How the City Council voted Tuesday night

 APPOINTMENTS
Item 4: Appointment of Brandon James to the Planning and Zoning Commission to fill unexpired term.
Approved 7-0

Item 5: Reappointment of Roman Wommack and Victor Medina to the Kyle Parks and Recreation Board to fill expired terms.
Approved 7-0

CONSENT AGENDA
Item 12: Approve Amendment No. 3 to LJA Engineering, Inc., Austin, Texas, in the amount of $11,702.00 increasing the total contract amount not to exceed $244,682.91 for the Schlemmer & Porter St. Wastewater Project. 
Item 13: Approve Amendment No. 9 to Espey Consultants, Inc. dba RPS, Austin, Texas, in the amount of $79,481.00 for a total contract amount not to exceed $1,010,481.85 for additional engineering services associated with the Southside Wastewater Improvements Project.
Item 14: Approve the conveyance of a 15-foot wastewater line easement to the City of Kyle from Mountain Plum, Ltd.
Item 15: Approve the conveyance of two (2) 15-foot wastewater line easements to the City of Kyle from Majestic Kyle, LLC.
Item 16: (Pulled at the request of the applicant) Assignment of Agreement Regarding Roadway and Drainage Improvements – Spooner Tract between the City of Kyle and Sandera Land Development Company, LLC.
Item 17: Plum Creek Phase 1, Section 7B - Final Plat (SUB-20-0132) 23.492 acres; 2 mixed-use lots for property located north and along Kohler's Crossing, east of and along existing and future Marketplace Ave.
Item 18: Plum Creek Uptown Central Park - Final Plat (SUB-20-0164) 1.672 acres; 1 lot for property located approximately 580 feet north of Doherty.
Approved 7-0

ITEMS FOR INDIVIDUAL CONSIDERATION
Item 19: (First Reading) An ordinance of the City of Kyle, Texas, amending the City of Kyle Code of Ordinances; amending Chapter 29, “Sign Standards and Permits”, to amend the definition of billboard; amending provisions related to prohibited signs; establishing maximum size and height of signs; providing a severability clause; providing an effective date; and providing for related matters.
Approved 7-0; no objection to waiving second reading

Item 20: [POSTPONED 2/2/2021] (First Reading) An ordinance amending Chapter 53 (Zoning) of the City of Kyle, Texas, to rezone approximately 19.5 acres of land from Retail Service District ‘RS’ to Multi-Family Residential-3 ‘R-3-3’ for property located at 5492 Kyle Center Drive, in Hays County, Texas.
Motion to keep public hearing open and postpone consideration to next council meeting approved 7-0

Item 21: (First Reading) An ordinance amending Chapter 53 (Zoning) for City of Kyle, Texas, for the purpose of assigning original zoning to approximately 29.8 acres of land from Agriculture 'AG' to Single Family Residential-3 'R-1-3' for property located southeast of Lehman Road and south of Lehman High School, in Hays County, Texas.
Approved 6-1, Flores-Cale voting “no.”

Item 22: A resolution of support for a housing tax credit application for the Katherine, a 55+ affordable rental housing development, and commitment of development funding by a local political subdivision.
Failed 3-4 on rollcall vote; Ellison, Tobias, Koch, Mitchell voting “no.”

Item 23: Consider and possible action to direct the Planning & Zoning Commission to revise the CBD 1 & CBD 2 zoning codes.
Approved 6-1, Rizzo voting “no.”

Item 24: (First Reading) An ordinance of the City of Kyle, Texas regulating sex offender residency within the city and establishing child safety zones; amending Chapter 23 of the Code of Ordinances entitled “Miscellaneous Offenses” by adding Article XI to be entitled “Child Safety Zones;” making it unlawful for certain sex offenders to reside within 1500 feet of premises where children commonly gather; providing exceptions to the ordinance; prohibiting property owners from renting real property to certain sex offenders; providing penalties for violations of the ordinance; repealing ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict therewith; providing a severability clause, findings of fact and providing for open meetings.
Postponed by agreement, no formal vote taken

Kyle is missing one sex offender

Two weeks after unveiling a proposal to (1) effectively prohibit sex offenders from moving to Kyle and/or (2) creating sex offender ghettos in the city, Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett is returning to the City Council Tuesday asking members to pass on first reading an ordinance regulating where, or if, registered sex offenders can live within the city limits. During this two-week interim, it appears the city lost one sex offender.

In his presentation Feb. 2, Barnett presented a memorandum, dated Jan. 14, that included a table listing a dozen Central Texas communities, which one of the dozen cities had ordinances restricting where sex offenders could live, how many sex offenders lived in each community and the ratio of sex offenders to the overall population in each burg. According to that table, 68 registered sex offenders lived in Kyle.

