Engineer: Burleson repairs to be “painful for our citizens”

City Engineer Leon Barba last night warned motorists that for about a year and a half, beginning shortly after Labor Day, driving on North Burleson Street will likely be "painful for our citizens" due the reconstruction activities taking place along that thoroughfare.

Two projects — the widening of Burleson and extending Marketplace Avenue from Burleson to the southbound I-35 frontage road — will begin almost simultaneously, Barba said, with the Marketplace project finishing much sooner than the Burleson repairs. In addition, once the project is complete, Burleson will end at a cul-de-sac just south of the low water crossing, thus eliminating the direct access to Burleson from the frontage road, the site of numerous traffic accidents including at least one fatality.

Barba told the City Council last night that the original estimate for the Burleson Street project, one of a handful of major road repairs Kyle voters signed off on with the approval of a bond package in 2013, was $8.1 million. The winning bid, he said, was $6.6 million and last night the council approved in a 5-0 vote (council members Damon Fogley and Daphne Tenorio missed last night’s meeting) awarding a contact not to exceed $6.9 million to M.A. Smith, an Austin-based contractor. The second lowest bid, Barba said, was $7.6 million, The reason for a contract amount that’s higher than the bid amount is that the contract includes a 5 percent contingency to cover, in Barba’s words, "surprises we didn’t anticipate."

"We did check on the credentials for the (winning) contractor," Barba said. "The contractor actually did a project for the city of Kyle — the wastewater line that led to ACC and, according to inspectors, they did a great job."

Barba said he expects work on the project to begin "right after Labor Day" at the southwest corner of the City Square and be completed sometime "in the spring of 2020." He also said the fork in the southbound frontage road that currently allows for a direct access to Burleson will remain "open" until the cul-de-sac is completed even though the Marketplace Avenue access will also be an available alternative as soon as right around the first of the year.

"Out contractor that’s going to be working on Burleson Street is going to have some big issues to work with," Barba said. "He’s got some small businesses that need all the business that they can get and we’re going to be closing sections of the road along that area. As we move on down the road toward the roundabout there’s sections of road that we’ll be closing also. It’s going to be painful for our citizens because of this construction. We’re estimating 15 to 18 months on that project so it’s going to be a painful process as we go through building that road."

He also said the railroad crossing at Burleson will be rebuilt by a contractor hired by the railroad and it is planned that its work will be completed right about the time the city’s contractor work on Burleson reaches the crossing. "There’s a big coordination project involved with that," Barba said.

The city’s engineer said the original estimate to extend Marketplace to I-35 was $800,000 and the bids came in considerably below that with a $613,244.73 contract approved, again by a 5-0 vote, last night.

"We plan to start this one in September also so we can get it knocked out before the end of the year," Barba told the council. "If weather permits, that could happen, but with the weather and the holidays we’re thinking that by January or February at the most we’ll see that road opened up."

Barba said the city is in discussions with the Texas Department of Transportation concerning installing a deceleration lane along the southbound I-35 frontage road leading to the Marketplace intersection. "That takes time to get that done," Barba said, which means that for the foreseeable future a 90-degree more or less turn off a road with a posted speed limit of 50 miles an hour, arguably not that much safer than the current configuration.

Sellers projects Kyle’s population to grow by 120,000 by 2056

Today's Marketplace Extension ribbon cutting

City manager Scott Sellers, in sort of mini state-of-the city address today during the ceremonial opening of Marketplace Extension, projected that the city’s population will increase by 120,000 — essentially three times its current size — within the next 40 years.

Sellers’s address at the ribbon cutting at the first of the road projects bonded in 2013 to be completed was not scripted — at least Sellers wasn’t reading from a script or even using notes — but what he said should be of vital interest to most, if not all, city residents because he outlined the direction in which he foresees the city is heading.

By today’s standards, a growth of 120,000 people would make Kyle the 17^th most populous city in Texas, just behind Brownsville but significantly larger than such cities as Waco, Denton, Abilene, Beaumont, Odessa and Wichita Falls.

