Council sends proposal back to Parks & Recreation Commission
BUDA — Buda City Council held a workshop at its May 20 meeting to discuss the location of a proposed disc golf course. However, after public comments and statements made across the dais, the item was pushed back to the Parks & Recreation Commission.
The item comes after the Parks & Recreation Commission voted 6-0 April 16 to recommend the course be located in the Garlic Creek Greenbelt, as well as requested for city staff to host a public meeting following an online survey to determine the public’s interest in a course and preferred location. A public meeting was then held May 13 at Elm Grove Elementary School, which included outreach to adjacent neighborhood homeowners associations (HOA), including Garlic Creek, Whispering Hollow, Summer Pointe, Elm Grove, Cullen Country and White Oak Preserve.
According to agenda documents, along with staff, there were 21 attendees and Grant Henry, parks commissioner; attendees were both area residents and disc golf enthusiasts. In an informal poll of those present, 13 were in support of a disc golf course in the greenbelt, four opposed and two supported with concerns. Primary concerns raised during this public meeting were parking, trash/beer drinking, cutting down trees, conflict between people walking on the trail and disc golfers, restrooms, greenbelt flooding, volume of people, dirt bikes/golf carts and fire hazard of the existing condition of the greenbelt.
Attendees also provided some suggestions for next or future steps: do a "pop up" disc golf event, so people can see what it is like; a resident requested that the city send a mailer to all homes potentially impacted by the Garlic Creek Greenbelt-recommended location, to directly seek homeowner/resident feedback; and create a volunteer group to help maintain the course.
The Disc Golf Community Input Survey was live for two weeks, from April 25 to May 9 and received 882 total responses and more than 600 open-ended responses. Highlights of the responses are as follows.
• 50.23% of respondents chose Garlic Creek Greenbelt as the preferred location, while 26.76% chose Stagecoach Park.
• 62.69% of respondents regularly or frequently play disc golf, while 24% play occasionally
• 67.21% prefer an 18-hole layout, while 25.75% are fine with either an 18-hole or 9-hole layout
• A challenging course design is the most important feature to respondents, with a ranked score of 4.41 out of 5. Signage with maps and info is the second most important feature, at 4.28.
• Restrooms were ranked by respondents as the most important amenity, with a score of 4.05 out of 5 — 68.25% of respondents said it was their first or second priority.
• Parking came in second at 3.47 — 52.5% of respondents said it was their first or second priority.
“We conducted a sentiment analysis using AI because of the large number of responses received,” explained Buda Assistant City Manager Lindsey Baker. “55% of those responses were positive, 30% negative and 15% neutral. The analysis noted that … the data suggests that there is strong support for a disc golf course within Buda, but, certainly, careful consideration for the location and design are critical for community acceptance.”
Garlic Creek Greenbelt is the current preferred location by the Parks & Recreation Commission, disc golf players and consultants that staff conferred with, other options for consideration could include Whispering Hollow/Summer Pointe Park, Stagecoach Park, Garison Park, part of the future Eastside Park or other future park development like Persimmon, agenda documents stated. However, according to Baker’s presentation, those locations also come with their own positives and negatives, which are listed below.
Whispering Hollow/Summer Pointe — 5.56% of survey respondents voted for
• Pro: Existing amenities
• Pro: Parking
• Con: Simple terrain
• Con: Adjacent to neighborhood Limited to 9-hole course
Garison Park — 10.66% of survey respondents voted for
• Pro: Centrally located
• Pro: Some varied terrain
• Pro: No adjacent residents
• Pro: Sufficient parking
• Pro: Existing amenities (soon)
• Con: Incompatible with planned use and design of Garison Park
• Con: Is not large enough for 9-hole or 18-hole course
Stagecoach Park — 26.76% of survey respondents voted for
• Pro: Centrally located
• Pro: Varied terrain
• Pro: No adjacent residents
• Pro: Sufficient parking
• Pro: Existing amenities
• Con: Re-locating the dog park to Stagecoach
• Con: Required to maintain open space per the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife
• Con: Closed Oct. 1-Jan. 5
Future Eastside Park
• Pro: Could be integrated into the overall park development plan so as not to conflict with any existing uses
• Con: Park is not ready and development of disc golf may be pushed out.
