Tenorio, would significantly raise the cap on the dollar amount the city could go into debt before requiring voter approval.

The major change was one offered by Wilson, but strongly supported by Webster, to move council elections from May to December, a move designed to increase voter turnout and to save taxpayer dollars. The fact that Wilson offered the change was significant because during the recent council workshop discussion on the proposed charter change, he supported keeping the elections in May. He said he was convinced to move the date to November because the neighboring cities of San Marcos, Buda and Austin hold their municipal elections in November, and because his independent research convinced him the move would increase voter turnout and save the city a minimum of $5,000 a year by eliminating one election. It is interesting to note that in last month’s election, one that had little or no direct bearing on Kyle residents, the turnout here in the city was more than twice as large as it was for the most recent May city council elections.

The change was approved 5-2, with Tenorio and council member Diane Hervol casting the dissenting votes. Interestingly, just prior to the start of the council session, Mayor Webster confided he wasn’t sure he had enough support to get the proposed change passed. Some of the five who voted for the change said they did so not necessarily because the favored the idea of November municipal elections, but because they believed the voters of Kyle should have the opportunity to express their opinions on the idea. Council Member Shane Arabie said after the council meeting that plank in the charter could face rough sledding at the polls and Jo Fenety, the vice chair of the Charter Review Commission and a strong advocate of keeping the elections in May, told me after the council’s decision she would actively campaign to defeat the proposed change. "Expect to see lots of yard signs saying ‘Vote No’," she said as she left the chamber.

The other significant change, also introduced by Wilson, eliminated the Charter Review Commission’s recommendation that "City Council compensation shall be set in a public forum by ordinance of the city council." The council voted 7-0 to keep the council’s compensation the way it is — $200 a month to the mayor and $100 for the remaining council members. Even though all the council members agreed the charter should actually specify council compensation, Webster and council member Shane Arabie said after the meeting the level of compensation is going to be revisited as the city grows.

The Charter Review Commission recommended restricting the amount the city could go into debt without voter approval to 10 percent of the city’s annual tax revenues. But Finance Director Perwez Moheet told the council that because the city’s annual tax revenues are $1.5 million, that would mean the city would need approval for every proposed indebtedness of $115,000 or more, which is impractical. Initially, Mayor Webster seemed inclined to scrap the entire idea of a cap, but Tenorio successfully argued some kind of limit was necessary and after some back-and-fort negotiations over various percentages, it was finally decided the cap should be 5 percent of the city’s total assessed tax valuations, which puts the ceiling currently at $80 million. This provision has no effect on the issuance of General Obligation bonds, such as those recently issued for the Kyle road projects, all of which need voter approval before they can be sold, regardless of the amount.

There was also some disagreement about a proposed change to Section 4.03 (a) of the charter. The Review Commission voted to strike language saying the dismissal of the city’s finance director would have to be confirmed by a majority vote of the council. Tenorio and Hervol wanted to restore that language, but the other five council members prevailed, arguing that if the city manager has the sole authority to hire someone he or she should also have the sole authority to dismiss that individual.

The Charter Review Commission recommended removing reasons not bringing proposed ordinances back for a second reading, but the council disagreed with the commission and decided to keep the language in that section unchanged.

The city’s attorney said he planned to have an ordinance on the charter changes ready for the council’s approval no later than the first week in January so that the language can be placed on an election ballot in May.

In other action last night:

• Sylvia Gallo, the organizer of the November music festival designed to raise money for various veterans groups, told the council how much she appreciated the city’s support of her endeavor although she noticeably, at least to me, failed to mention how much, if any, funds were raised for the benefit of veterans,
• The council unanimously approved the nominations of Lourdes Cervantes, an elementary school librarian since 2002 and 15-year resident of Kyle, and C. Matthew Bonhamgregory, a fifth grade math and science teacher at Buda Elementary and a seven-year Kyle resident, to the Library Board. The council took time to commend board Chair Dr. Anita Perez in her efforts to recruit "quality" candidates for the board.
• The council hesitatingly decided to pursue the idea of asking Hays County for assistance in the city’s efforts in the post-Halloween flood remediation on its storm drains, although many were skeptical about just what assistance the county might provide as well as the quality of that assistance.
• Assistant City Manager James Earp announced that persons whose homes were damaged during the Halloween floods are now eligible for FEMA reimbursement "if they are uninsured whether they’re in the city or outside the city." Earp said FEMA would be opening assistance centers locally beginning today. "The closest one to the folks in our area," Earp said, "will be located at the Precinct 2 offices over on Jack C. Hays Trail between the Barton Middle School and the storage area on the other side." He said the center will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Saturday "and they’ll keep hours Mondays through Saturdays as long as they need to — as long as people keep coming in asking for assistance."
• The council, without explanation, voted 5-2 to cast all 216 of the city’s votes for the Hays County Appraisal District’s board of directors for Hays County Tax Assessor-Collector Luanne Caraway. These 216 votes are part of 7,000 possible votes that could be cast with the largest share, 1,679 votes, belonging to the Hays Independent School District. The city had a choice of eight different candidates who are vying for seven vacant positions on the board.
• A new, but unfortunately accurate, mantra was unveiled for the city’s development efforts when Wilson, in supporting creating a warehouse district on prime real estate along southbound I-35, said "We want the best that we can get. If the best we can get is warehouse, I’m happy to oblige." The motion to create the district, which will generate little if any sales tax revenue for the city, passed 6-0. Interestingly, although during a discussion about a similar zoning change a month ago some city council members raised the point that warehouse zoning permitted sexually oriented businesses, no one on the council mentioned the possibility of an adult video store or a strip joint could wind up greeting newcomers to Kyle on I-35. Just saying.

