By Andy Sevilla.
As Central Texas local governments prepare their battle plans for a chance at $50 million in federal transportation dollars, Kyle city officials have their eyes on the prize and are assembling for action.
With hopes of elevating the possibility to attain Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) funding for street projects, city staff prepared a transportation project that would lump the Burleson Street and Marketplace Avenue improvements into one project, instead of the two separate undertakings initially sold to Kyle voters at road bond informational meetings earlier this spring.
“We believe that a Kyle Marketplace project (which includes the Burleson Street reconstruction), whether it be designed by one engineer or two separate different engineers, is our best opportunity to try and get funding,” Assistant City Manager James Earp said in a telephone interview.
The two road projects are part of $36 million road bond election Kyle voters approved in May. The reconstruction of Bunton Creek, Lehman and Goforth roads also were included in the road bond. In city initiated educational road bond meetings before the May election, city officials told voters that bonds would be sold in yearly increments for six years.
At the time, officials said year one of the road bond would fund the engineering of all five road improvements, and each year after that, bonds would be sold to fund one street project per year. In doing so, the property tax implications for
$36 Million Road Bond | Campo Funding 2014 | |
Engineering $5.41 M Bunton Creek Road $4 M Burleson Street $7.3 M Goforth Road $8.4 M Lehman Road $6.85 M Marketplace Avenue $3.34 M | Type Amount STPMM $37.5 M SH130 Concession $7.0 M Transportation Strategic Priority 0 Total $49.4 M |
homeowners would slowly climb throughout the whole project. The pace would also allow new businesses to move into the city and reduce the tax charge on property owners.
Homeowners in Kyle this year will see the first property tax increase stemming from the road bond. Council members approved a 2.39 cents per $100 property valuation increase this fiscal year, bringing the city’s tax rate to $0.5483 – the highest of any other Hays County city. The property tax increase was passed to cover the first year of the road bond – the engineering of all five roads.
In a bit of a twist, Kyle officials now, going off of 2011 CAMPO scores and speculative information, are advancing the combination of Burleson Road and Marketplace Avenue into one project and will submit it to the planning organization for funding consideration in 2014.
The Kyle Council in November authorized City Manager Lanny Lambert to execute professional service agreements with two engineering firms for the design of Burleson Road and Marketplace Avenue. Those engineering costs are still being negotiated. Lambert said city staff will bring forth engineering contracts for the remaining road bond streets in mid to late January.
According to CAMPO’s 2011 Call for Projects, Burleson Street’s reconstruction scored the highest of all five road bond streets, per the planning organization’s requirements in that funding cycle. Marketplace Avenue’s extension scored significantly lower compared to the other road bond streets in 2011.
City officials entered all five road improvements – which now makeup the $36 million road bond – to CAMPO in 2011 for funding consideration. None of those projects were awarded any money, and even though Burleson Street’s reconstruction scored highest amongst all submitted Kyle projects, that improvement came out behind 10 other road projects in the region.
City officials now, hoping to come out on top, have combined the Burleson Street and Marketplace Avenue improvements into one project, thereby cashing in on the regional and local necessity.
“Because of the way roads are designed, if combined, it would score higher than either one did individually,” Earp said, adding that Marketplace Avenue’s extension provides access to centers and is a reliever to I-35, while Burleson Street’s reconstruction also provides access to a center and offers local connectivity.
A 2012 engineering review of the road bond streets by Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., an Austin firm, showed that Marketplace Avenue improvements offer connectivity, congestion relief and future economic development, while Burleson Street’s reconstruction offered connectivity and future economic development.
The same study ranked the Marketplace Avenue and Burleson Street improvements ahead of Bunton Creek, Lehman and Goforth roads’ reconstruction. The engineering review was done on behalf of Gap Strategies, Inc., owned by Jeff Barton. Gap Strategies help run a Political Action Committee (PAC) supporting the road bond in May.
Earp said that before leaving for another job, then-City Engineer Steve Widacki and other consultants believed the combination of both projects offered a local and regional mobility improvement component that either project, if separated, could not, thereby appearing more attractive to CAMPO.
“But all of that is speculation until CAMPO defines what the new issues are going to be that they’re going to look at, their new criteria,” Earp said. “So, you know, we’re speculating based off of feedback and information that’s been given to us by engineers and those that understand the process. That, that combined project is the best opportunity that we have to get funding from CAMPO.”
At their Dec. 9 meeting, the CAMPO policy board decided to direct the organization’s finance committee to hash out and propose a framework for allocating the available funds. The board did agree that the $50 million available for roads in 2014 should be allocated in an 80/20 split, with the higher chunk earmarked for “regional projects” and the lower slice handed out for “local projects.”
At their November meeting, the CAMPO policy board was told there were $28.4 million available for road projects in Bastrop, Burnett, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties. Now, as expected, that figure has climbed to $49.4 million
CAMPO Director Maureen McCoy said the additional $16.15 million in STP MM (Surface Transportation Program) funds would come into the agency as the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) finishes reconciling its funded projects for 2013. Also, there are $4.9 million available in Transportation Alternative funds.