"It’s really a great sight to see so many people here for a road," Sellers began. "But this is so much more than just a road. This is symbolic of so many things that Kyle is doing right now that we are doing right. This is an artery. This truly is the downtown-to-uptown artery. The symbolism here is more than just a road — it is a road to somewhere. It is a road to prosperity.

"Kyle is growing so quickly, not just geographically as we have seen recently with our annexations. It’s growing the number of units, It’s growing in its prosperity, in its sales and property taxes. This really is a city that is on the rise. And we are all very privileged to be a part of it.

"Just to give you a perspective of what that growth looks like today, we have been working very hard with our local residential and commercial development partners. For those of you who have been reading the news lately, you’ll see that about three weeks ago, the City of Kyle was 20 square miles in geography, which is a good-sized city. Two weeks ago the city grew to 30 square miles in the largest annexation that we’ve ever conducted.

"That annexation didn’t happen just to grab additional land. It happened because there is development coming and that development, in large part, is already moving forward. Our City Council is approving development agreements and working on other property development negotiations to bring more residential-commercial development to the city.

"Right now we have in Kyle over 40,000 entitled residential/multi-family lots that we are anticipating to be constructed probably over the next 30 to 40 years. So it doesn’t come overnight. But just the fact that these lots are entitled, that’s really something. You think about what we look at just from a population perspective. We usually look at three to three-and-a-half people per unit, a little less for multi-family. But if you look at 40,000 potential units at three people per unit over the next 40 years, it gives you a pretty good idea of the growth that Kyle will see and is seeing.

"We are trending toward 1,000 building permits just this year. (Editor’s note: To put that in some kind of perspective, Abilene issued just a little more than half that number last year.) As we project into the future, we’re not abating off that number. We think 1,000 is a good, accurate number."

Those numbers, Sellers emphasized, just reflected residential building permits. On the commercial side of the equation, the city manager said "I know we are working very hard. We have a lot of things in the pipeline and a lot of things you’re seeing on the ground."

Sellers tied all that back to the Marketplace opening by stressing the amount of development that’s planned along that roadway. He said one developer is in the final stages of a project "that will bring 400 multi-family units that aren’t just the typical units. This is a live-work-play mixed use development right here along Marketplace, providing quick accessibility, walkability to the commercial area. A great place to call home with trails and other amenities that will be offered. This project is slated to occur pretty quickly within, I’d say, the next 12 months. There’s another multi-family project that we’ve already given approval to which is just north of here (directly across Marketplace from Kohls) along the same road. Those two projects would not have been made possible without this road development. Those are probably 600 units that we are seeing today because of this road.

"So what is a road?" Sellers rhetorically asked in conclusion. "It is symbolic of what’s happening in Kyle — the growth and the prosperity the city is seeing. And as we continue our road projects — we have five additional roads — and in the next two or three years we will see major marked improvements to those roads that will allow us to continue to bring the growth and prosperity that Kyle will see, not only today but for the next several decades if not 50 to 100 years plus."

Fogley fumbles recusal attempt

It is a given that the Kyle City Council does not follow Robert’s Rules of Order or any other accepted parliamentary procedures, but there are certain ethical guidelines that are so tantamount to good government, they must be obeyed. Every single person who serves on a city council or a city board/commission/committee in Kyle should know how to recuse themselves so as to avoid any hint of conflict of interest.

Now different municipalities have different procedures for initiating the recusal process. For the sake of example, let’s use a member of a city council as our subject here because the situation I’m talking about involved a neophyte city council member, Damon Fogley, at last Tuesday’s city council meeting. Normally what happens in situations like this is council members will prepare somewhat before they come to council meetings. They will have at least carefully read the council’s agenda and, thus, will be aware of any item which may pose a conflict of interest before the meeting even starts. I don’t know the exact procedure here in Kyle, but in the civilized world of municipal government, a council person wishing to be recused because a particular agenda item may pose a potential conflict will file a signed affidavit noting that possible conflict with the city secretary, who will then notify the council’s presiding officer just prior to the commencement of that meeting.