Mayor pro tem wants to eliminate shoppers’ freedom of choice

Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson threw a hissy-fit last night over the fact that someone in Kyle has the temerity to shop at the H-E-B and the Wal-Mart in San Marcos instead of the ones here. Now there’s good reasons to encourage people to spend sales tax money here and not in another city. I remember when I was shopping for new furniture while I lived in Dallas and I absolutely rejected my then-girlfriend’s pleas to check out furniture stores in the suburbs. I wasn’t about to send sales tax revenue to another city, especially when I was an employee of the City of Dallas. But that was my choice.

Wilson, on the other hand, wants to actually deny freedom of choice to this particular unnamed Kyle resident by stripping this person of the transportation he or she uses to shop in San Marcos. Wilson is siding with council member Damon Fogley (who had the audacity, during the discussion of this subject, to call himself a "fiscal conservative" even though he voted to subject Kyle property owners to the highest taxes in Hays County. "Just pay to attention to what I say," he seemed to say, "and ignore everything I do.") on the notion to end the city’s subsidy to the Demand Response transportation service provided by Capital Area Rural Transportation Service (CARTS).

At Fogley’s behest, Kyle Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix gave a presentation to the City Council last night that suggests the city isn’t getting the return on its investment when it comes to CARTS. I would guess every city in the nine-county area served by CARTS would say the same thing, but Kyle is the only one of them preparing to take the service away. The problem with Hendrix’s presentation was that it was strictly about numbers and had nothing to do with humanity. I guess to Kyle city officials, the people who live here are simply another commodity to be considered collectively: "Here in Kyle we have stores and houses and sewers and people and roads and manholes and apartments and a whole lot of other things," without ever stopping to contemplate the individuality of those "people."

To put it bluntly, this action last night displayed a total lack of empathy on the part of Kyle government officials towards the citizens it is supposed to be serving as well as an ignorance of the responsibilities of government. Let me explain: As far as I know, no one sought this shopper’s input into why he or she prefers to shop at the stores in San Marcos. If they did, they certainly didn’t share it last night. But personal reasons don’t matter to Wilson or Fogley: "You either voluntarily do all your shopping in Kyle or we will take steps to force you to shop within the city limits. We are the dictatorial leaders of Kyle and we can do that." Unfortunately this type of George Orwellian thinking is running rampant these days, which is why we are seeing governments denying voting rights to those who don’t agree with them or eliminating health care options for poor women and minorities.

One of my two closest living friends, someone who was a principle at my wedding and who was my son’s godfather, died last week and Friday I, together with my son and granddaughter, drove to Dallas to participate in his funeral services. The day before I decided to purchase a new solid black tie to wear so I hopped in the car and drove over to Kohl’s on Kyle Parkway. I can’t recall when I ever been subjected to as terrible customer service as I received at that store. I finally left without ever purchasing the tie, promising myself I would never shop in that store again. I walked down the way to the Ross store where I received satisfactory customer service and actually purchased the tie at one-third the price than I would have paid at Kohl’s.

There may be times in the future when I might want to shop at Kohl’s, but I promise you when that time comes I will be going to a Kohl’s in Austin or San Marcos and not the one here in Kyle and I don’t think big, bad government has any right to tell me otherwise. Unfortunately, Wilson and Fogley don’t agree with this idea of freedom of choice and I’m afraid a majority of the council may agree with them as well.

