Groundbreaking planned for public safety center

Proposed public safety center — “the most unique and the best building that Kyle has ever built.” 

Ten days after the City Council voted unanimously, in spite of concerns raised by member Yvonne Flores-Cale, to spend $30 million and change to build a new public safety center, the city will be holding groundbreaking ceremonies at the Kohlers Crossing site of the new structure.

The $30,139,839 “not-to-exceed” contract awarded by the council Tuesday to Bartlett Cocke General Contractors is significantly less than the $37 million voters approved last November in a bond election for the purpose of “planning, designing, constructing, improving and equipping of a public safety facility.”

Flores-Cale’s objections revolved around the fact that, according to the plans for the building approved by the council’s vote, approximately a fourth of the first floor and more than half of the second floor of the proposed building will be set aside for use by city staff members who are not part of the police department. For all practical purposes, at least a third of the public safety center will actually be overflow from city hall.

“The police department deserves better,” Flores-Cale said. “They deserve to have a building that is a hundred percent their own.”

College Station's police facility

She said the city should have followed its original plans to copy the police headquarters in College Station “because that was something our officers liked.”

“So to go in there and take a third of it or 22,000 square feet and dedicate it for city staff I think is irresponsible,” she said. “Now it’s even going to be more money when staff leaves. It’s going to cost the taxpayers more to rebuild that building the way it was originally supposed to be.”

Council member Robert Rizo countered “This building was approved by voters as a public safety center, not just a police department. We picked a bigger building (than College Station’s) so we could alleviate two needs that we have in our city and eventually the police department will incorporate the entire building.”

“The reason I would not want to use the exact same College Station plans is because we knew from the start we wanted to modify something that was out there for Kyle and Kyle’s needs,” council member Dex Ellison said. “We’re not College Station. We’re not that same community. We wanted to provide a public safety center that was unique to Kyle and the needs that our police department has.”

Ellison said the center will be “a modern and unique and advanced building that will last for decades to come … It will be the most unique and the best building that Kyle has ever built.”

Mayor Travis Mitchell said he was “humbled and proud” to vote for the contract.

“I can imagine (the center) will become more and more a part of our recruitment (for new police officers),” Mitchell said. “We want the best officers and that’s a big part of what this is designed to bring to us.”

“It’s a very exciting time and I am very excited to see this building finally go up,” Captain Pedro Hernandez, a 25-year veteran of the Kyle Police Department, told the council. “It’s a long time coming. I am excited. It’s going to be the best looking building in Hays County. I am confident of that.”

The groundbreaking ceremonies will take place a week from today from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at 1760 Kohlers Crossing, the city said Thursday in an official announcement. Parking will be available on Marketplace Avenue.

Budget amendment cements fitness court location

The east side versus west side debate over the location of a proposed outdoor fitness court appears over, courtesy of a budget amendment presented today by City Manager Scott Sellers, with the staff-recommended Marketplace Avenue site emerging victorious over Steeplechase Park.

The amendment, one of nine Sellers outlined to the city council during its morning budget workshop, adds $130,000 to the list of CIP expenses for the court, $25,000 of which will come from a grant awarded the city from the National Fitness Campaign, with the remainder being paid for, according to Sellers’s presentation, from a “future PID bond reimbursement to the city.” That essentially means, when all is said and done, all taxpayer funds spent on the construction of the court will be reimbursed by a private developer, so there’s a net zero cost to the city. 

At least two council members, Mayor Travis Mitchell and Robert Rizo, wanted the court at Steeplechase Park, but only if city funds were going to be used for its construction. The staff recommended the west side site, located on the east side of Marketplace between the Burleson Road roundabout and Plum Creek, because of its central location, no park facilities currently exist there, and existing trees on the property offer shade for the court.

The other budget amendments of note Sellers presented to the council today included a $100,000 contribution that would go toward a “senior center project,” and $2.17 million for a sludge de-watering press system that reduces the amount of sludge that needs to be hauled away from the wastewater treatment plant. Sellers reminded council that the city uses private contractors to haul the sludge, but  this method is rapidly becoming cost prohibitive and the city is considering bringing this task in-house.

The other amendments were:

• $415,000 for site-specific beautification improvement projects
• $78,432 for a senior planner position for the Community Development Department
• $20,000 for DPS laboratory services for the Police Department
• $20,000 for consultant services for the Economic Development Department
• $12,610 to change the parks crew leader position to a parks and trails supervisor
• $5,280 for a 4 percent co-location cost increase for the Police Department

Costco coming to Kyle

Costco, the membership-only big box retail store — the fifth largest retailer in the world — will open a location in Kyle in front of the EVO entertainment complex, possibly as soon as a year from now.

The public announcement was made today at the State of the City address and was made possible by action taken earlier in the day during an emergency meeting of the city council.

The Kyle location will be Costco’s 814th worldwide location and the 563rd  in the United States. In 2020, the last year this information was available, Costco had 105.5 million members worldwide. Costco stores range in size from 73,000 to 205,000 square feet, with the average store being 143,000 square feet. The Kyle location is planned to be 150,000 square feet, according to an announcement today from the city.

“The new Costco location will be located along Interstate 35 between Kohlers Crossing and Kyle Crossing in the Dry River District Development, a 65-acre mixed-use commercial development by Endeavor Real Estate Group that is anchored by Evo Entertainment and Home Depot,” the city said in its announcement.

Today’s announcement is a major victory for City Manager Scott Sellers who has been working behind the scenes since his arrival in Kyle in January of 2015 to land a Costco here.

“We have been working to make Kyle a hub for high-paying and high-quality jobs along the I-35 corridor and having a company like Costco invest in our city is a valuable opportunity for our strong and always growing workforce” Sellers said today in a prepared statement. “Costco is not only one of the top retailers in the world, but they also have a proven track record of taking care of their employees with very competitive wages and benefits.”

Costco’s minimum wage is $16 per hour and the average wage for hourly Costco employees in the United States, excluding any overtime premium, but including an extra check component, is around $24, according to the city’s announcement. The new location in Kyle is expected to create approximately 225 jobs.

Brian Whelan, Costco’s Northwest Atlantic Division senior vice president, who represented the company at today’s State of the City luncheon, said he hopes construction on the Kyle store will begin early next year and that it will be open to the public by July 1, 2022.

