by SEAN KIMMONS
After numerous meetings and workshops, Kyle councilmembers approved a Comprehensive Plan that could help shape the city’s future growth.
City councilmembers voted 5-0 to adopt the 300-page plan that forecasts Kyle’s ongoing growth, which is projected to catapult to more than 90,000 residents by 2040. Councilmembers Russ Huebner and Becky Selbera were absent.
“It will be part of our blueprints,” Kyle spokesperson Jerry Hendrix said. “It’s a good tool for us to use and refer back to as an official city planning document.”
Among the plan’s numerous charts and graphics, one illustration shows traffic congestion handled by a “hub and spoke” tactic, or a double circular loop system around the city to ease traffic along IH-35 and promote commercial development in other parts of the city.
Another graphic reveals the railroad crossing on Center Street in Old Town Kyle transforming into a picturesque rail plaza adorned with a gateway monument. The plaza would be pedestrian accessible with shops and a station along the commuter rail service linking Austin and San Antonio.
MESA, a planning firm from Dallas, received about $280,000 to develop the extensive plan, a blueprint for Kyle that predicts and designates economic development, land use and community character.
In 2001, the city made a futile attempt at a comprehensive plan but the new plan has been better managed with more community input, former city manager Tom Mattis had said.
To ensure that the new plan works, city officials will have to keep the city’s future tax gap in balance.
In 2040, Kyle’s general fund requirement is estimated to be around $54 million. A portion would be raised from city fees, fines and finances while about $21.6 million would come from residential tax revenue.
Another $22 million would be funded by non-residential tax revenue, such as commercial development. An extra 6,000 acres of non-residential land would be needed to cover that amount, according to the plan’s figures.
To do this, the plan suggests that Kyle “break its dependence on the IH-35 and FM 1626 corridors and promote a thoroughfare plan as well as a land-use plan that will provide for greater distribution of non-residential uses.”
Since September 2009, Kyle residents have gathered in three public workshops at Lehman High School to give input to help envision this plan.
Headed by a volunteer facilitator, residents split into nine city districts to discuss community needs and wants during the meetings.
The entire plan can be accessed online on the city’s Web site: www.cityofkyle.com.