I've heard rumors that H-E-B intends to build a Central Market at or near the intersection of highways 1626 and 967 in Buda. I love me some Central Market. If these rumors are true, there's an excellent chance the bakery there will provide Challah, something the Kyle H-E-B has no intention of selling. And anyone who knows anything about proper food preparation knows that Challah is a necessary ingredient in the preparation of quality French Toast. Regardless, if a Central Market does wind up there, I'll be spending more of my grocery dollars in Buda and less in Kyle. It's my choice and regardless of how Wilson and Fogley want to deny me my freedoms, I'm going to exercise my freedom of choice.

I only hope that other nameless shopper is afforded the same rights.

“One of those chicken and egg situations”

Office buildings. They are conspicuously absent in Kyle. Those three, four, five story buildings that house a variety of small business tenants — lawyers, architects, accountants, public relations practitioners. I’m sure we have Kyle residents in all those professions and most of them are probably commuting somewhere else each day to work.

But how do you approach this? Do you wait for a number of professionals to want to set up shop in Kyle and then construct a building to house them? Or do you employ the Field of Dreams approach: If we build it, they will come. That dilemma was at least acknowledged at last night’s city council meeting when Roger Dale, of the Natelson Dale Group, presented the group’s recommendations for an Economic Development Strategic Plan.

"That is one of the fundamental challenges Kyle has," Dale told the council in response to question on this very topic from Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson. "You’re talking about attracting industry but you don’t necessarily have a place to put them. It’s one of those chicken and egg situations. A developer doesn’t want to build something unless they know there’s someone that’s going to come there but no one wants to come there unless there’s somewhere to come. You kinda have to get off the fence on these situations. It’s not easy. There’s not a simple solution but the steps we believe you can take are Number 1, coordination with developers. And there are developers who would like to develop that space if they knew there were demand for it. That’s their long-term plan.

"What they say they need is better documentation that there is a flow of prospective tenants that would occupy their space," Dale continued. "We have some recommendations as part of our marketing program on how you create that information flow to the developers to give them some justification for building spec buildings and getting them financed and so forth. It’s not a magic bullet. It’s a challenge that’s always going to be there.

"The other thing that can help that is to have, if not buildings, at least shovel-ready sites. The infrastructure’s in place. The approvals are in place. So that if you can’t initially get a spec building, at least you can get a build-to-suit in a fairly quick period of time. That’s not as ideal as having a building ready. But get that there. Get the ball rolling. It’s one of those things that success begets success. You get the first deal in and you’ll have more success who ultimately want to do spec buildings.

"It’s a step-by-step process. I can’t say we have a magic solution for it, but I think the city is already taking some very good steps in terms of its coordination with the development community and its long-term vision in terms of infrastructure planning to make that eventually a very viable thing here in Kyle."

As I wrote earlier this week, Dale told the council it would be most "feasible" to concentrate the city’s economic development activities on attracting high-tech manufacturing firms to Kyle. But he also said other priority targets are "destination related recreational facilities (i.e., water parks, amusement parks) and professional and business services," such as those that would occupy the office buildings addressed above.

Kyle to consider banning cell phone use while driving

Last week, when I received my latest issue of the Community Impact Newspaper — the issue in which the lead story bore the headline "Buda cracking down on distracted driving" — I wondered how long it would take for Kyle to follow suit. Turns out the time could be measured in minutes.

Last Thursday night Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson asked Mayor Todd Webster and City Manager Scott Sellers to make sure the Sept. 1 city council agenda meeting contained "an ordinance banning use of hand held cell phones and texting while driving."

Police Chief Jeff Barnett confirmed his department is working on such an ordinance and I have reached out to the chief to determine whether the proposed ordinance would only ban the use of hand-held cell phones, but other portable devices as well such as pads, tablets, mp3 players, etc.. I am awaiting a reply and will update if and when I receive it.

Meanwhile, expect at least a proposed cell phone ban ordinance of some form to be on the council’s agenda week from tomorrow.

City raises property tax 10.6 percent above the cost of road bonds

There are many ways at looking at city finances and tax increases and how much property tax is in masked money or in real money. The truth of the matter here is that, in real money, Kyle property taxes are going to catapult 26.2 percent higher than last year, although 15.6 percent of that increase will be because voters approved a $13 million road bond package two years ago, so expect to pay an extra 7.6 cents per $100 property valuation every year for the next 20 years to pay for those five road improvements.