The Kyle City Council met early today to approve a Chapter 380 Development Agreement, which, according to Mayor Travis Mitchell, provides Costco “with about $5 million in tax rebates over 15 years. It is projected that Costco will produce about $11 million on top of that $5 million in revenues (to the city). So that’s just under $1 million a year net benefit to the city. Certainly a win for us.”

Mitchell emphasized the city’s overall commercial growth during his luncheon State of the City address today noting that last year Kyle issued new permits for 761,000 square feet of commercial space.

“Even during the pandemic, that was a record for Kyle,” the mayor said. “And yet, in perspective, in the first five months of this year, Kyle has issued permits for 1.3 million square feet of commercial space. That means 2021 has already shattered the records of all previous years.

“The City of Kyle remains eager to offer incentives for high quality commercial development,” Mitchell said. “But I want to publicly state, our standards are high. Candidates for permits must clearly demonstrate how they will help the city continue to prosper, in the short term and in the long term. Costco will do that and that’s why we are proud to partner with them. 

"We’re looking for high-end jobs, high-end retail, vertical mixed-use, vertical Class-A office, boutique hotels and sit-down restaurants,” he added.

Two American companies — Walmart and Amazon — rank as the first and second leading retailers in the world, and two German corporations operating discount grocery stores — Schwarz Gruppe (operating under the Lidl and Kaufland brands) and Aldi (operators of 10,000 stores in 20 countries) — rank third and fourth on the list of the world’s leading retailers.

“Obsessed” mayor leads council approval of roundabout ordinance

Mayor Travis Mitchell admitted he’s so “obsessed” with roundabouts that he has flown drones in order to videotape and then study them. Council member Yvonne-Flores Cale claimed to be a roundabout convert and her fellow council member Robert Rizo said he’s “leaning” that way. Their colleague, Michael Tobias, confessed he doesn’t like ‘em and he never will. And, when all was said and done, the city council voted 6-1 Tuesday to approve on first reading an ordinance that will (1) make roundabouts more prolific in the city and (2) give the city’s staff more control over roundabouts installed by developers.

And in case anyone on the near west side of the Interstate is listening, City Engineer Leon Barba said officially during the council’s roundabout discussion that too many obstacles exist to build a rumored roundabout at the Burleson-Spring Branch intersection and that, instead, traffic signals likely will be installed there.

“This (ordinance) will allow us to adapt the national standards that we have been trying to put together for the last year,” Barba said. “The guidelines we have adopted are very comprehensive. They have a lot of good information in there and we expect all future roundabouts to be designed in accordance with this and whatever future revisions are made to this standard.

“It doesn’t require all intersections to be roundabouts,” Barba said in response to a question Mitchell posed. “It gives us the opportunity to look at the subdivisions as they are coming in very carefully to determine where we are going to need a roundabout or where we believe we are going to need a roundabout and it gives us authority to do that and go through that process.”

“Everybody knows how I feel about these,” Tobias said. “I did some research today about the pros and cons and in most cases it improves traffic. It’s just that in our climate here, it’s the speed that these people drive through. The concern that I have is the roundabout that could be right at the intersections of schools where you have pedestrian walkways. You also have the speed of the traffic on some of these roads to go from 50 miles an hour to a roundabout where you have to go 15 or 20. I’m also looking at the emergency vehicles that have to go through there. Those are the big concerns that I have when we start looking at roundabouts throughout the city.”

After saying roundabouts are safer than other intersections because they eliminate broadside collisions, Barba admitted “they do take a lot of right-of-way. You don’t want to be taking out houses to put in a roundabout.”

“I was a fan of roundabouts in 2016 when I started seeing some roundabouts go in,” the mayor said. “I watch our roundabouts carefully. I’ve gone and sat at intersections. I’ve drone-videoed intersections. I’ve looked at intersections I thought needed roundabouts. I am obsessed. I’ve only quadrupled or more my belief that as long as it is the appropriate engineering and at the right intersection, I’d give my left arm to see a roundabout.”

Mitchell specifically cited the intersection of “Spring Branch and Veterans,” although I assume he was referring to the Silverado/Veterans intersection, where, he said, “that stop sign backs up traffic forever and ever. I’ve drone videoed that intersection and about one out of every four vehicles runs that stop sign. Some people just drive through it and never slow down. So I want ‘em.”

“I’ve never been a big fan of roundabouts,” Rizo said. “I kinda hate ‘em. But what I hate worse is what the mayor just touched on. I’ve seen this become a pattern here in Kyle and that’s people running stop signs. I had a gentleman the other day in a blue Ford pickup who ran five stop signs near the downtown area and I didn’t appreciate it because he almost hit me as well. What concerns me is what if there’s a family walking across the street? Little-by-little, peoples’ bad habits are leaning me towards roundabouts.”

“I did not like roundabouts either,” Flores-Cale said. “And when the Burleson one came, it was a game-changer. So now I am Team Roundabout. I feel like I’m a traitor to myself and to the people I told that I hated roundabouts. But I only take Burleson now when I go to the H-E-B. As someone who did not initially support a roundabout — who despised it — I have to say ‘I love it.’ If they’re made right, they can benefit the city.”

Council approves 15th holiday for city workers

 After debating whether Kyle should become one of the 3 percent of Texas cities who offer their employees as many as 15 paid holidays, the city council voted unanimously Tuesday night to join Galveston and Austin in adding Juneteenth to the list of official holidays for city employees.

Galveston, the city in which on June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived on the shores of Texas and told the enslaved people they were free, actually declared the date a city holiday the week before President Joe Biden officially declared the date a federal holiday.

Kyle council member Dex Ellison proposed the holiday idea here, but it was one of his colleagues, Yvonne Flores-Cale, who became its most vocal proponent. Mayor Travis Mitchell suggested it might be preferable to substitute Juneteenth for another holiday already on the city’s calendar. City staff currently have 12 paid holidays that correspond with recognized federal holidays, plus two “floating” days they may take off.

“The question is not whether we should support Juneteenth as a city holiday,” Mitchell said during a discussion in which all decorum was abandoned as council members tried to interrupt one another, “but whether we should go from a total of 14 days off to 15 that puts us in the 3 percent of Texas cities (that offer that many paid days off to its employees).”

“We don’t have to be like every other city,” Flores-Cale countered. “We can just be Kyle. My point is our staff deserves this. Adding one more day to make it 15 is OK in my book.”

