by Kim Hilsenbeck
At a special meeting last week at Elm Grove Elementary, which is adjacent to the neighborhood, about a dozen residents, along with city staff, Buda City Council members and employees of the Buda Fire Department, discussed the issues and possible solutions.
The problem, according to Buda council member George Haehn, who lives in Whispering Hollow, is that emergency response vehicles, particularly fire trucks, find it tricky to navigate through neighborhoods with narrow streets and lots of cars parked on both sides.
Road widths in Whispering Hollow and several other Buda communities are 27 feet. Haehn said one reason for the narrow roads is the regulations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) that limit the amount of impervious cover, e.g., roads and sidewalks, in those neighborhoods, ostensibly to protect the aquifer beneath.
Trends in city planning are also shifting back towards 1950s-style narrower roads, partially to decrease vehicle accidents, which data shows are more likely on wider streets.
Challenges for emergency vehicles also include turning corners when cars are parked too close to the intersection. Buda city ordinance says vehicles must park at least 30 feet away from an intersection.
“We’ve had to back up and go around another way on a few calls,” said Buda Fire Chief Clay Huckaby, explaining the difficulty of making turns into streets where cars are parked in the intersection. “That delay can add another two or more minutes to a call.”
He said those delays have not led to any tragedies or deaths – yet. But the difference between life and death, particularly with medical conditions or accidents that cause a lack of oxygen to the brain, can come down to seconds.
At the special meeting, firefighters demonstrated how a fire truck turns a corner and the difficulty of doing so with cars parked on both sides of the street and within 30 feet of an intersection.
As of yet, Huckaby said his crews have not had to move any cars.
The city council now wants to hear from the rest of the residents in Buda neighborhoods affected by the problem, which also includes Garlic Creek and Bradfield Village.
Haehn said council instructed Buda engineering consultant Graham Moore of LAN to develop and distribute a survey to residents in Whispering Hollow and other communities with a list of ideas.
Solutions include parking on only one side of the road, not parking on the road at all (with a few exceptions, including homes with more than four vehicles or when guests visit), enforcing the existing ordinance to not park within 30 feet of an intersection (along with painting those intersection curbs red) and widening the roads.
Though not able to attend the special meeting, Whispering Hollow residents Susie Ward and Carmen Sifuentes spoke with the Hays Free Press several days later. Initially, both women thought wider streets would be a good solution – they said the roads in their community are very narrow and tricky to navigate. When they learned the estimated cost, $18 million according to Haehn – and that’s just for their neighborhood – that option looked less viable.
Hearing they would also lose some sidewalk and yard with the easement parameters changes, both women reconsidered their answers.
“We can’t lose any yard,” Sifuentes said.
In addition, Ward and Sifuentes said they believe some residents park on the street intentionally to slow down traffic. Fast-moving cars are a cause for concern among neighborhood residents.
“People fly through here,” Ward said. “I think some people intentionally park on the street to slow them down.”
Studies show drivers tend to slow down on narrow streets with cars on both sides.
Whispering Hollow resident Amy Urbanovsky said she is concerned about the speed that vehicles travel through the neighborhood.
“The streets are a major concern for us,” she wrote in an email. “First of all, we need speed limit signs. My opinion is 20 mph. This neighborhood is filled with children. With all the video games and technology, our children should be encouraged to play outside on their bikes, play catch, or play a game of kick ball. Not be forced to stay inside because of negligent drivers.”
Ward and Sifuentes said they occasionally park in the street to allow their children to play in the driveway.
“We have to block the driveways to keep the little ones safe,” Sifuentes said.
Urbanovsky also wants to see more stop signs and yield signs in the neighborhood.
“This would force people to slow down,” she said.
When the development first opened roughly eight years ago, it had only one main thoroughfare. Today, a few new connector streets exist, yet Ward said the traffic problems persist.
“It’s really bad on garbage collection day,” she said, which is Tuesday. “You can barely get through the streets.”
With cans in the streets on both sides, Ward said it’s challenging to navigate, whether in cars, on bikes or walking. She said her children ride on the sidewalks – even though the homeowner’s association frowns on it – because the roads are too dangerous. Last year, one of her daughters, now seven, rode her bike around a car parked in a driveway but over the sidewalk. She cut too close when getting back on the sidewalk, leading to a crash. She suffered a concussion.
How do the other options fare?
Widening the streets would involve moving underground utilities, trees and sidewalks throughout the affected neighborhoods, Huckaby said.
“And if TCEQ rules say the roads can’t be wider than 27-feet, how could they make the streets wider?’ he asked.
Whispering Hollow residents asked the same question.
Requiring one-sided parking or no parking on the streets appears to be a cause for concern for some Whispering Hollow residents.
“I’m concerned about families with more than two or three cars,” Sifuentes said. “Plus, how will they enforce it?”
Whether it’s through an HOA rule vs. a city ordinance is unclear at this point.
Enforcing the no parking within 30 feet of an intersection seems to be a preferred option among several residents.
“That seems to be the most logical fix,” Ward said.
Another resident, Grant Henry, said, “Enforcement of existing laws is the obvious first choice and there is no reason why it shouldn’t already be happening.”
Kathy Wood agrees residents should abide by existing laws.
“I feel that the idea of the city first enforcing the no parking within 30 feet of the stop signs and 20 feet of intersections and no parking within 15 feet of fire hydrants is a good start. Painting the curbs will help to remind people of the laws,” she said.
Jerri Strain wants to get the neighborhood association involved to make residents aware of the issue. She also prefers to enforce existing laws regarding parking in intersections.
“I don’t think anyone will have a problem trying to comply, especially due to the safety factor,” she wrote.
Several residents, including Holly McCrea, said part of the problem is not just narrow roads, but small driveways and garages.
“The garages aren’t big enough,” she said. “I’m not sure I could put my suburban into my garage, it’s not deep enough, or wide enough for 2 cars. Who approved these specs? The driveways aren’t long enough either.”
Melissa Vester agrees.
“Garages on these track homes are so small that the average size SUV doesn’t fit in the garage and if the family has teenagers with cars, then a car has to be parked in the street or block the sidewalk if cars are double parked in the driveway.”
Some Whispering Hollow neighbors like Mairin Peevey believe some families aren’t able to use their garages for cars because they are serving as storage facilities.
“Everyone clean out their garages and park in there or the driveway freeing up the streets 100%,” she suggested.
And while it wouldn’t fix the existing issue, Vester and McCrea think the city needs to put new restrictions in place for the developers to make streets wider.
“What I don’t understand is why the city continues to approve these excessively narrow roads?” McCrea asked. “They are still building them, right now – in fact they just finished two new sections in Whispering Hollow and I’m sure they’re building new narrow roads behind my house in Elm Grove right now!”
The final decision on what to do for existing neighborhoods remains to be seen.
Buda Mayor Todd Ruge said the timeline for the survey has not been set.
