The city took the first steps last night toward instituting major changes in the Burleson Road bond project which will eliminate the I-35 frontage road exit to Burleson Road, replace it by extending Marketplace Road and include the northern tip of Burleson being transformed into a cul-de-sac south of Plum Creek.
Following a two-hour executive session at the end of last night’s City Council meeting, the council voted unanimously to approve the purchase of property that will permit the city to extend Marketplace Road from the Burleson roundabout, where Marketplace currently terminates, to the frontage road, which will serve as the new connection between Burleson and the interstate.
The current Burleson-frontage road intersection, which is essentially a fork in the frontage road, has been the site of a number of traffic accidents, some of which have resulted in fatalities.
The project will be part of the Burleson Road bond project and will actually be accelerated, according to City Manager Scott Sellers, so work on that Marketplace extension will be completed as the reconstruction of Burleson from downtown is underway..
Following the executive session, council member Alex Villalobos made the motion to approve a contract with "the Maddox parties" to purchase the property that will allow the city to extend Burleson from the roundabout.
"This is the purchase of land to construct the extension of Marketplace so that Marketplace will continue, as part of the Burleson project, from the roundabout to the frontage road," Sellers explained after the council’s meeting adjourned. "And, as part of the Burleson project we’re going to cul-de-sac Burleson prior to Plum Creek, so we avoid the low-water crossing and then eliminate the exit onto Burleson from the frontage road. So this is basically new, nicer, safer exit onto Marketplace from the frontage road."
Sellers did not state exactly when work on this phase of the project will begin.
"Once we hear back from CAMPO, we’re going to bid the project and include that little stretch as an add-alternate," the city manager explained. "So it’s not included in the base bid for Burleson, but as soon as we hear back from CAMPO, we’ll bid it.
"If we can, since it’s an add-alternate, we’ll try to get the contractor to do that in an earlier phase of the project," Sellers added. "Originally they were going to phase it downtown and then work their way north. Because it’s an add-alternate, if the phasing works out and the utility relocations have already worked out for it, we can get that done simultaneously with other phases. So we can get that extension built quickly."
In other transportation-related news coming from last night’s council meeting, Sellers outlined plans for a 12-mile east-west foot trail, and perhaps eventually a hike/bike trail, that could stretch from the vicinity of the city’s wastewater treatment plant to the banks of the Blanco River, much of if along the pathway of Plum Creek.
"We understand a city-wide trail system is important to the quality of life of our residents," Sellers told the council in outlining the concept for the project.
Sellers said what pushed the trail project now was the fact that he was contacted by representatives from Hays High School who were seeking ideas for that the city manager called "a very large senior class project to leave as a legacy for the community." He said they came to the agreement that beginning work on a citywide trail would be "a great project, not just this year, but for multiple years to come."
He said the trail-building will formally kick off March 3, in conjunction with a clean-up effort taking place along Plum Creek that same day. While one group of volunteers will be removing litter from the stream and its banks, the group from Hays High School will "take trail segments and clear them to a fashion where they are passable. For the foreseeable future, it will be a primitive nature trail, but it will be cleared four to eight feet, hopefully from the wastewater treatment plant at least through Waterleaf Park. And that’s several miles of trail in just that segment.
"Ultimately, we’re probably looking at 12 miles of trail when the whole segment gets built out," Sellers said. "Our ultimate goal is to have some sort of a paved surface many years from now. But, for now, there’s no reason why the public can’t be out there utilizing, enjoying the trail."
The other major action at last night’s meeting was, for all practical purposes, no action at all which came perilously close to killing a 17-acre subdivision along South Sledge Street, until one council member jumped in at the last minute to preserve the battle for another day. The developer was seeking R-1-3 zoning for the development which is the most-dense single family detached residential zoning available. Some council members felt that was too dense but a motion to approve a zoning that was slightly less dense failed on a tie vote (Mayor Pro Tem Shane Arabie reported work-related issues prevented him from attending last night’s meeting). However, a motion to approve the requested zoning also failed on a tie vote, which, if the matter had ended there, would have stopped the development dead in its tracks. After the proverbial pregnant pause, council member Tracy Scheel, who had made the original motion for the less-dense zoning and voted against the requested zoning, asked that the item be reconsidered at a future meeting, preferably one in which Arabie could participate.. I believe Arabie, had he been present at this meeting, would have landed on the side of the requested zoning, but he reportedly told the mayor in a telephone conversation that he could go "either way" on the subject. Stay tuned.
The council also approved, without any debate, Villalobos’s latest nominee, Scott Bowman, to the Ethics Commission. After reading Bowman’s impressive resume, I felt a position on the city’s Ethics Commission might even be beneath him and, instead, he should be up for a nomination to an Ethics Hall of Fame, if such an institution even exits. Trust me on this: Bowman’s credentials appear impeccable, to say the least.
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