MileStone clarifies Persimmon survey

BUDA — A few weeks ago, a number of residents in the city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) of Buda received an anonymous survey pertaining to the proposed Persimmon development. Now, developer MileStone Community Builders is providing some clarification on the reasoning for the survey and its results.

Persimmon is a 775acre development set to be built on the Bailey and Armbruster tracts of land off FM 967. According to MileStone CEO Garrett Martin, the survey was conducted by survey group Cygnal, who collaborated with MileStone on the information presented in the survey and wording of the questions. The survey ran Jan. 19-22 and included an online panel, live calls and SMS (text messages). The margin of error was +/- 5.6%, with 300 people surveyed.

According to Cygnal documents obtained from MileStone, some of the survey results include:

• 45% of residents were supportive of Persimmon prior to learning more about the proposed development agreement (DA).

• 47% of residents who had heard of Persimmon (primarily voters over the age of 50) supported the development by “double-digit margins” after learning about the proposed agreement between MileStone and the city.

• 62% of residents (including a majority of respondents 50 or older) were supportive of Persimmon after learning more about what the proposed DA offers; a quarter were opposed.

• 27% of residents said relieving traffic was most important when considering their votes for city council, followed by property taxes (24%) and managing growth (20%).

• 53% of residents hadn’t heard of or were unsure about Persimmon, but after learning more, supported the development “more than 5:1.”

• 70% of Buda residents said they would prefer the development move forward with an agreement with the city, with 10% opting for no agreement.

• 55% of residents said they would view the council unfavorably if they failed to approve the agreement.

As previously reported by the Hays Free Press, the survey initially prompted questions about its origin and purpose as some residents stated they found the wording “biased.” However, Martin said that there were a “couple reasons” why the survey was conducted.

“We wanted to make sure we understood what the community actually wanted, because we believe that we’ve put a great project out there,” Martin said. “[We] also believe when the community has information, that they will see it as a good project, or at least a project that should move forward. That’s where we’re stuck right now. We’ve been at it for five years.”

“I was really hopeful that the survey results would help open up dialogue with the council, so I’m optimistic that will be the case,” he added. “I believe this will be the right conclusion for Buda.”

In October, Buda City Council voted to table discussion on the DA, neither approving or denying it. The decision ultimately came after MileStone was not able to meet a few of the terms outlined in the council’s term sheet, which was to be used to craft an updated agreement.

“We’re always looking for the best deal for Buda and we put that in the term sheet,” council member Evan Ture said at the meeting. “And if the project can’t get done like that, I mean, one of the [residents] up here said, ‘Maybe you need to sell it to somebody that would develop more like what we’re asking for.’” However, MileStone maintains that they have gone above and beyond to offer Buda the best deal possible, stretching “as far as we can comfortably economically.”

“What we want to know is, are they [council] going to move the project forward under the terms we spent time negotiating with them?” Martin said. “Or, coming in March, we’ll have to choose a different path … We want to move forward without any doubt that we have informed everybody about the fork in the road, because we believe we've proposed to do it the right way. We’re at this stalemate where we need to move forward.”

Martin further explained why this fork in the road — the loss of commitments made in the current proposed DA, most notably the traffic-relieving 976 to 1626 connector — is inevitable if Persimmon is built as a county subdivision instead.

“We’re building a significant amount of improvements related to transportation and one of the reasons we can do that is because of the [city’s] utility infrastructure,” Martin said. “What we have to spend is significantly less than it would be if we had to go to a different utility solution.”

A “different utility solution” would be implemented if the project is approved at the county level, Martin said, as MileStone would instead have to spend dollars building utility infrastructure, either from the city of Austin by “dragging utilities down and expanding their system” or using resources to build a utility system on site.

“We openly acknowledge that neither of those scenarios are beneficial for the immediate community around us,” Martin said, adding that Buda has done a “good job” of planning out the “utility side of things” in the city.

“[Buda] has ample water and wastewater capacity; they just expanded the plant,” he continued. “All of that lines up to be a really good fit for our project and that enables us to spend project resources on building roads.”

As such, MileStone filed a municipal utility district (MUD) application with the city in August 2022, and again in November after 90 days, for the extension of Buda water and wastewater services to the property within the ETJ. Now, the city has 120 days — or until March 8 — to proceed, or MileStone “reserves the right to proceed with MUD creation through the TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality).”

Other major commitments in the proposed DA, including no apartments and designated land for a fire/EMS site and future school, would also go away if built under the county because of the need to fund utility infrastructure, Martin said.

However, through months of deliberation, the Planning and Zoning Commission, city council and residents have all raised concerns with both the proposed DA and project as a whole.

City leaders have taken issue with incompleteness and various inconsistencies within the DA and they, along with residents, have been vocal about the development’s construction process which would cause more traffic in the area, impacts to local wildlife and onsite heritage trees and the eventual use of city water and wastewater services to nearly 3,000 new lots.

Buda City Council will meet on Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m., at which time Martin says he is hopeful that the DA will be considered. The agenda for the meeting is expected to be posted on Feb. 17 by the end of day.