“We would say ‘no’ because our vacation/holiday policy is disproportionately lenient compared to other cities and in particular as compared to the private sector,” Mitchell countered. “In my mind, if you reframed it from a 12-2 policy to a 13-1 policy to designate Juneteenth as a holiday but take a floating day away that would be a way to honor the day without going into the percentage that is pretty far out there” ignoring, as most in Kyle do, the reality that many non-Christians use floating days for religious observances such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Al-Hijra, Ramadan, Wesak, and/or Maha Shivratri, and that those days may be more meaningful and important for them than days off for, say, Good Friday or even Christmas.

“We already know we can’t compete with the private sector when it comes to pay,” Flores-Cale said. “So, likewise we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to them when it comes to holidays. If we’re not going to pay our employees the same salary they can make doing the same work in the private sector, then at least incentivize them with days off they couldn’t get in the private sector.”

Councilman Robert Rizo patronizingly said the city manager’s budget calls for a pay increase for city employees “because we are losing them to the private sector” as if that increase would close the public-private sector pay gap in any meaningful way.

State of the City Address set for July 27

In another sign that things are returning to pre-pandemic norms, the annual Kyle Chamber of Commerce’s presentation of the State of the City address will once again be an in-person event at its normal time of the year: the Tuesday immediately preceding the Saturday on which the city manager formally presents his proposed operating budget for the next fiscal year to the city council.

Last year, in the midst of a lockdown imposed by the risks of a possible COVID super-spreader event, the annual address was a virtual affair held at the end of August. This year, however, the event will return to its normal location, Sage Hall at Texas Old Town, 1205 Roland Lane, and at its usual time and date, 11 a.m., Tuesday, July 27. Mayor Travis Mitchell will once again deliver the address.

It is anticipated Mitchell will provide a glimpse at the highlights of the next fiscal year’s budget, in particular its focus on infrastructure improvements such as funds being set aside for improvements to parks and trails; street maintenance, repairs and reconstructions; economic development and revitalization improvements in downtown Kyle; water, wastewater and storm water system improvements; sidewalk maintenance, rehabilitation, and construction; as well as continued spending on citywide beautification programs. In short, I would expect Mitchell to highlight that millions of dollars will be devoted to efforts to make Kyle a more livable and workable city.

I would also expect Mitchell will address Kyle’s growth, but not necessarily in population, although that has been notable. The last year has seen unprecedented growth in the city’s business sector. Commercial property valuations in the city increased this year more than in the last six years combined. What was once called Uptown, but now has been dubbed the Brick and Mortar District, a massive (by Kyle’s standards) mixed-use development financed by tax increment funding at the northwest corner of FM1626 and Kohlers Crossing, is another subject that’s important to Mitchell and one should anticipate the mayor will focus attention on the development of that project during his address. 

“The annual State of the City Address is an excellent opportunity for our members to hear straight from the source,” Kyle Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Julie Snyder said in a prepared statement released Thursday by the City. “Mayor Mitchell is a businessperson himself and our members appreciate hearing what the council is working on for the future and how it directly impacts our business community.”

The luncheon address is not restricted to Chamber members, however. Anyone wishing to attend can make reservations by clicking here.

“The last year has been difficult,” Irene Melendez, the Chamber’s board chair said in the same prepared statement. “Difficult for our community members, as well as our businesses. But Kyle is coming back strong. We look forward to hearing Mayor Mitchell discuss the plans for the future of Kyle.” 

City manager recommends whopping budget increase

 City manager Scott Sellers told the City Council Saturday he is going to recommend the adoption of what he said will be the the largest budget in the city's history “by a significant margin” for the next fiscal year — a budget with a dollar amount that is 28.4 percent greater than the current budget. The overwhelming majority of his proposed budget — 70 percent of it — would be devoted to infrastructure improvements.

A corresponding property tax rate that will accompany the budget will not be known until July 25, when the Hayes Consolidated Appraisal District issues its certified property valuations. The proposed budget Sellers offered did, however, project a 16.64 percent increase in property tax revenues which could, under state law,  force a reduction in the property tax rate. Sellers did say the new budget includes a possible 6 percent increase in water rates and a 2.51 percent increase for trash collection.

“We have that largest budget in our history that we are presenting to you by a significant margin,” Sellers said. “And you’ll see the majority of this is anticipated CIP (Capital Improvement Projects or infrastructure) expenditures.”

Sellers proposed a $172.4 million budget, of which $120.9 million will be set aside for Capital Improvement Projects. This year the city is operating under a budget of $134.2 million.

There was little pushback from council members on the proposed budget, but that could be because they only received Sellers’ proposal two days earlier. It’s quite possible that between now and July 31, the date when Sellers will present his final draft along with the proposed property tax rate, individual council members will study the document Sellers talked about Saturday and have additional feedback ready for that meeting at the end of July.

The budget includes adding 18 new positions to the city’s payroll, five of which would be designated for the Police Department, including a detective and a narcotics investigator. Parks and Public Works would each add four new positions, the City Manager’s office would add two and Human Resources, Environmental Services and Engineering would each add one.

Mayor Travis Mitchell questioned whether the city’s planning department was adequately staffed to handle Kyle’s growth. That department currently has a staff of three,

“I know we have a Comprehensive Plan in the budget,” the mayor said, “but I don’t think that plan is going to solve the problems of the Planning Department. If I’ve learned anything through the years it’s that the folks we bring in as consultants don’t understand our city. Our Planning Department understands our city in detail. So if there’s any group I want to fund to help us think about the future and planning, it would be the Planning Department.”

Council approves budget amendments for decorative downtown lighting

Without appearing to understand exactly what they were voting for, city council members, in a series of convoluted votes, approved Tuesday night amendments to the current fiscal year budget that, among other things, pigeon-holes funds for additional Christmas decorations in City Square Park and a new way to illuminate the city’s iconic downtown water tower.

Other budget amendments approved by the council included designating funds that could be used for the November road bond election and parks in the new uptown district.

Originally identified as one budget item on Tuesday’s council agenda, it ultimately took four separate votes to approve it after council member Dex Ellison successfully divided the item.

Council members had little problems with the bulk of the budget earmarks, rather routinely approving 96 percent ($8 million of the $8.375 million) of the money specified in the agenda item. That involved $4.5 million for the uptown parks (approved unanimously) and $3.5 million for expenses related to the road bond election (with only council member Ashlee Bradshaw, without explanation, voting against that). 

