Kyle City Council discusses Comprehensive Plan

KYLE — Kyle City Council held a meeting with the Planning and Zoning Commission on Aug. 29 to discuss recommendations to the 2030 Comprehensive Plan.

Previously, in December 2022, council had voted to disapprove the comprehensive plan and allow edits to be conducted based on suggestions from council members and residents. An open house was later held in February 2023, with several community members presenting ideas, while also allowing additional propositions to be heard from council.

Chapter one describes the foundations of the plan: why it is needed, who is involved, what happens and what is it used for. In it are four principles to be used to make decisions; be fiscally responsible, be innovative and show new ideas, show economic prosperity and have neighborhoods for everybody.

Chapter two of the plan also implements land use fiscal analysis, which incorporates the city’s budget into finding the best growth scenarios. This can look like a block that has various living situations, such as duplexes and cottages, but the goal will always be to bring a net benefit to the city, according to director of planning Will Atkinson.

The third chapter covers major components such as recommendations for land use and growth management.

"By prioritizing growth into certain areas of the city and controlling development in others, the city can increase tax revenues, provide reliable service delivery, improve infrastructure and improve housing affordability and options — all without necessarily having to raise the tax rate,” the presentation stated.

There is also a map of Kyle included with areas that were labeled as "infill and enhance," "controlled growth" and "restricted growth."

The infill and enhance area is Central Kyle and the controlled area is right outside of downtown, while the restricted area lies in the outer areas of the city where, according to Atkinson, it would be more difficult to serve water and wastewater. Essentially, the map encourages the city to continue building up where it currently is rather than expanding, an aspect that council member Michael Tobias stated would encourage taller buildings in the city.

Atkinson assured the council that any changes to height limits in the city, for example, changing maximum number of stories a building can have, would be at the discretion of council in a code rewrite.

A percentage breakdown of the map for Kyle and the extraterritorial jurisdiction by acreage, as well as what is planned were requested after members analyzed the map.

Council member Bear Heiser suggested that there should be a sort of “cheat sheet” provided for residents because “it’s just a ridiculous expectation for me, in my position, to think that any resident would sit and read through 150-160-something pages.”

“I think it would be really good to have core philosophies that the comp plan is trying to get at in detail, so that we, [the Planning and Zoning Commission] and city council, can make sure that when we are adopting the comp plan, that we are adopting these philosophies as well,” said Mayor Travis Mitchell.

The mayor also had the idea to include a scavenger hunt in the plan to encourage residents to interact and read the plan.

The last chapter is implementation, which covers decision-making principles, such as guidelines, regulations, financial and process incentives, capital investments, tactical and community plans, education and communication and partnerships — all of which would lead to high quality projects in the city.

The 2030 Comprehensive Plan will be brought back to the city council for approval in late September.

Kyle City Council met again at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 5 at Kyle City Hall. The agenda for the meeting was posted at www.cityofkyle.com/meetings.