The key here is "preparation," a council member actually studying the agenda somewhat a day or two, or even an hour or two, prior to the start of the council meeting. I am not sure that every member of the Kyle City Council takes any time preparing for these meetings.

However it’s handled, there are certain rules that apply in all situations of recusal. The presiding officer must know of a council person’s recusal intent before the agenda item comes up for discussion. And the council member who has been recused must physically leave the chamber where the item is being discussed and voted upon. Fogley did neither Tuesday.

The item in question was a rezoning issue to allow a convenience store/gas station type use on a 1.75 acres that was zoned single family residential. at 2050 E. RR 150. Instead of saying anything ahead of time, Fogley sat through the entire discussion of the item and, just as the vote was about to be taken, asked to be recused. But then, instead of getting up and leaving the chamber as is required in any recusal motion, even one as illegal as Fogley’s was, he just sat there like the Say-No-Evil monkey and simply didn’t cast a vote. Not voting or abstaining from voting on an item is not the same thing as a recusal. The item passed 5-0.

Now I’m not going to put the entire blame for this foolishness on Fogley. Just as much responsibility for this inexcusable behavior needs to be shared with city staff. And there is a very simple way to guard against having our city leaders acting like idiots in the future. Between the time a person is elected for the first time to the city council and that person is sworn in, the staff, led the city attorney, must conduct some form of orientation program for these individuals so that they are aware of the basic rules of Robert’s as well as the reasons to recuse oneself and the proper procedure for a recusal. Staff should conduct the same program for all new members to city boards and commissions as well. If handled correctly, such an orientation class could be held in under an hour.

In other action Tuesday night, the council:

• Seemed receptive the idea presented by an organization called Appa Aguilas to form a soccer program in Kyle, especially if that meant Appa Aguilas was going to relieve the city of the responsibility of maintaining Waterleaf Park.
• Reappointed Mike Wilson, Irene Melendez and Timothy Kay to the Planning & Zoning Commission and appointed former city council candidate Dex Ellison to the commission to replace retiring commissioner Dan Ryan.
• Denied a request to permit overhead electrical service along Bebee Road.
• Approved 5-1 (CM Diane Hervol cast the lone dissenting vote and CM Daphne Tenorio had an excused absence due to illness) a zoning request that will allow the construction of a pair of warehouses on Lehman Road near RR 150.
• Unanimously approved a zoning request to permit the construction 82 rental duplexes directly behind these warehouses.
• In one of the quickest annexation moves on record, the council voted 5-0 (CM Becky Selbera left the meeting without announcing why just prior to discussing this item) to annex the 135.78 acres where David Weekley Homes and Scott Felder Homes are planning a subdivision immediately west of Hometown Kyle. The entire discussion on this issue and the vote consumed less than two minutes of the council’s time. Moments later, the council allowed 2.681 acres of this property to be rezoned so it could be used for retail services right at the intersection of North Old Stagecoach and Cypress roads.
• Discussed the possibility of installing up to three stop signs in the Waterleaf subdivision in an attempt to slow drivers who are apparently racing through the streets of this area at speeds close to 40 miles an hour.
• Heard that, although construction has begun on the Marketplace-to-Burleson road project, the official groundbreaking ceremonies will take place Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 9:30 a.m.
• Was reminded that the council’s first meeting in October will be on the first Wednesday of the month, not the usual first Tuesday, because that Tuesday is National Night Out in Texas and Florida.
• Was informed by City Manager Scott Sellers that Stage 2 water restrictions were returning because (1) water consumption in Kyle was 33 percent greater this year than last and (2) the Barton Springs Pool of the Edwards Aquifer is "steadily dropping" and the San Antonio Pool of the Edwards is in Stage 2.