But, boy, did they ever get bogged down on that last 4 percent, the $375,000 segment. And during the discussions, it felt as though council members were thinking they were actually spending money with their votes on this measure, when all they were doing was designating existing funds for spending at a later date. In fact, this agenda item did not even mandate these amounts would ever be actually spent on the items being discussed.

“Do we have a cost breakdown from these estimates on the $200,000 and the $175,000?” Ellison asked. “Do we have the invoice or the quotes?”

As the city’s Finance Director Perwez Moheet tried to explain to council members, these figures were nothing more than estimates arrived at by researching what other cities spend on similar items. “We’re not going to have a final quote until we know this is going to be approved,” Moheet said. “That’s when we’re going to get bids.”

That’s also when council approval will be required for money to be actually spent on those items. But council members either didn’t hear Moheet, understand him, comprehend what they were voting on or a combination of all three.

“So is there not a way to get a stronger look at those costs before that?” Ellison asked. “On the ($375,000 items) I would like to have some more information on those because this is a pretty large ask for a budget amendment,” even though, as mentioned earlier, it amounted to around 4 percent of what had been approved without much debate only seconds earlier.

Ultimately the council approved the $200,000 earmark for the Christmas lights unanimously and the water tower lighting on a 4-3 roll-call vote with Ellison, Yvonne-Flores Cale and Michael Tobias voting against it.

Tobias also talked as though the council was voting on actually spending money, instead of designating General Fund money not already allocated to any other expenditures.

“This is $375,000 in lights,” Tobias said. “If we are going to invest that, personally I would like to see what these decorations would be, what would they look like, the brand we are going to. If we had a breakdown on what each light would be — this is what we’re buying, this fixture and it’s going to look like this and it’s going to be this large. How far is the display going to be? Just in the square or all the way up and down Center Street? Those are the kind of things I’d like to see, I would feel more comfortable with this before we invest this much money on these types of displays. Let’s see what we’re actually going to be seeing.”

That would be a logical ask if the council was actually debating “buying” anything or “investing any money” in anything, but that’s not what this agenda item called for. It only asked that money be set aside so that purchases might be made at a later date. And, one would imagine, all those specifics Tobias seeks would be carefully itemized before the council votes on actually spending the money. In fact, if he so desired, Tobias could insist those specifics be carefully itemized in any related future spending item.

Although the item specifically said it was “increasing the total appropriations for expenditures in the General Fund,” Tobias also said he didn’t know where the money was coming from. “Was this going to be coming through hotel tax or anything like that?”

Ellison also appeared not to understand completely the source of General Fund dollars. In his successful move to get the $375,000 derived from Park Dedication Fees instead of the General Fund, Ellison pointed out that Park Dedication Fees “are paid for by the development community so not ad valorum property taxes, whereas General Fund items are through that manner.” That’s not completely true. Property taxes only account for 30 percent of General Fund dollars. And what’s even more important is that sales taxes account for 27 percent and these items are designed to increase sales tax dollars, especially from those who live outside the city. The larger the income the city collects from sales taxes, the less it needs to rely on property taxes to fund the city’s day-to-day operations.

The water tower lighting would enable the city to reflect different color lights off the tower to commemorate different occasions, such as bathing the tower in green lights on St. Patrick’s Day or in pink during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

On this item, council members Ellison and Flores-Cale appeared to be suffering from short-term memory loss, arguing the council could put this item off until the next fiscal year budget even though moments before they approved an amendment to make sure General Fund moneys would not be designated at all, this fiscal year or next.

And Mayor Travis Mitchell fell back on the familiar, but still completely irrelevant standby: “So do we have a sense on what this is going to look like, how they’re going to be constructing the lights? My concern is I haven’t seen what the plans are for it.”

And that would be a relevant concern if the agenda item in question actually involved spending money on this project. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t even obligate the council to spend money on it anytime in the future. All this agenda item calls for is this: If this council is presented with specific plans sometime in the future involving downtown Christmas lights and illuminating the city’s most famous landmark, then it has  available funds already set aside in the budget to use for those purposes.

But I guess that concept is beyond the intellectual grasp of too many council members.

Our sex offenders are OK, yours are degenerates

The City Council once again postponed action last night on a proposed sex offender ordinance so that the city attorney could add language that would exempt offenders currently living in the city. In addition, it did not seem council members were close to a consensus about exactly what the restrictions should be.

As initially proposed by the Police Department, the ordinance would prohibit a registered sex offender from residing “within 1,500 feet of any premises where children commonly gather.” The ordinance defines such premises as “a public park, private or public school (excluding in-home schools), day-care center, or private recreational facility, including a park, water park, pool, playground, skate park, arcade or youth athletic field owned by a residential property owners association, or for which an entrance, admission, or rental fee is charged.”

Interestingly, the proposed ordinance would not prohibit sex offenders from going to any of these “premises,” or even “hanging out” at a pool or an arcade or a park. They just couldn’t live within 1,500 feet of them.

According to Police Department data, some 60 registered sex offenders currently live in Kyle and Council members apparently were concerned that passage of this ordinance would force at least some of them to relocate, quite possibly out of the city entirely. That concern was intensified when the wife and 9-year-old child of a registered sex offender living in Kyle spoke during the citizen comments portion of last night’s meeting. 

The council’s feeling appeared to be that (1) those Kyle homeowners currently registered in the state’s sex offender database should be “grandfathered” from the provisions of the ordinance and (2) those Kyle renters in the database should also be protected when they are required to renew their leases. City Attorney Paige Saenz was asked to draft language for the ordinance to meet these requirements and enough council members said they wanted to actually read that language before they voted on a first reading that consideration of the item was postponed until the March 16 meeting. Saenz warned the Council that granting exemptions to the ordinance could make it more liable to legal challenges.

To put it simply, the ordinance, if passed with the new language, would only require registered sex offenders who wish to relocate to Kyle after the ordinance goes into effect to live in one of the city’s sex offender ghettos, but those already residing here would not be affected in any way.

How large those ghettos will be is also still undecided. Mayor Travis Mitchell favored the 500-foot restriction, arguing that offenders should not live “in the line of sight” of any area where children might congregate, but pushing them further away was too punitive. Council person Ashley Bradshaw, who is coming across as the most extreme hardliner on this issue, appeared to favor a 2,000-foot restriction, which, for all practical purposes, would prohibit anyone in the database from relocating to Kyle. And Council member Yvonne Flores-Cale said she was willing to split the difference, and approve a 1,000-foot barrier.