Tuesday, Barnett will come forward with a new memo, this one dated yesterday, the first sentence of which reads: “Today, there are 67 registered sex offenders in Kyle.” I know this is a minor detail, but it bothers me: What happened to that missing sex offender? Did he/she leave on their own accord or was he/she driven out of town? Or was there a miscount? It also bothers me that the memo doesn’t address the discrepancy. I have asked the City for a clarification on the whereabouts of Sex Offender 68, and Chief Barnett replied: “I have checked with our staff to make certain that my assumption was correct. We had one move out of the city during that short time period. This is common as they move in and out of the city from time to time.”

I must also admit I am bothered by other numbers offered with the new ordinance, particularly numbers concerning renters. The latest memo, which is actually one written by Dago Pates, the Kyle Police officer who came up with the idea for the ordinance, to Chief Barnett, states nine of the now 67 sex offenders living in Kyle are renters and only those nine “would eventually be affected by this ordinance when their lease expires.” I am bothered by this because Pates’ memo then says “9 of 67 is 7% of the group that would eventually be affected by this ordinance.” That is simply not true. Nine of 67 is actually almost double that — it’s 13.4 percent. So that makes me suspect all of the math associated with this entire project, including the number of actual registered sex offenders living here, the maps they are offering showing where sex offenders might be allowed to pitch tents in Kyle — all of it. Simply put, I’m quickly losing trust in this whole project.

Among the “Whereas’s” in the ordinance there is one that states “the City Council finds from evidence and statistical reports reveal that the recidivism rate for released sex offenders alarmingly high.” Forget for a moment the strange wording of that whereas. The pertinent question to ask is whether that statement is accurate. Do City Council members actually have in their possession “evidence and statistical reports (that) reveal that the recidivism rate for released sex offenders (is) alarmingly high”?  And, if they do, why don’t they share that evidence with the rest of us so that, for no other reason, some of us who might feel skeptical can feel more reassured about the justification for this action? What do you suppose would happen if you approached your city council representative and asked that person to show you those “statistical reports”? 

What this essentially means is that of the total number of sex offenders living in Kyle today — whether that number be 67 or 68 or even another number entirely — at least 58 or 59 of them, depending on which memo you read, would not be affected by the ordinance because they are homeowners. The ordinance would, once the ordinance goes into effect, simply prohibit anyone listed on the state’s sex offender database from moving to Kyle and establishing “a permanent residence, establish a temporary residence or to be a recurring visitor at a residence, located within 1,500 feet (or 1,000 feet or maybe 500 feet) of any premises where children commonly gather.” The ordinance defines a “premise where children commonly gather” as “all improved and unimproved lots where the following are located or planned to be located: 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.”

The reason I added the 1,000 and 500 feet designations is because Barnett has included in his presentation maps that illustrates how much of the city would be declared “off-limits” if the ordinance contained a 1,500-, a 1,000- or a 500-foot restriction. The Police Department is pushing for the 1,500-foot restriction, which, according to its map of that restriction, would essentially create a couple of sex offender districts in Kyle — in the apartment complex on Marketplace Boulevard, parts of the Trails subdivision, parts of the Post Oak subdivision, along Quail Ridge Drive, and an area under development on Opal Lane. Another alternative for registered sex offenders would be to create lofts out of the spaces in the new business parks in North Central Kyle.

Interestingly, there is no public hearing attached to this agenda item, Item No. 24, so anyone from the public wishing to speak on the issue would have to use the Citizen Comment period at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting. Anyone wishing to speak virtually at the meeting may register to do so by clicking here.

City seeking volunteers for one-day trash pickup drive

The Blanco River comes close, I guess, but really there aren’t any rivers flowing through Kyle. That minor inconvenience, however, is not stopping the City from participating in an event known as the Great Texas River Cleanup. The event is the brainchild of the Texas Rivers Protection Association, based in San Marcos. The TRPA started it in an effort to clean all 90 miles of the San Marcos River including creeks and tributaries that flow into the San Marcos and Blanco Rivers. These days the event is sponsored not only by the TRPA, but also the City of San Marcos, Keep San Marcos Beautiful, Habitat Conservation Plan, and Texas State University. Together, these organizations set Saturday, March 6, from 9 a.m. to noon, as the date and time for this year’s cleanup.

Kyle city officials decided this was a nifty idea and imported it to collect trash in areas around Plum Creek and elsewhere, although this year Kyle’s March 6 cleanup will begin an hour earlier and end five hours later than the one to the south of us (from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Kyle will, however, follow the changes initiated by the TRPA due to COVID-19 conditions, the main one being the elimination of a headquarters for check-in. “We’re also encouraging everyone to keep their teams to a maximum of 10 people, wear a mask, and practice social distancing,” said Community Enhancement Initiatives Manager Amy Thomaides.

