by ANDY SEVILLA
The city’s mobility committee has set the dates to take the road bond proposals to the streets.
The committee will hold the public information sessions on Jan. 19 and 26 at City Hall to discuss the dollar values and tax implications of each road being proposed in a future bond election.
Bunton Creek, Burleson, Goforth and Lehman Roads are up for reconstruction, while Marketplace Avenue could be extended. These five roads were identified as priority in the city’s 2012 visioning process.
Should council members move forward with improving all five roads, as the mobility committee and visioning process recommended, then a $35.3 million road bond election could be called for in May.
Along with the option to improve all five roads, concil members also considered the reconstruction of Bunton Creek, Burleson and Goforth as priority. The mobility committee will take both options to the public for discussion.
A $35.3 million road bond would increase Kyle’s tax rate by almost $0.21 cents per $100 of taxable property valuation or $260 on the average home valued at $125,097.
A road bond election geared to reconstruct Bunton, Burleson and Goforth would call for a $23.3 million bond election, plus $1.81 million for the engineering of Lehman Road and Marketplace Avenue – which council has voiced interest in engineering should only three roads get reconstructed.
Kyle’s current tax rate is $0.5244 per $100 of taxable property valuation, up $0.04 from the previous year.
The engineering of all five roads is estimated to cost $5.41 million, which would raise property taxes by $0.0318 or $39.77 on the average home.
Including engineering and design, the estimated reconstruction costs for Bunton, Burleson, Goforth, and Lehman Roads are $5 million, $8.5 million, $9.8 million and $8 million, respectively. The extension of Marketplace Avenue, from Burleson Road to City Lights Drive, is estimated to cost $4 million.
According to the proposed timeline for the potential road bond election, it is recommended that the request for preclearance be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice by Feb. 11.
Each public information session is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and should last about two hours. The mobility committee and city staff will be available at each meeting to discuss the proposed projects and answer questions.