Council member Dex Ellison was successful in forcing the removal of one clause in the ordinance that said “WHEREAS, the City Council finds from evidence and statistical reports reveal that the recidivism rate for released sex offenders alarmingly high, especially for those who commit their crimes against children;” arguing that, in fact, the Council had never been presented with any such “evidence and statistical reports.” 

Council erects barriers to affordable housing in Kyle

 Affordable rental housing has three requirements. The first requirement is that it be housing, places where individuals can actually live. The second requirement is that the housing that is offered be for rent, not for sale, and that usually means an apartment complex. The third requirement is that it be affordable; i.e., housing where the rents are lower than the market average. One of the first requirements for such a project to be affordable is that the property on which it is built should cost less than the market average. Those affordable land opportunities are most often found on certain fringes of the city; rarely, if ever, are they found closer to the city center. In Kyle, specifically, the affordable fringes are going to be found almost exclusively on the east side of I-35.

However, last night, the City Council voted 4-3 it doesn’t want affordable rental housing built on affordable land on the east side of Kyle, effectively creating an impenetrable barrier that will prohibit the construction of any affordable rental housing, as defined by HUD, in the city. In effect, the City has decided it doesn’t want folks who live on fixed incomes like Social Security to live here, especially at a time when the City is taking so much pride in constructing its “Uptown” haven for the well-to-do and increasing property taxes to construct an ecologically unfriendly police headquarters. Send “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" to Buda or San Marcos because we definitely don’t want them in our city.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, as the name suggests, is a state government agency that, among other things, makes program funds available throughout the year to qualifying applicants for a wide range of housing and related activities. The TDHCA accepts applications for these funds and weighs them through a point system it has developed that is too complicated and too multi-layered to detail here. What you need to know is that the applications with the most points are granted the funds and the TDHCA normally declares only three winners per geographical area each year. Kyle falls into the Austin area geographical area. One of the necessary ingredients in any application is a formal resolution from the city in which the development is to be located that states the local government supports the project and such a recommendation is worth a whole lot of points. 

A company called KCG Development, LLC, was seeking to locate affordable rental housing, specifically a development for individuals 55-years-old and older, at 1351 Bunton Creek Road, and was hoping to win one of the awards from the TDHCA that would provide about 58 percent of the costs of the project. Thus it came before the City Council last night asking it to approve a support resolution KCG could include in its application to the TDHCA. The council said “no.”

Why did it say “no”? The argument was, essentially, a majority of council members don’t want affordable multi-family rental housing located on land that’s affordable; it can only be located on unaffordable land. Go figure.

Mayor Travis Mitchell said he could not support endorsing the project “just because there’s no multi-family in that area,” neglecting to point out that when Seton Hospital was approved for Kyle there were no other hospitals in that area either.

But then the mayor made a surprisingly (at least, to me) elitist comment: “While affordable housing is a great program, it’s to be administered in limited supply especially where it’s not close to areas where it makes more sense. I have high aspirations for Bunton Drive up there along that new road.”

Council member Dex Ellison put it just as bluntly: “I am in agreement on the need for 55 and up affordable housing. I’m empathetic to that idea. I would certainly be supportive of it, but in another part of our city — not in this area.” This statement marked the first time I had ever heard a Black public official support segregated housing.

“I know there is a need for more housing for 55-plus folks,” council member Robert Rizo, who sponsored the agenda item, said. 

Mayor pro tem Rick Koch and council member Michael Tobias joined Mitchell and Ellison in voting to kill the project.

Kyle police call city “hotbed for sex offenders”

You can add yet another distinction to the city of Kyle. In addition to being “The Pie Capital of Texas” and whatever honor the city plans to bestow upon itself for selling the first fajita in the entire Free World, the city, according to the police officer whose job it is to monitor such things, can now add the title of “Hotbed for sex offenders.”

And despite cautions from Mayor Travis Mitchell and council member Michael Tobias that the City Council might be trampling on the civil rights of some of its citizens, the majority of the Council voiced arguments last night I had not head in more than 60 years, back during the days when local officials were trying to pass laws prohibiting members of racial minorities from living in certain communities. “As a mother, I just don’t want one of those types of people living next door to me,” said council members Yvonne Flores-Cale and Ashlee Bradshaw.

This all came about during the City Council’s discussion of an idea from the Kyle Police Department that would essentially prohibit a person convicted of a sexual offense against a child from living anywhere in the city. They could purchase a home in Kyle, the police admitted, but they could not live in that home.

“These people do have civil rights,” Tobias said. “They did serve their time. They are paying the price for it. But they are still part of our society, still part of our city. They work. They could be business owners. They could be living a perfectly normal life.”

“But we have to feel safe in our homes,” Flores-Cale said, although she stopped short of advocating a similar ordinance against persons convicted of home invasions, rapes, or even home burglaries.

City attorney Paige Saenz said the courts have ruled such laws are constitutional as long as there are still places within the city in which a sex offender could live. Although it appears there are small pockets on the fringes of the city that would not be covered by the ordinance, it doesn’t appear any residences are located in these pockets. The proposal presented last night would bar a registered sex offender from living anywhere within 1,500 feet from “where children commonly gather.” Mayor Mitchell asked the police department to return with maps that showed what areas would be covered with that footage at various intervals between 1,000 and 1,500 feet from those areas. He did not, however, specifically ask to determine what, if any, type of housing is available in those areas that are not impacted by the ordinance.

It’s also interesting to note that Texas law allows registered sex offenders to carry guns beginning on the fifth year anniversary of being finished with that person’s sentence, including probation. In other words, five years after their sentence, registered sex offenders can drive into Kyle and shoot local citizens, but this ordinance would not allow them to live among them.

“We’re five minutes south of Austin, right next to San Marcos,” officer Dago Pates, who first came up with the idea for the ordinance, told the Council last night. “We’re a hotbed for sex offenders to want to be in. The price is right, The location is right. We’ve just had an influx of sex offenders coming in.” That “influx,” he said, totaled 68 persons living in Kyle who are registered with the state as a sex offender. The ordinance would not affect any of those 68 who are currently homeowners, but if they are leaseholders, they would be prohibited from renewing those leases. Bradshaw said she would be in favor of riding all 68 out of town on a rail.

