Residents of Whispering Hollow and Summer Pointe are concerned that their park will be destroyed from a proposed water tower

BUDA — A trip into the connecting Whispering Hollow and Summer Pointe parks yields children playing, dogs running and retired couples walking — a truly idyllic scene. This type of welcoming environment lends itself to more residents buying homes in the area— a sentiment residents feel may change.

Buda City Council held discussions over the proposed water tower in the shared parkland last month, but many residents were still left concerned with seemingly unanswered questions.

Others looking from an outside perspective may not understand the level of intensity the homeowners are displaying, but Kelly Wilson explains that it is the lack of choice of the location of the proposed water tower.

“I mean, a lot of people live next to a water tower. No problem, but primarily those people have bought their house with that water tower already there,” Kelly said. “That’s a big part of the argument here. I have a friend who’s like, ‘Oh, I have a water tower. It’s not that big of a deal,’ and I was like, 'Right, but you bought your house knowing there was a water tower there.'”

This is the primary concern for residents in Summer Pointe — the “eyesore” that could be invading the skyline right outside their porches.

The addition of the water tower would not only aesthetically ruin their homes, they said, but financially, residents are concerned that their homes will drop in value.

“My major concern is the eyesore and the property value that’s going to take a hit on our house when we have to sell it as we age … We’re planning on using our equity to help our grandson who’s probably going to have to be in a group home. He’s never going to be able to get a job, he’s never going to get married and he’s going to need a lot of financial support,” said Summer Pointe resident Karen Lockyer. “Who’s going to want to buy a house with a tower right outside your front door?”

As a solution to this concern, the city of Buda released a 2017 study on Dallas neighborhood appraisal values before and after water towers were installed, but the data do not include what the home actually sold for.

These residents reside less than a 5-minute walk away from the park that would presumably be sharing its land with the tower.

“There was a park. That’s why we bought here. We spent a year looking for and building this house. We’ve been here since the beginning and we all expected a park and now it’s going to be a public works site,” said Lockyer.

Homeowners, like Marilyn Davis, would consider selling their homes due to the new water tower. A place for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren to play and walk in nature is important to her.

The park is constantly filled with children, so safety is also a concern to the multitudes of families that reside in the neighborhood.

“There are awfully big signs that say, ‘Danger’ and ‘Authorized Personnel only,’ [at the tower by Cabela’s]. If it’s not dangerous to the children around here, why do these signs say that?” Kelly asked.

“Based on the response from a couple of city council members to emails sent by neighbors and the body language observed at the council meeting, I don’t think everyone is taking us seriously,” she added.

In response to concerned residents, Buda City Manager Micah Grau emphasized that he has been listening to the comments about the proposed tower.

“Some of the feedback we’ve received is a lot of concern about placing the tank on parkland, concern about it being in people’s backyards, diminishing property values and safety concerns,” said Grau. “We want to reassure property owners that it’s not a done deal. The decision hasn’t been made … City council still has the ability to go out and use eminent domain to acquire another site, if they choose to, but council does not take the use of eminent domain lightly and they understand the gravity of that decision, so we put it out there to look at other options and the park is one of those options.”

Despite the numerous concerns from the residents, they understand the need and aren’t asking for the tower to not be installed — they just want it to be moved elsewhere, specifically to FM 1626.

The city has stated that it would be too much money — an estimate of $500,000-$700,000 — to build the tower by FM 1626 and tunneling it back to the neighborhoods; though, the residents believe that there is no logical reason to not build the tower by FM 1626. There would be no homes to be acquired through eminent domain, no parks invaded as they have not been created and there would be water for Whispering Hollow, Summer Pointe, Elm Grove and future residential projects in the area.

“Buda is growing. If they put a water tower [at the park], I don’t see a future five to 10 years from now where they don’t have to send water back over 1626. We’re going to end up tunneling there anyway. It’s not an acceptable answer to me that it’s going to cost too much to tunnel under now,” Kelly said.

“We plan on building a water tower development across from 1626,” stated Grau.

The consensus from the community is that they simply want transparency and more options to be considered.

“They did their homework. They just did their homework on one idea, [the park],” said David Wilson. “A financial study on what it would take to move it across the highway would probably be the first thing that everybody wants to see.”

Kelly agreed, “I want complete transparency in the offers that they’ve made … There’s been no public meetings about it. There’s been no transparency about the process.”

Grau responded, “We’ve tried to be extremely transparent. The conversations about looking at Whispering Hollow Park happened in March, so we reached out to the neighborhoods and started those conversations in May. We used some time in between to gather information. We tried to be very open and answer the questions of the community. That’s why we put together the frequently asked questions … We’re going to continue to update our frequently asked questions that we have posted on the website related to the project. We’re also planning to do a council workshop at an upcoming meeting.”

The item will come before council at its June 20 meeting. Residents can take an informal survey at bit.ly/3NsCN8L and find more information at www.budatx.gov/844/Old-Black-Colony-Water-Tank.