Five areas in Kyle have been targeted for the trash pickup. Three of them are in Waterleaf Park. The others are Cool Springs Park and Trail and Bunton Creek. However, anyone wishing to pick another spot needing trash pickup is free to do so. Those wishing to participate can register by clicking here.

“The City will provide gloves and bags to groups that will be distributed based on the preference chosen at sign up,” the City said in a statement released today. “Volunteers can either pick up supplies from City Hall between Monday, March 1 and Friday, March 5 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or they can have supplies dropped off to the cleanup site they selected at sign up the morning of the event. They will just need to text 512-618-8296 when they arrive at their site. Once the group has completed cleaning their area, volunteers can text the provided number and a City staff member will drive to the site to collect all bagged trash and give volunteers pizza vouchers.”

The site for volunteers wishing to work one of the three Waterleaf Park areas will be 628 Abundance Lane. The Cool Springs Park and Trail volunteers are asked to convene at 115 Florida Springs Drive and the Bunton Creek volunteers at 980 Bunton Reserve Blvd.

“All participants are asked to practice state and local orders regarding social distancing and using face coverings when out in public or interacting with those outside of their household,” the City said in its statement.  

Hays County: When they get it right ...

 Last month, I wrote a story about how Hays County officials totally botched its Covid vaccine distribution with a plan that made receiving the vaccine akin to winning the lottery. I had no idea these folks could do a 180 this quickly. But they did. Not only did they come up with a different plan, but they came up with one that was not only efficient in its concept, but also in its application.

So, in all fairness, I need to take back all those nasty things I wrote back on Jan. 30.

I must also admit I’m writing this seconds after returning from receiving the first of my two Pfizer vaccine doses. And, my heavens, was it smooth.

It began with a registration web page that was just that — a site on which a person could actually register to be in the que for a dose, not a place where you battled not only the odds for 30 minutes or less against thousands of others people scrambling for a few slots that were available on one particular day. If you can imagine a game of musical chairs in which there are 500 players and three chairs — that was what the first sign-up site was like.

So I registered and, low and behold, I received an email Friday, just couple of days after registering, notifying me I had an appointment to get my first of the two required shots at 5 p.m. today at the First Baptist Church in Wimberley.

Expecting the worse, I left nothing to chance. I left home at 3:30 p.m. for what is supposed to be the 25-minute drive to Wimberley — heaven forbid I should get a flat tire or something on the way there, be forced to abandon the car, at least temporarily, and hitchhike my way there. And, if I had to wait for any length of time, I brought along the book I’m currently reading, my iPod and some earbuds.

I received a healthy jolt of reassurance the moment I pulled into the church’s well-marked parking lot. I was greeted at the first checkpoint by none other than Mike Rubsam, the legendary former chair of Kyle’s Planning & Zoning Commission (among other distinctions), and I just know in my soul of souls that anything Rubsam is involved with should be a well-oiled machine. And I was not disappointed.

There was one minor hiccup. The person checking folks in at the entrance of the church, a nice-enough fellow armed with a tablet containing, I assumed, a list of all those with appointments on this particular day, said my name wasn’t on the list. I pulled out my phone and showed him the email I had received informing me of my appointment. He summoned another worker, another nice-enough young lady, who asked me to step inside to a desk. She took my Covid Consent Form, pulled up her appointment list on her laptop and immediately told me “I don’t know what he was thinking, but here you are.” She directed me into the church where I stood in a line containing all of three persons. And when I got to the head of that line, which seemed like it took, at most, 30 seconds, I was directed to table No. 7 where sat the person with the vaccine destined to find a home in my left arm. This person had a sense of humor I cherished (“Just relax, I’m about to place a GPS tracking device in your arm.”), she gave me the shot which seemed less than a simple pin-prick, and then I was escorted to one of the pews in the church where I was told to wait for 15 minutes to make sure there were no after-effects. And to make it even easier — right in front of me was this huge digital display of a clock to use to count off those 15 minutes. The people involved in this operation thought of everything to make this as simple, as painless, as easy as possible for the vaccine recipients.

In all, I was back home, preparing my dog’s evening meal, by 5 p.m. As for me, I’m having crow for dinner. 

A shout-out to everyone involved in this effort. Hays County — this time you did good, you did it right, and this someone nestled back in his office somewhere in Kyle is tipping his hat. I owe you this after what I wrote about you guys a little more than a week ago.

Council endorses new name for Rebel Drive

The City Council last night seconded the recommendation of the committee it appointed to come up with a new name for Rebel Drive and said it wanted to coordinate renaming that section of FM150 to Veterans Drive with a special ceremony on or near Memorial Day.