The next step is for the Council to consider adopting such an ordinance, which could possibly take two separate votes and, one would assume, a public hearing attached at least to the first reading of the proposal. It is expected the Council will take up debate and possibly vote on a first reading at its next meeting, Feb. 16.

Kyle’s economy considerably stronger than rest of state

 Directly contradicting national and statewide economic indicators in the midst of a global pandemic, Kyle’s economy seems to be stronger than ever.

Mayor Travis Mitchell said today he attributes this fact in large part to Kyle’s proximity to Austin as well as the city’s solid economic foundation and the unprecedented growth in the city’s business sector. Be that as it may, the numbers don’t lie.

While the latest statewide sales tax figures show a revenue decline of 6.3 percent over the same period last year, Kyle’s receipts actually reflect an astounding 19.58 percent increase during that same time.

The state’s economic woes, according to Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar, can be traced to the under-performing oil and gas sectors because, Hegar said, “well drilling and well completion remain depressed.” But Hegar also added “Receipts from the information sector were also notably down due to the federal ban on sales taxation of internet access service.”

At the same time, the comptroller said, retail trade was the only sector to show any kind of growth. “Increased collections from retail trade reflected continued heightened spending for home improvements in response to the pandemic,” Hegar noted.

Kyle obviously benefits from the fact that its economy is based in large part on retail trade and not on oil, gas or “the information sector.”

Sales tax is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 59 percent of all tax collections. In Kyle, however, sales tax revenues account for only 27 percent of collections, according to the FY 2020-21 budget, compared to 30 percent that comes from property taxes.

The Federal Reserve Bank is reporting the nation’s economy is beginning to show signs of improving but “not enough to offset earlier losses, including the 5 percent decline in real GDP at an annual rate in the first quarter, signaling the onset of the 2020 recession.”

Council splits over Ethics Commission nominee

 In the overall scheme of things, 13.36 seconds is not that great a period of time. It might not seem like that long an interval. But, think about it this way. Suppose you’re in a classroom where a roll call is being taken — just a roll call to determine who is present and who is absent — and when the teacher calls out one particular name, that person waits 13.36 seconds before responding “here.” Get out a stop watch and time it yourself. In a situation like that, 13.36 seconds seems like an eternity.

In fact, at Tuesday night’s city council meeting, City Secretary Jennifer Horn thought 13.36 seconds was such a long time after she called the name of council member Dex Ellison that she called his name a second time just to make sure he knew it was his time to respond. This 13.36 seconds elapsed during the roll call vote on the nomination of Rebecca Chapa to city’s Ethics Commission, the only vote of nine taken Tuesday that appeared to split the council.

I attempted to learn from Ellison exactly what was going through his mind that those 13.36 seconds, but he seemed reluctant to talk about it, telling me early Wednesday he was tied up at work and then later that he had become sidetracked by the failed insurrection that afternoon at the nation’s capital. He was the only council member who did not respond immediately when his name was called. Council members Yvonne Flores-Cale, Chapa’s sponsor, Michael Tobias and Robert Rizzo immediately voted to approve the nomination after their names were called, just as their colleagues — Mayor Travis Mitchell, Mayor Pro Tem Rick Koch and Ashlee Bradshaw — did when voting not to approve it. Only Ellison hesitated and I thought the readers of this article might be as curious as I about that 13.36 second-hesitation before he ultimately cast what turned out to be the deciding vote to approve. Unfortunately, all we have is what’s on the record from the council’s meeting.

“Rebecca is honest and follows good moral standards,” Flores-Cale said in formally placing her nomination before the council. “Rebecca does an excellent job confronting situations with a cool mind and a soft heart. She is the epitome of what an ethical person should look like.”

Mayor Mitchell said he could not support the nomination in large part because of “her comments that were derogatory toward individual council members.”

“This Ethics Committee, in particular, is supposed to be a group of citizens that do not have that reputation,” Mitchell said, adding that a board member “should not be perceived as someone who is overtly political, but rather someone who could take a dispassionate approach, methodically analyzing all conclusions.”

Council member Tobias said regardless of “whatever has happened with councils in the past, it is time to move forward.”

“I commend you for all the things you’ve done for the community,” Bradshaw said. “Unfortunately, I haven’t seen you in that capacity. I’ve only seen you with what you’ve presented at the meetings and I would like to see someone with a little less bias on the Ethics Committee — someone who is able to reach an objective conclusion on the situations at hand.”

Ellison, at first, seemed to be leaning against approving the nomination. He said he had numerous conversations with the nominee and her family — “I have been in their home” — but then made references to reaching out to Chapa in an attempt “to build bridges that I felt weren’t wanted.” He added he felt she was an involved citizen and if she was being nominated to serve on any other committee, he would readily approve her. “I think the Ethics Commission is different, when you think about what the Ethics Commission is charged with doing” in that it is involved only in judging the actions of city staff members and elected officials.

Mitchell responded to Ellison by saying he did not believe Chapa could be fair in dealing with an ethics complaint filed against certain city council members or someone on the city’s staff. “I think this council’s job is bring someone forward who we believe has demonstrated that very fair, calm demeanor and has the reputation of being very fair, apolitical generally speaking, and not demonstrating they have an axe to grind, in particular toward individual members of council and/or staff.”

Mayoral runoff results by neighborhoods

 Amberwood 

• Mitchell 64 (53.33%)
• Tenorio 56 (46.67%)
• Turnout 4.56%

Blanco River Crossing

• Mitchell 61 (68.54%)
• Tenorio 28 (31.46%)
• Turnout 23.99%

Bunton Creek

• Mitchell 27 (58.7%)
• Tenorio 19 (41.3%)
• Turnout 4.62%

Hometown Kyle

• Mitchell 157 (51.31%)
• Tenorio 149 (48.69%)
• Turnout 13.67%

Kensington Trails

• Mitchell 62 (54.39%)
• Tenorio 52 (45.61%)
• Turnout 4.5%

Plum Creek (parts of Spring Branch)

• Mitchell 472 (73.87%)
• Tenorio 167 (26.13%)
• Turnout 11.06%

Post Oak

• Mitchell 96 (60.76%)
• Tenorio 62 (39.24%)
• Turnout 6.48%

Silverado/Old Town/Downtown

• Tenorio 226 (71.29%)
• Mitchell 91 (28.71%)
• Turnout 11.48%

Steeplechase

• Tenorio 149 (56.87%)
• Mitchell 113 (43.13%)
• Turnout 8.08%

Waterleaf

• Mitchell 109 (54.23%)
• Tenorio 92 (45.77%)
• Turnout 6.07%

Kyle Overall

• Mitchell 1,257 (55.4%)
• Tenorio 1,012 (44.6%)
• Turnout 8.6%

Inside the mayoral runoff numbers — Kyle reverts to non-voting status

 Back in November 2015, former Kyle mayor Todd Webster pushed to move municipal elections from May to November. He said at the time it would increase voter turnout, and I fully supported him. In the previous May’s municipal elections, a paltry 4.91 percent of Kyle’s registered voters took the opportunity to participate and in a story I published on Nov. 5, 2015, I wrote: “I will predict that moving Kyle’s municipal elections from May to November, as the mayor so adroitly recommended, will at least double the percentage of voters that now come to the polls here.”

