Buda works to increase age-friendly offerings

BUDA — The city of Buda has been working to make the community more age-friendly for its older population.

In 2015, the Buda City Council appointed the Task Force on Aging (TFOA) in recognition of the growing population of older adults in the community. During that time, the task force was charged with representing the needs, interests and opportunities for community engagement of Buda’s older adults, as well as making recommendations to the council and city staff on issues and solutions to affect positive outcomes for the older population.

To date, the TFOA members have implemented several activities to study the needs and interests around the domains. This includes: participating in the development of the city of Buda’s 2024 Comprehensive Plan; obtaining the city council’s authorization to join the AARP and World Health Organization Age-Friendly Communities Network; initiating the AARP-developed Age-Friendly Community Assessment; sponsoring a volunteer fair to promote well-being through community volunteer service and more.

“We've been working on quite a few initiatives, such as meetings, where the general public is allowed to come in, talk to us and give us ideas — listening sessions, you might call it. We did a walk audit of downtown Buda where we looked at the walkability of the area. We adopted as a kind of a framework, the AARP Age-Friendly Cities and Communities initiative and the Buda City Council, in 2021, agreed that they wanted to be a part of that,” said Chair of the Commission on Aging Jeff Kaufmann. “So, we did an application and with that application went along the commitment that Buda would focus on the needs of older adults, and would attempt to make Buda a more livable city for the older population … Since then, we've been taking a hard look at what in more detail does our community need to make itself more livable for the older population.”

On November 28, 2023, Buda City Council redesignated the TFOA as the City of Buda Commission on Aging, promoting it to a more formal advisory body to the city. The commission is now subject to all open meeting requirements and welcomes public comments both in-person at meetings and submitted in writing.

“City council made us a more formal organization, where we are now required to abide by more strict organizational principles that governmental organizations have to follow [like] Open Records Act, open meetings, those kinds of things, which we're happy to do,” said Kaufmann. “It just gives us more structure and more formality. It hasn't really changed our mission, but it has given us more visibility.”

The commission more recently adopted its Community Assessment Report on Feb. 26 and then presented the findings of the report to the city council, which it then ultimately adopted, at its April 16 meeting.

The report used data from the city of Buda’s Comprehensive Plan, the Hays County Community Health Assessment & Improvement Plan, data produced by the Capital Area Council of Governments, AGE of Central Texas and AARP’s Livability Index.

The commission conducted a listening session on Oct. 24, 2022, at the Onion Creek Senior Center (OCSC), where approximately 65 citizens and public officials attended. The session focused on the eight Domains of Livability, which comprise the framework used by states and communities enrolled in the network to organize and prioritize their work to become more age friendly.

• Outdoor Spaces: Participants expressed a need for more age-friendly sports activities, well-lit sidewalks, ways to access parking at events, sufficient parking downtown and accessible play areas for grandparents and disabled children.

• Transportation: Participants recommended expanding the STAR program to include service to and from Buda’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), nonprofit transportation for seniors, public transportation, increased walkability, shuttles, dedicated streets with pedestrian crossings and designated bike lanes.

• Housing: Participants recommended creating more ADA compliant housing units, multigenerational housing, ADA accessibility, assistance programs and architectural barrier removal to combat the need for more affordable housing.

• Social Participation, Respect and Social Inclusion, Work and Civic Engagement: Participants expressed that the OCSC is great for seniors, but is not big enough; the library programs are very senior friendly and the many events in Buda help with inclusion. Recommendations included creating a directory of volunteer opportunities for seniors, a senior hiring event with incentives for hiring seniors, rides provided to polling locations, partnerships with medical providers, nutrition education and more help for deaf people.

• Communication and Information: Translation and opportunities to learn a language are needed as well as computer literacy courses and access to the internet, a resource fair is recommended and dementia training for providers.

• Community and Health Services: Buda has good physicians, urgent care and hospital services. A gerontologist is a need, as well as a low-income health clinic and access for the uninsured. Better access to home health and a community health fair with screenings were also suggested.

It was noted in the Community Assessment Report that city officials have already demonstrated their commitment and have begun to address some of the issues highlighted in the listening session with an expanded STAR program, public transportation discussions, a volunteer fair and a senior resource event.

A walkability analysis conducted by the consultants for the Downtown Master Plan included a broad level study of the sidewalk conditions and existing crosswalks in the downtown area. The study found there is very limited sidewalk and pedestrian infrastructure.

• Only 13.5% of the streets in downtown Buda provide space for pedestrians.

• Downtown Buda receives many bicyclists and has very limited facilities for cyclists.

• The master plan notes that improving access to Downtown Buda for non-vehicular travel has been a goal of many past planning efforts.

In March 2023, a group of about a dozen volunteers conducted a walk audit of five areas in downtown Buda: Onion Creek Senior Center area, Buda Mill and Grain District, Old Town Main Street area, Main Street and City Park and Bradfield Village. Recommendations that were similar across the five areas include, but are not limited to, more sidewalks, accessible parking, leveled ground for crossing, repaired sidewalks, additional signage and traffic control at crosswalks and improved visibility.

At this time, Kaufmann said that the commission members are in the process of prioritizing the areas that they would like the city of Buda to focus on, as well as working to define what could fit in the city’s budget proposal.

“We hope to have a dollar figure to attach to them, go into the city budget and ask the city to work on improving these areas … Looking at the report that we did, we're going to be focusing on those areas — transportation and housing — and trying to move forward in those areas as priorities, if you will. So, also, making the community more walkable, trying to address the area of what we call the ‘missing middle,’ in housing,” he said. “We want to make sure that developers, and city staff who are approving the developments, keep in mind that we need housing available for people with a variety of incomes, including affordable housing for seniors and accessible housing. Those are the kinds of things we're going to be looking at as we try to come up with some ideas to get the city to actually put some money into creating a more livable environment for folks who are aging.”

To learn more about the Buda Commission on Aging and to read the full Community Assessment Report, visit www.budatx.gov/692/Commission-on-Aging.