By Megan Wehring
BUDA — Developing in an overcrowded suburban area? City officials and residents are still hesitant about a proposed development off FM 967 in Buda.
Following the Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Commission’s workshop in mid-January, at least a dozen residents flooded the Buda City Council’s regular meeting to provide feedback on the development on the Bailey and Armbruster tracts.
The proposed residential and nonresidential development is located off FM 967 and near the future SH 45, which equal to a total of 775 acres. A small portion, about 12 acres, is located in Buda’s city limits; another portion, about 463 acres, of the property is in Buda’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ); and the remaining property, about 300 acres, is in Austin’s ETJ.
A Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) addressing the remainder of the project is expected to be completed by Feb. 28. The analysis approved by TxDOT covers projected impacts of Bailey phases one through five and was completed as part of the initial discussions between the city and TxDOT, according to the agenda’s backup documents. A separate TIA will be conducted for the additional land and will place an emphasis on the timing of the residential improvements concurrent with the need for off-site roadways to handle the expected traffic.
As the project is still in the preliminary planning phase, the developer (MileStone Community Builders) asked the city to consider either a Public Improvement District (PID) or Municipal Utility District (MUD) as a financing mechanism. MileStone also asked for the project to go through an expedited 90-day approval to get construction started in March.
What the residents had to say
The main issues that have left the community anxious about the development are traffic and safety.
“I’m concerned about the traffic just like everyone else is,” said John Sanford, the first speaker at the council meeting, “and I’m particularly concerned about the road connections into Treetop [Way] and Prickly Pear [Pass] I take my grandkids to that park quite often and it’s relatively safe today and I'm worried about increased traffic making that park unsafe.”
David Patterson, another concerned Buda resident, agreed that traffic in an already overcrowded area will increase.
“With our current traffic, it can take up to 25 minutes to get from Cullen Country to I-35 in peak traffic,” Patterson said. “That’s unacceptable.”
Patterson also pointed out that the development could bring increased costs to homeowners.
“If approved, this subdivision will make our taxes go up,” Patterson explained. “New houses cost the city 10% over what the property taxes bring in. Everybody who works with cities knows this. They are not a revenue generator. It will bring more students to already overcrowded classrooms and that’s a second tax. We have some of the most ridiculous independent school district taxes for the size of city we are.”
Walter King, HOA President for the Cullen Country neighborhood, echoed the concerns regarding traffic and connectivity.
“The strain would be way too much for our roads,” King said. “Everybody who tries to go to dinner on Friday nights knows the frustration of coming into town trying to go get a margarita. We just don’t need that. TxDOT [put in sidewalks] on 967 and those would be useless with a roundabout. I don’t know how we are supposed to bike with our kids downtown with a roundabout.”
A lack of efficient communication between developers, the city of Buda and the community was also brought up.
“People are getting tired of developers coming in here talking visions … with homes, trails and community centers in such that they are going to build here,” said resident James Fort. “Then, eight to 10 years down the line, the homeowners start having problems and the developers leave. Our sign on the water tower [says] breathe easy here. How can you breathe easy here when 98% of developers don’t let the city know the indescrepencies on the land they want to develop?”
What city council had to say
Just like P&Z, it was only a workshop item and no final decision was made by the Buda City Council. But, many council members believed that MileStone’s presentation did not offer any solution to the traffic issue.
“This is contributing to our problems,” said council member Matt Smith, “not relieving them. My overall view is that I’m almost a non-start with a lot of my other questions until we actually see a plan that’s going to relieve our traffic concerns and congestion. This is not going to do that. It’s going to add to it.”
Council member Terry Cummings agreed.
“I’m very disappointed in the presentation that we got because I don’t see that there is a significant impact on our transportation problem with this proposal,” Cummings said. “When it was said that we are going to have another way out of the development when we are in phase five or something like that, my heart dropped because that is not enough, soon enough. Traffic is paramount. We all know that and if that can’t be addressed at the get go early on, to make sure there are other options between dumping everyone out on 967, then it’s a nonstarter for me too.”
Paul Daugereau questioned why the developer felt there was a need to go before the city council now rather than after the TIA is complete.
“Fundamentally, what I think is at the heart of that question,” answered Garrett Martin, President of MileStone, “is it’s going to be way better. From our vantage point, we’ve run the circulation and we know the distributions. Our transportation engineer has been hard at work on it. We need to get the process moving. This is a step in the process and the reason we feel comfortable in that is because we sort of know the answer already.”
Daugerau suggested for Martin to return to the city council after receiving the TIA. He would like to reevaluate a new plan that consists of building Garlic Creek Parkway all the way through from 967 to 1626 from the start, larger lots, the removal of high-density family to replace it with commercial, setbacks should go to at least 10 feet and a better tree preservation plan.
According to LaMarriol Smith, Buda’s director of communications, MileStone will likely go back to the P&Z since it has conducted the workshop with the city council.
To read more about the development, please visit https://haysfreepress.com/2022/01/26/residents-raise-traffic-concerns-about-buda-fm-967-development/
