By Amira Van Leeuwen
BUDA — Mayor Lee Urbanovsky delivered his State of the City Address during the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce Luncheon on Nov. 16.
During the luncheon, the chamber introduced the newly re-elected mayor pro-tem, Evan Ture.
Attendees also listened to comments from Micah Grau, Buda’s city manager.
HDR Engineering Inc, Texas Disposal Systems, Buda Economic Development Corp, Freese and Nichols, Pape-Dawson Engineers, WSB and Hatch Consulting Group sponsored the luncheon.
Urbanovksy said the city would focus on fiscal responsibility and managing growth.
“We are revitalizing Main Street with restaurants,” Urbanovsky said. Buda is going to add 30 restaurants to the city, and about five will be added to Main Street.
He also highlighted several recently opened developments in the Buda area, including MOD Pizza, Dutch Bros, Meridian, Valentina’s Tex-Mex BBQ, Taco clem, TasTe on Main and JParks Saloon & Standard.
On the retail side, Urbanovsky recognized the opening of RV dealer AirStream, which is a $300 million investment.
The mayor also gave an update on Persimmon, a contested 775-acre residential development. There has been progress toward an agreement, but a deal has yet to be reached.
“Our job on council and my job as mayor is to get the best deal for Buda,” Urbanovsky said. “There has been progress toward an agreement on this project, but there’s no deal reached. We don’t know if this is coming for sure, it’s not a done deal, but we are working diligently to get the best deal for the city.”
On the horizon
Buda is expected to have Subaru coming in the fall of 2023. Urbanovsky said that he was “looking forward” to the co-op program that Subaru was going to do with Hays CISD.
Additionally, Buda is looking to add a RackFit, a sports facility with four indoor and outdoor tennis courts, pickleball courts and volleyball courts.
The city is working with different entities to expand its water usage like the Aquifer Storage and Recovery System, which will allow Buda to store water for future uses. According to Urbanovsky, the storage has the capacity to store more than 100 million gallons of water.
“I am proud of what we’ve done and probably accomplished over the past year. This is only my second State of the City Address, but I am encouraged by what we’ve done and the group that I’ve worked with,” Urbanovsky said. “I absolutely look forward to seeing what we can do together next year.”