Although no vote was actually taken on the matter, council members generally agreed on the new name and asked the city to schedule the required ordinances to come before council for a vote at an interval so that an official Memorial Day street-renaming could be held during a ceremony which, presumably, would include unveiling the street signs containing the new name.

Council member Dex Ellison voiced some reservations that those soldiers who fought for the Confederacy — the “rebels” the city is trying to distance itself from through the street renaming — could also be considered as veterans. He suggested the initials “U.S.” be added before the word “Veterans,” but that suggestion triggered no support among his fellow council members.

Actions to rename Rebel Drive  — that section of RM 150 from Center Street to Old Stagecoach Road  — began in earnest last year when students at Hays High School, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, voted to abandon “Rebel” as the school’s mascot. The council voted to rename the street “Fajita Drive,” but that suggestion created a backlash from an extremely vocal segment of the community. As a result, the council backtracked and then created a special 15-person committee to come up with a new name. Vanessa Westbrook, the chair of this committee, reported on that body’s recommendations at last night’s City Council meeting.

Last month, Hays High School announced its students had voted to adopt “Hawks” as the “Rebel” replacement.

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.

How the Council voted Tuesday night

APPOINTMENTS
Item 4: Consider nominations and take possible action for reappointment of Lana Nicholson to the Kyle Parks and Recreation Board to fill expired terms.
Approved 7-0

CONSENT AGENDA
Item 11: Declaring parks maintenance equipment as surplus and directing city staff to identify the equipment to be placed on the surplus property listing and the equipment  to be declared without value to be disposed or recycled.
Item 12: Consider and approve Assignment and Novation of a contract from Edmondson Reed & Associates, Inc., to the City of Kyle for the 104 S. Burleson Street and City Square Park capital improvement projects. 
Item 13: Approve a purchase order to Fugro USA Land, Inc., Austin, Texas, in the amount of $25,250 for providing geotechnical and environmental services for the 104 S. Burleson Street and City Square Park capital improvement projects.
Item 14: Approve and ratify a purchase order to Byrn and Associates Surveying, San Marcos, Texas in the amount of $16,000 for providing topographic services for the 104 S. Burleson Street and City Square Park capital improvement projects.
Item 15: Approve an interlocal agreement between Hays County and the City of Kyle authorizing reimbursement in the amount of $700,000 by the City to Hays County for road construction materials required in the reconstruction of Old Post Road (CR 134) from CR 158 to FM 150.
Approved 7-0

ITEMS FOR INDIVIDUAL CONSIDERATION

Item 10 (Pulled from the consent agenda): (Second Reading) An ordinance amending Chapter 53 (Zoning) of the City of Kyle, Texas, for the purpose  of assigning original zoning to approximately 5.87 acres of land from Agriculture ‘AG’ to Retail Service District ‘RS’ for property located at 1400 E. RR 150, in Hays County, Texas.
Approved 6-1 (Flores-Cale voting No)

Item 16: (Second Reading) An ordinance amending Chapter 53 (Zoning) of the City of Kyle, Texas for the purpose of rezoning approximately 57 acres of land from Single Family Residential-2 'R-1-2' (42.3-acres) and Retail Service District 'RS' (15-acres) to Planned Unit District 'PUD' (Single Family Attached 'R-1-A', 54-acres) and (Retail Service District 'RS', 3.3-acres) for property located at 1821 W. RR 150, in Hays County, Texas.
Approved 7-0

Item 17: (Second Reading) An ordinance amending Chapter 53 (Zoning) of the City of Kyle, Texas, for the purpose of  assigning original zoning to approximately 1.4 acres of land from Agriculture ‘AG’ to Retail Service District ‘RS’ for property located at 101 Sunflower Circle, in Hays County, Texas.
Approved 6-1 (Flores-Cale voting no)

Item 18: [Postponed 1/19/2021] (First Reading) An ordinance amending Chapter 53 (Zoning) of the City of Kyle, Texas, to rezone approximately 19.5 acres of land from Retail Service District ‘RS’ to Multi-Family Residential-3 ‘R-3-3’ for property located at 5492 Kyle Center Drive, in Hays County, Texas.
Motion to keep the public meeting open and postpone until Feb. 16 council meeting approved 7-0

Item 20: (First Reading) An Ordinance of the City of Kyle, Texas, Amending the City of Kyle, TX Code of Ordinances Appendix A - Fee Schedule, to reflect an increase in building inspection fees to cover costs associated with third party inspections.
Approved 6-0 (Koch absent), brought back later when Koch was present and was then approved 7-0 so it could go into immediate affect without a second reading.

Item 21: Consider a request to remove the required public utility easement for the Plum Creek Uptown Central Park.
Approved 6-0 (Koch absent)