Here’s how to look at the budget in terms of real money, i.e., the actual dollars and cents coming out of the bank accounts of Kyle property owners. If you wanted the city to provide exactly the same service in the upcoming fiscal year as they are doing in this one, the property tax rate would be, according to figures presented to the city council this morning by Finance Director Perwez A. Moheet, 48.71 cents per $100 valuation. That’s lower than the current 53.83 cents rate because the city’s income will increase this year through additional sales tax revenues and higher property valuations. Moheet also said that it will cost taxpayers 7.63 cents per $100 valuation per year over the next 20 years to pay for the 2013 road bond package. However, the estimated property tax rate for this year is going to be very close to 61.46 cents which, of course, is 5.12 cents more than what the same level of service plus the road bonds would cost.

Not that the 5.12 cents isn’t justified. Given the level of service the city provides, it desperately needs to improve its game, although I still wish the proposed new city charter had provided for an internal auditor to monitor the city’s service efficiencies. To me, 61.46 cents seems a high price tag for the level of service residents receive but that also could be because the ratio of individually owned property to commercial property is at an obscene level in Kyle: 85 to 15, according to a survey conducted by Community Impact. (That ratio in Buda is 72 to 28 and its property tax is 29.78 cents per $100 valuation. In San Marcos, it’s a 53-47 percent ratio with a property tax of 53.02 cents.)

So what is that 5.12 cents per $100 valuation extra in Kyle going to be used for?. Well, for starters, about 21.5 FTEs will be added to the city’s payroll, including four new police officers. FTE stands for Full Time Equivalent, but does not necessarily translate into the number of people hired. For example, two part-time workers equals one full-time and City Manager Scott Sellers’s proposed budget adds about 10 part-time employees and converts one parks administrative assistant from a part-time position to a full-time position. In addition, an FTE is a position, not a person. In other words, the city may create a position (an FTE) and fund it, but not hire anyone to fill that position.

But enough of that confusion. Sellers’s original proposal called for 22.5 FTEs, but one of those positions, a division manager of street maintenance paying $85,235 per annum, was axed in a motion by council member Daphne Tenorio, seconded by Damon Fogley and approved unanimously by the council to pay for much needed protective equipment, chiefly breathing apparatus, for firefighters and a laptop for the new code enforcement officers. At the urging of Mayor Todd Webster, $100,000 was added to the budget to give the iconic downtown water tower a fresh coat of paint and, as recommended by council member Becky Selberra, $15,000 was added for a "Rail Crossing Quiet Zone Assessment Study." That money was deducted from $1,529,049 in seed money to start a fund that would keep up with equipment, fleet and facility replacement and repair.

All seven city council members voted in favor of considering the 61.46 cent tax rate at its Wednesday, Aug. 19, special called meeting, which, technically, is not exactly the same thing as approving that rate. However, I’m thinking it’s just a formality. It may be that when the rubber meets the need-to-be-reconstructed road, a few council members, especially those up for re-election next year, may not want to be on record as voting for a hefty tax increase when the matter is considered Aug. 19,but the wheels on which that rubber is fitted will have been greased enough so that it will pass.

After the meeting was over, I asked four council members — Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson, Shane Arabie, Diane Hervol and Tenorio (I wanted to ask Mayor Webster, but he refuses, albeit somewhat politely, to talk with me about anything) — whether they would ever consider instituting a stormwater fee that might help replace some property taxes as an income source. Now, I realize, a fee is actually a tax hiding under a different name, but a stormwater fee is usually assessed in proportion to the amount of impervious surface on a particular piece of property. In a home, that might be a driveway and a patio, but for an H-E-B or a Wal-Mart we're talking about a gigantic, honkin’ parking lot so those fees fall more heavily on the commercial property owners and help relieve some of the burden being borne in Kyle by homeowners.

Council voices approval of costly, controversial roundabout

In spite of its $600,000 price tag and the overwhelming opposition to it by residents, particularly those who live close by, the City Council Tuesday evening directed the staff to prepare a resolution that would put the city on record as supporting the construction of a roundabout at Kyle Parkway and Kohlers Crossing.

Of course, last night’s action doesn’t mean squat. It has absolutely no bearing on whether a roundabout will ever be constructed at the intersection. All it means, if the resolution drafted by the staff is ultimately passed by the council, is that the city will be on record as telling the Texas Department of Transportation it favors installing a roundabout at the location.

The council’s direction to staff came without an official vote, just a mention by Mayor Todd Webster that he felt the consensus of the council leaned to favoring a roundabout.

