By Moses Leos III
Cost overruns extending to engineering and flood mitigation for the site of Buda’s proposed new municipal facility didn’t deter the Buda City Council from sticking with its plan.
The Buda City Council Monday voted 4-3 to move forward with property acquired by the city near Jardine’s Foods along Main Street for the facility. Councilmembers Angela Kennedy, George Haehn and David Nuckels cast dissenting votes.
Buda Mayor Todd Ruge said his decision to move forward was based on keeping a facility on Main Street.
“I’m a firm believer that we need to have the facility on Main Street,” Ruge said. “It needs a Main Street address. It will have one.”
Buda council’s decision came after a nearly two-hour long executive session about the facility, which is part of the city’s 2014 bond package.
Voters in Nov. 2014 approved the $55 million bond, which included $21 million to go toward a new municipal facility.
That facility would house a new library, municipal court, city hall, community multipurpose room and emergency preparedness space.
The city in 2015 purchased 8.6 acres near Jardine’s Foods to house the facility.
But concerns arose regarding the site after the Oct. 30 flood event.
“It was obvious to anyone that saw water through the property,” Ruge said. “It raised questions. We decided to take a step back.”
Ruge said the city’s plan was to “beef up” its site for the facility to meet a 500-year flood, plus one foot. The city designed the site to a 100-year floodplain.
But cost overruns quickly became apparent. Improving the site to within a 500-year flood would cost the city $2 million dollars more. The city had purchased the land for $2 million, with a sub-cost of almost $1.7 million.
Haehn, who advocated for finding an alternate location, said cost and topography issues were his main concerns.
“Unfortunately, it seems like when you get a bid, there’s always cost overruns. Doesn’t matter if it’s state or local, that’s the way it is,” Haehn said. “Cost of the engineering for the site and flood mitigation, those were things that weren’t anticipated.”
In December, the city sought to find alternate locations for its facility. The city identified ten alternate locations, with five that were feasible. While he couldn’t name the other properties, Ruge said they were locations that the city has “looked at before.”
The alternate properties, according to Ruge, were going to be anywhere from $1 million to $4 million cheaper than the Jardine’s location.
By choosing to stay with the same location, the city now will work on redesigning the project to fit within new Unified Development Code standards in regard to drainage.
The city opted to use a 2012 Halff Associates study of floodplains. According to city documents, the Halff study uses more accurate data than FEMA flood plain maps.
In addition, the facility will also have open trenches and box culverts along with an underground detention area for drainage.
But the city will also look at cutting costs for the facility to mitigate the overrun. That includes cutting the cost of an $800,000 pedestrian bridge to $300,000.
For Ruge, there were a “lot of positives” for the site to move forward. He added even with overages, the estimated tax burden to Buda residents for the bond would be two cents lower than the quoted 14.8 cents per $100 valuation.
“We have an opportunity to do something great with that property,” Ruge said.
