By Amira Van Leeuwen
KYLE — On Dec. 7, the Kyle City Council unanimously approved to have city staff bring back revisions to the Downtown Master Plan with input from residents, council and the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The Downtown Master Plan was made to help “preserve and protect the city’s charm while allowing for careful improvements to the downtown area including existing and new public spaces and buildings.”
But, per feedback from the P&Z Commission, the plan does not embody much of that.
On Nov. 29, the P&Z Commission unanimously voted not to recommend the Downtown Master Plan to city council, citing multiple issues.
As pointed out by commissioner Steve DeLory, some areas of the plan are general and others are oddly specific.
“For example, it says, we generally would like to attract businesses and then it says, hours of operation downtown business are required to remain open a minimum of 10 hours between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. for businesses with more than two employees. Specifying business hours for businesses, that’s quite specific,” DeLory said.
The hours of operation can be found on page 121 of the plan.
Commissioner Neil Stegall was concerned that he had not seen evidence that the downtown residents were “actively canvassed or solicited” to participate in meetings to explain the process to them or what it even meant to come up with a Downtown Master Plan.
Commissioner Sarah Oncken pointed out the difference in the boundaries of downtown, which is on page 18 of the master plan document.
On top of P&Z’s concerns, Kyle residents are also unhappy.
Resident Lila Knight spoke up during the council meeting’s public hearing and thought the Downtown Master Plan fell short of the city’s gold standard.
Similar to Oncken, Knight also raised questions regarding the difference in boundaries.
“Those of us who live in the original town of Kyle have questioned, what exactly are the boundaries of downtown? This master plan states both in text and on maps some places it’s nine blocks other places it’s 12 blocks. Which is it? Just pick one,” Knight said.
“And it would be useful to provide your constituents with a methodology on how those boundaries were selected rather than just arbitrarily drawing lines on a map. We have literally been waiting for an answer to just that question for over 20 years, and with this Downtown Master Plan, we’re still in the dark,” Knight said.
Knight urged council not to accept the plan as written and to send it back to P&Z to see if they can get a better product.
“Although, I seriously have my doubts,” Knight concluded.
Evangelina Chapa, known as “Angie” to many, has been living in Kyle for 48 years. She said she attended her church’s Christmas bazaar and began asking people if they had heard about the master plan.
“They said ‘No, what is that?’” Chapa said.
Chapa would like to see downtown cleaned up and have more options for family eateries.
Domingo Castilleja, a longtime resident and vice president of the Kyle Area Senior Zone (KASZ) said he’d like the city to maintain similar architecture.
“I don’t want to change. The city of Kyle was founded based on the farming and the ranching and of course, the railroad industry. And there’s architectures that’s associated with those three entities,” Castilleja said.
Castilleja would like to see Papa Jack’s repaired “as soon as possible,” along with other family-oriented businesses to maintain a “hometown feel.”
Castilleja noted that he did not hear about the Downtown Master Plan until he was out in the community and was invited to complete the city’s digital survey.
“I didn’t see anything in my mail or any type of correspondence in respect to that. And I think there’s a lot of people in Kyle that are not aware of that process,” he said.
Castilleja did not think that the digital surveys the city was doing were effective and inclusive to all members of the Kyle community. “In my opinion, I would like to see more face-to-face type of questioning or surveys,” Castilleja said.
The next city council meeting will be held on Dec. 20 at 5:30 p.m. Both meetings will take place at City Hall, located at 100 W. Center Street.