While there were several respondents to the online survey, and some who attended the public meeting, there were also others who showed up to share their perspective at the May 20 city council meeting.
Sheridan Scott, a Buda resident who lives in the Cullen Country area, adjacent to Garlic Creek, said that she is opposed to the city bringing in the disc golf course as it is currently proposed. For her, judging from the vandalism and issues that have been seen with the skatepark, along with the lack of parking within her neighborhood, there is a safety concern. She also added that the trees are a priority for her, especially since the city just implemented a new trail near that area and she doesn’t want to see “that beauty be demolished by cutting down any trees.”
Another resident, Justin Foster, said that his family would enjoy having a disc golf course in the city of Buda. He grew up playing the sport, making memories with his father doing so. However, there are not a lot of places locally in the city to play.
“It would be really nice if we had somewhere close by that we didn't have to fight traffic to get to enjoy being outdoors in Buda. As a resident, I wanted to share that some of our neighbors are opposed to the proposed disc golf [course] in Garlic Creek, but there are many others that support it as long as it’s done correctly,” Foster said. “Now, what correctly means is definitely being discussed today and in the future, but we think having a healthy foot traffic could basically be a potential benefit to that area back there.”
Kimberly Goodman, president of the Cullen Country HOA, said that she shared the proposal on Facebook and had more than 25 people email her with feedback. Twenty-five were against, but only two to three people were in favor; however, according to her, that “is not a good representation of our neighborhood. We have 205 homes.”
Some primary concerns that she has received are probable congestion in the neighborhood, increased foot traffic, noise, possible litter and disruption to the property values and the community who live in the neighborhood, along with the perceived danger of children getting hit by one of the flying discs.
“I think my neighborhood wants some more information. Again, I think from the majority of the responses I received, they do not like the idea and they don’t want this. We do have a really small, little playground that’s only for younger children and we have a lot of teens and older children in our neighborhood, so our number one request is to have an expansion of that instead or something,” Goodman said.
Moving into the council’s feedback, council member Monica Davidson said that she is currently not in favor of the proposed disc golf course and does not feel like it’s the right time for it. She is concerned about the following: staff resources and keeping up with the maintenance required; and spending money on this when there are other projects that need to be completed.
“Right now, today, I don’t want to move forward with this,” Davidson said. “Let’s finish some of the things we have first and then, pick it back up when we know we can handle this.”
Council member Matt Smith said that he is in favor of expanding the outdoor activities offered in Buda and investing the money to do so. Despite this he is not sure that the greenbelt is the best location for this proposal.
“I would like to put this back to Parks [and Recreation Commission], let them review all of the data we have now. We’ve had a request now for more information directly from Cullen Country HOA. Have parks engage with that group and other groups, if necessary,” he said. “Let’s just make sure that everyone has the ability to review the details, have their voice heard and see what absolutely works best for the entire community.”
“If, for me, we were going to make a decision tonight and just represent the community at large, then I can’t say this location is fully supported right now, but I want to balance that with the need of the disc golf course somewhere,” Smith continued. “I don’t want the idea of the disc golf course to just die because this particular location doesn’t work.”
Putting an amenity in an existing park behind an existing neighborhood is always difficult because “you’re fitting something in behind someone’s house whose been there and it wasn’t there when they chose that lot,” said Mayor Lee Urbanovsky, who shared that he has similar sentiments to Smith and recommended that the council push this back to the Parks & Recreation Commission to see if there is another proposed location.
While it was just a workshop item, Buda City Council did request for the proposal to go back to the Parks & Recreation Commission for more information and a potential new location.
Watch the full meeting and find agendas at www.budatx.gov/390/City-Council-Board-Commission-Meetings.
Buda City Council meets next at 6 p.m. June 3.
