Buda Downtown Master Plan in the works

Open house held for feedback

BUDA — Buda is growing, but residents have been vocal about wanting to preserve its small-town charm while also providing an enriching downtown and living experience.

More than a dozen community members attended a Downtown Master Plan open house on April 5 to provide feedback on the ongoing plans. Abby Gillfillan, principal planner of urban design and architecture from Lionheart Places, gave the presentation.

According to Lionheart, downtown Buda’s latest assessed value came in at just under $110 million, with office/retail/commercial spaces and housing making up the majority of that value.

Work on the Downtown Master Plan began in September 2022. In the months since, past planning efforts were reviewed along with existing downtown conditions in order to help shape the project.

“We started investigating. We had a series of focus group meetings; we went to downtown businesses and toured the whole downtown and talked to a whole lot of people; we had an open house earlier in this process,” Gillfillan explained. “We were really just trying to gather as much information as we [could].”

Now the group is in the “create” stage, as recommendations are being created, alternative downtown plans are being tested and various implementation strategies are being identified, including funding sources, partners and timelines.

Five goals have also been established for the plan, following community feedback:

• Place: extend and expand the downtown experience

• Walkability: enhance streets and public spaces for pedestrians

• Nature: integrate natural areas, parks and trails into the downtown experience

• Revenue: increase revenue generated in downtown

• Brand: develop and implement a unique design aesthetic and brand

According to Lionheart, the existing downtown area consists of 900 linear feet of “downtown experience,” 48 acres of existing open space, 0.6 miles of existing trails and the proposed Emerald Crown Trail and zero gateways. Regarding current pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure, only 13.5% of downtown streets have sidewalks and only eight intersections out of 25 have at least one crosswalk.

Three alternative options were presented to guide future improvement projects and growth within downtown.

Natural Stitch

“What this is really about is stitching together these commercial and neighborhood spaces through a parks and open space network,” Gillfillan said.

This alternative represents the biggest change to the current organization and urban framework of downtown by stitching together the downtown commercial, neighborhood and open spaces through a connected system of urban trails and greenbelt. It would incorporate a tributary that runs behind Buda Mill & Grain along Bluff Street and connect to City Park.

Gillfillan said this tributary is currently an overgrown space, and while it serves its purpose of draining water to Onion Creek, it also offers a potential trail opportunity that would also help define potential “nodes” to further connectivity.

“The [Old Buda Elementary School] Upper Campus is underutilized,” Gillfillan added. “Taking those buildings and reusing them, putting some activated uses in them and partnering with the school district to see something like that happen, this becomes a node.”

This alternative would bring an additional 1,600 linear feet to the downtown experience, add 17 acres of improved open space, 1.6 miles of additional trails, 400 linear feet of new streets and three gateway opportunities.

Main Street Stretch

“This one is all about going all in on Main Street,” Gillfillan said. “We’re looking at a double-sided Main Street by putting retail on both sides of the street potentially and then also filling in the full length of Main Street and looking at how you really continue that pattern of having nodes at either end.”

Gillfillan said that from a “comfortability” perspective, having a two-sided street offers a more ideal retail experience and also doubles the business capacity. With a San Antonio Street extension, this connection would assist in taking some of the thru traffic off Main Street to make it more of a “pedestrian promenade.”

This alternative would bring an additional 700 linear feet to the downtown experience, 1,200 linear feet of new streets and two gateway opportunities. However, it doesn’t provide any additional trails and 3.6 acres of open space would be lost.

Downtown Spread

“This one is about continuing what you’ve got on Main Street but also looking at Austin Street, Railroad Street, Houston Street and Peach Street as opportunities,” Gillfillan said. “It’s about sort of spreading that downtown experience out.”

This alternative would spread improvements and activity to these corridors adjacent to Main Street. It would bring an additional 600 linear feet to the downtown experience, 1.2 miles of open space and 1,700 linear feet of new streets. However, it doesn’t provide any additional trails or gateway opportunities.

The open house provided community members in attendance an opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback and submit answers to the ongoing online survey.

“We’re going to take this feedback that we get from you all. What we’re looking for is, ‘I like this about this one but not this.’ Then, we’re going to take all of that and put it into one preferred plan moving forward,” Gillfillan explained. “We’ll come back out and have another similar meeting like this. That’s also where we’re going to start to get into a little bit more specifics. Once we have an idea of the overall framework, then we can start saying, ‘Okay, here’s where parking needs to go in order to support these new nodes. Here’s where sidewalks need to go in order to bring people from that parking to these new spaces.’”

Residents who were unable to attend are invited to participate by taking the online survey, which closes on April 15, at http://ow.ly/L3Fs50NzXbn. Buda Development Director Melissa McCollum also said that there will be three more surveys sent out, along with other events held relating to the city’s Comprehensive Plan — a long-range planning document that will help guide the growth of the city.

A Downtown Master Plan draft is aimed to be completed by June 16. For more information, visit www.ourbuda.com.