I admit it. I was wrong. It turns out I grossly underestimated how it would effect the turnout. Last month, 58.63 percent of Kyle’s 26,389 registered voters cast ballots in the mayoral election, close to 12 times the percentage that voted back in May of 2015.

The city’s voters, however, reverted back to their non-caring ways when it came this month’s mayoral runoff when only 8.6 percent of the city’s registered voters took part. Of course, that’s a lot closer to the percentage I predicted back on Nov. 5, 2015.

Incumbent Mayor Travis Mitchell, of course, easily won the runoff by a double-digit margin. He won it by controlling 11 of the city’s 18 voting precincts. His runoff opponent, former council member Linda Tenorio (who finished ahead of Mitchell in November, but only by a quarter of a percentage point), won five precincts and two others finished in a tie. One of those two, however, Precinct 228, contains no registered voters in that part of the precinct that is actually located within the Kyle City Limits.

The largest number of runoff voters — 407 of 2269 who voted — came from Precinct 220, which is one of the two Plum Creek voting precincts in Kyle. Mitchell trounced Tenorio in that district, winning 80.59 percent of the votes cast in Precinct 220. Mitchell also won the other Plum Creek precinct, Precinct 221, which also includes a large swath of the Spring Branch subdivision, capturing 62 percent of the votes cast there. Those two precincts, alone, accounted for over a third of Mitchell’s votes.

Precinct 130, which encompasses the Steeplechase subdivision, contains the second most registered voters than any other in Kyle and Tenorio won that precinct, capturing 56.87 percent of the votes cast. However, while 13 percent of the registered voters in Precinct 220 voted this week, only 8 percent voted in Precinct 130. Most of Tenorio’s support came in Precinct 223, which includes Old Town and Silverado, where she supported by 71 percent of those who voted in that precinct.

The most tightly fought race was in Precinct 419, which is basically Hometown Kyle, a precinct Mitchell won by receiving 51.3 percent of the votes cast.

Precinct 126, which encompasses the Waterleaf subdivision, contains more registered voters than any other in Kyle, but only 6 percent of that precinct’s 3,312 registered voters cast ballots in the runoff and Mitchell won 54 percent of those votes.

Mayoral candidate Abdel endorses Mitchell in runoff

 David Abdel, who finished third in last week’s mayoral election, announced today he is supporting incumbent Travis Mitchell in next month’s runoff, but stopped short of encouraging all those who voted for him to support the mayor’s re-election bid.

Mitchell and former council member Linda Tenorio, who finished first by only 36 votes out of 15,416 cast, will face off in the Dec. 8 runoff. Abdel collected 15.64 percent of the total vote in the four-person race.

“Based the interactions I’ve personally had (or in some instances didn’t have) during this campaign with each of the candidates, I’m more inclined to believe in the leadership and management capabilities of Travis Mitchell,” Abdel said in a statement posted today on a social media site. “Based on the information available from the two candidates throughout the campaign, I’m more inclined to support the plan/vision that Travis Mitchell provides.”

Abdel said his decision was also based on what he called a “kind of back room handshake deal” among others involved in the election designed to undermine Mitchell’s candidacy that “rubbed me the wrong way.”

“Right after the campaign I was reached out to, along with the other candidates (not Mitchell) and were asked if we would like to coalesce our efforts to make sure Travis Mitchell didn’t win,” Abdel said. “I rejected the offer respectfully because that kind of back room handshake deal seemed counter to the idea of transparency and fairness I believe our political climate is missing. I don’t believe in hanging up on a candidates, or partnering to take someone out. I believe each candidate should voice their information and allow and free and fair electorate to make educated decisions. It rubbed me the wrong way.”

Along those same lines, Abdel said his decision to endorse Mitchell is “my opinion … one solitary opinion” and encouraged the 2,411 persons who voted for him in last week’s General Election to vote their conscience in next month’s runoff.

“I’m not encouraging anyone to vote based on my opinion,” he said. “I don’t think it’s my place to say ‘my supporters should…’ in regard to their upcoming vote. I’ll continue, as I have all along, to encourage each individual person to look at the options, do their research and vote their conscience.”

Swearing-in, runoff dates announced; Scheel gives farewell address

 Ashley Bradshaw and Yvonne Flores-Cale, the city council’s two recently elected members, will be sworn in during the council’s Nov. 17 meeting and the mayoral runoff election between incumbent Travis Mitchell and challenger Linda Tenorio will be held Dec. 8, it was decided Wednesday night.

The Dec. 8 date was chosen because it corresponds with runoffs already scheduled for that date in San Marcos.

In addition to the swearing-in ceremonies at the next council meeting, a special ceremony will be held for the two departing council members, Tracy Scheel and Alex Villalobos.

Scheel bade the council and the public a tearful farewell during last night’s council meeting.

“I want to thank all my fellow council members for being wonderful people to work with for the past three years,” she said. “It has been a joy to serve the City of Kyle and I do appreciate all of you. This is not my end of service for the City of Kyle. I will be here to do anything anybody needs.”

Scheel offered some words of advice for Flores-Cale, the person who defeated her in Tuesday’s election.

“You will be working with a great group of people,” Scheel said. “Please work with them and understand that they just as passionate about the city as you are and want what’s best for the city. Please work with them. That is the best way to make this city a better overall place to live, work and just have fun in.”

She said she hoped the city would “come together” so that it was not a case of “east versus west, not the originals versus in the implants, not downtown versus uptown.”

At-large council member Robert Rizzo, who is a resident of the district Scheel represents and who, somewhat ironically, was disqualified from running against Scheel in 2017, thanked her “for all the work and all the time commitment you gave to our district.”