According to Assistant City Manager James Earp, TxDOT is willing to foot the bill ($250,000, according to Earp) to install a traffic signal at that intersection. He estimated a roundabout would cost about $850,000, but he also guessed TxDOT would contribute the $250,000 traffic light cost to the project, leaving the city to come up with the remaining $600,000. This came a couple of hours before the council hosted a workshop in which council members were told it would cost the city $18 million a year over the next 30 years to pay for the road projects called for in its Transportation Master Plan.

Of course those are capital projects and would be paid for by putting the city more in debt. Because of extremely poor planning, Kyle already has the highest property tax rate of any city in Hays County and I’m guessing that rate will jump about three cents when the city manager unveils his FY 2015-16 budget next week. The problem is, because of that poor planning, the burden of paying that debt falls way too heavily on individual homeowners and asking them to shoulder more of that responsibility is absolutely unconscionable. The city needs to attract far more businesses to relieve homeowners of some of this taxpaying burden before it goes on these types of spending sprees.

Not only that, while I am a big fan of roundabouts in general, I am not convinced that a roundabout at that intersection is the best idea.

Earp is also a big fan of roundabouts, but he is one of those city officials who say that since a particular solution solved a particular problem a number of different times, that same solution will work every time. That can be a dangerous assumption, especially when it comes to city planning. Earp presented a nifty slide show illustrating the benefits, particularly the safety benefits, of roundabouts, but not one of those slides, not a single one of his examples, was illustrative of the situation at Kyle Parkway and Kohlers Crossing.

For one thing, the speed limit on that section of Kyle Parkway is 60 miles an hour and I’ve never seen a roundabout on a stretch of highway where the speed limit is 60 miles an hour. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one somewhere on this planet, but I doubt if there is one at an intersection that closely resembles the configuration at Kyle Parkway at Kohlers. Usually roundabouts are found at intersections that closely mirror each other; i.e. a four-lane undivided road that intersects another four-lane undivided road, a 40-mile-an-hour road that intersects another 40-mile-an hour road. Here, however, you have a four-lane road with a significant median intersecting a four-lane road with a narrower median and a road with a 60-mile-an hour speed limit intersecting one with marked at 45 mph.

Earp offered a slide that indicated studies suggest that a car traveling a 60 miles an hour will slow to under 20 miles an hour at a roundabout. But that study was done on a two-lane road and I doubt if it was done in Texas where drivers will hope the road ices over in winter so they can slide their pickups all around the circle at crazy speeds. And why create an obstacle on a 60-mile-an-hour highway that slows vehicles to under 20 mph? That makes no sense. Why not construct an overpass at the location to really keep traffic flowing along Kyle Parkway? Would an overpass cost significantly more than a roundabout? There is no way of knowing because, in typical fashion, instead of trying to find the best solution to a particular problem, Kyle officials only considered two alternatives: traffic light or roundabout. But it seems to me an overpass would be the best traffic-management solution.

But we’ll never know that because, again in typical Kyle poor planning mode, the city waited until the last minute to take any action at all on this. According to Earp, TxDot needs to have an answer from the city on the plans for this intersection by the end of this month or sometime next month at the absolute latest.

There is also the fact, as mentioned Tuesday night by both Mayor Pro Tem David Wilson and council member Diane Hervol, that the majority of Kyle residents don’t want a roundabout at that particular location. And if the internet message boards hosted by Plum Creek residents are any indication, those individuals who live closest to the intersection are overwhelmingly against it. Now, none of those residents came to City Hall Tuesday night; the only ones who did appear were those who favored roundabouts, including two members of the Planning & Zoning Commission, Mike Wilson and Dan Ryan. But even these two gentlemen spoke in favor of the theory of roundabouts, but never addressed the actual situation at Kyle Parkway and Kohlers.

As far as the cost, Earp justified the $600,000 cost of the roundabout by saying the city would have to bear the cost of maintaining the traffic signal which would be higher than maintaining a roundabout. Council member Damon Fogley asked the perfectly logical question of how long would it take for the traffic light maintenance costs to reach the $600,000 expense of the roundabout and Earp responded with a tapdance that would have made Fred Astaire jealous.

There are plenty of potentially good locations for roundabouts in the Kyle area: at the intersections of Center and Rebel, Center and Old Stagecoach Road, RR 150 and 2770. And someone please explain to me why a roundabout should be located at Kyle Parkway and Kohlers, but not at Kyle Parkway and 2770, which is really the official city portal on the parkway. The answer. of course, is because the parkway shrinks from a four-lane, widely divided road to a two-lane undivided one north of 2770, but, as I mentioned earlier, you also have a road mismatch at the Parkway and Kohlers.

This just seems to be another example of doing something not because it’s the right thing to do, but because the fix is in.