Scheel never had to run for election before this year. When she first announced her candidacy in 2017, Rizzo filed to run against her. But on the day the candidates convened at Hall City for the ballot placement drawing, the city secretary pulled Rizzo aside and told him he had been disqualified because the residence listed on his voters registration at that time was not within the city limits. Scheel stood there looking somewhat stunned realizing she had become a city council member without having to seek election.

Villalobos, who did not seek re-election this year, told Scheel that the two of them are leaving the city in a better place than it was when they both joined the council three years ago.

“I am just happy I got to work with you in having a small part in what this city is today,” Villalobos said.

Mayor Mitchell told Scheel “It is hard to imagine this council without you. You have been such a strong, steady, caring, passionate, compassionate presence on this council.”

After acknowledging that “I might be out there with you,” Mitchell praised Scheel for “devoting yourself to the City of Kyle, not only for the last three years, but longer, and I anticipate in the future as well. Thank you for your service. Thank you for everything you’ve done for the City of Kyle.”

It was also announced Tuesday’s election will be canvassed next Tuesday.

Kyle’s population growth? You ain’t seen nothing yet

It’s quite possible Kyle’s population could explode by 142,743 persons within, say, five years. That’s not the total population by 2025. That’s how many persons could be added to the city’s current population by that time.

How did I arrive at that conclusion? It’s quite simple really.

During last night’s city council meeting, Communications Director Samantha Armbruster announced that the city has installed a new tab on its website’s homepage as well as its mobile app that allows citizens to see the current status of its construction projects.

The tab, labeled “Projects,” is located in the lower right corner of the city’s homepage. Clicking on the tab takes the viewer to this page that lists about a dozen constructions projects currently underway or about to commence as well as such items as this fascinating page detailing all the “known developments” planned for the city as of August. So I added up all those “number of units” listed on that page and the total came to 46,801. Then I checked U.S. Census Bureau statistics which revealed that the average household population in Kyle is 3.01 persons. See, it’s easy.

I know this page is primarily designed to allow citizens to check the daily status of road construction projects in their neighborhoods, but, as you can see, it really contains a lot of other worthwhile information as well. There’s this page that shows where new roads are planned and where current roads are planned to be upgraded. I was particularly fascinated with what, at first glance, appears to be the north end of some kind of loop at the bottom center of that page. I am attempting to learn more about that road. (Updated information: It appears this road is what San Marcos has designated as "Loop 80" that's highlighted on Page 78 of that city's Transportation Master Plan.)

City council members were effusive in their praise of the new tab.

“To have a one-stop shop for construction projects from the city is invaluable,” Mayor Travis Mitchell said. “I can imagine that not only will staff be sharing it with residents, but council will be sharing it with residents and, most importantly, residents will be sharing it with residents.”

“Great job,” council member Tracy Scheel said. “It’s beautiful. Thank you. I know a lot of the citizens really wanted it and needed it. Beautiful job. Beautiful job.”

“With an increasing number of city projects planned in Kyle, we wanted to make information as clear and accessible to residents as possible,” City Manager Scott Sellers said today in a prepared statement. “The Projects module was designed to be an active, accessible and hyper-local resource to help the community stay informed about road construction, parks projects and more.” 

 

City partners with Uber to provide public transportation

 The city council formally unveiled it’s solution to public transportation in Kyle during its meeting last night, announcing a partnership with Uber that allows anyone over the age of 18 with a smartphone to ride from one spot within the city limits to another inside the city for $3.14.

There are a couple of catches, however. One, the city will subsidize the cost of any ride over $3.14, but only up to $10. That means the rider will be responsible not only for the first $3.14 of a ride, but also for any amount in excess of $13.14. Second, it appears riders just can’t reserve one ride and then say “That was nice, but I’m done with that.” To secure a ride, a patron must use the smartphone app that is part of the city’s new app and, according to Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix, “download a voucher for eight trips.” 

Why $3.14? The answer is almost too cute, but here it is: The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is approximately 3.14159 and that mathematical constant has been represented since the mid 18th century by the Greek letter ∏ which is spelled out as “pi.” And since Kyle bills itself as “The pie capital of Texas” … well, you get the picture.

“This gives back to everybody in Kyle,” Mayor Pro Tem Rick Koch, one of the architects of the Uber partnership, said during last night’s council meeting. “This is a program that everyone can use. It’s adopting something the world already uses and it just makes great financial sense for us to embrace technology and find the most value for our dollars.”

“This is such a perfectly tailored program to slide right in where our situation is,” Mayor Travis Mitchell added. “I’m thankful and very happy that we were able to put this in this year’s budget. I’m excited to see where this goes.”

Hendrix said Uber will be able to provide special vehicles for customers needing wheelchairs and that all its drivers will wear masks (riders will be required to wear masks as well).

“We wouldn’t be partnering with Uber if they didn’t have the reputation for being safe,” Hendrix said.

Lowe’s to open distribution center in Kyle

 The city made it official today: Lowe’s, one of the world’s largest home retailers, has signed a lease for 120,000 square feet in the Kyle Crossing Business Park where it plans to open and operate a distribution center, joining Amazon, which announced in July it was leasing 308,000 square feet in the same complex, located at 1980 Kohlers Crossing.

I have reached out to Lowe’s corporate offices seeking to learn how many workers the company plans to employ at the facility and when it expects to start operations. I will update this story if and when I receive a reply. Amazon said it plans at least 200 workers at its Kyle facility.

“The City of Kyle has long been well positioned to become a logistics hub, but we needed facilities on the ground to compete,” Mayor Travis Mitchell said. “Kyle Crossing has proven that Kyle is a highly desirable location among marquee companies at an opportune time when more and more of these businesses are expanding their logistics operations.”

The Kyle Crossing Business Park, located a block west of I-35 at the southwest corner of Kyle Crossing and Kohlers Crossing, is considered a part of Plum Creek and the Lowe’s lease continues a trend to attract commercial enterprises to that area of the city.

“Plum Creek has become a major employment center in Kyle because it offers a convenient and highly accessible location in a true live-work-play environment that appeals to companies and their workers,” said Momark Principal Terry Mitchell, who oversees development at Plum Creek.  “This combination is difficult to find anywhere, especially in an environment  that is as business-friendly as the City of Kyle and the State of Texas.”