Brittany Kelley
KYLE — Kyle City Council heard a presentation on the city’s mobility plan at its Dec. 16 meeting.
According to director of Transportation and Public Works Mike Trimble, council approved moving forward with the plan in spring of 2024. As it's in the process of working on the draft, Trimble stated that his team wanted to give an update on its progress, as well as discuss feedback given from community members.
Jake Gutekunst, of The Goodman Corporation, explained that the last time a transportation plan was completed was in 2016, with a small update in 2021, but that the plan is integral to the vision for the city’s growth, as it discusses where future thoroughfares will go, potential policies to look at and mentions code. It will also look at the 2022 bond and where the results of that will place the city in the next five to 10 years.
“We’re renaming it to the Kyle Mobility Plan to acknowledge the desire for it to really be representative of all modes of transportation, not just driving, but also walking, biking and other ways to get around,” said Gutekunst, adding that the vision is to “be the undisputed regional leader in vehicular, pedestrian and multimodal mobility” and was created to reflect the Kyle 2030 Plan.
He explained that his organization was selected in April and first provided an update on engagement in July. Since then, they have completed a needs assessment, worked on community engagement and updated the mobility map.
Community feedback from more than 300 residents strongly discussed concerns of safety, said Gutekunst, both for those driving, including road repairs, potholes, rough driving conditions and pedestrians. Residents also pushed for more resources for the Kyle $3.14 Rideshare program, adding bike facilities and intersections, turn lanes and traffic light updates.
Gutekunst also explained that they are working to ensure that the plan does not stop at jurisdictional boundaries and, instead, works with neighboring cities and agencies: “In fact, city of Buda is finishing a transportation plan of their own [and] San Marcos is starting one and Hays County has informed us that they’re also going to be starting in the next year. So, they’re looking to do that. We’re in a great spot right now for regional coordination.”
He noted that the team is beginning to look at Unified Development Code (UDC) updates and intersection recommendations and updates. Regarding these intersections, Gutekunst stressed that they want to ensure that the planning does not stop at rights-of-way, that it continues into the developments next to it.
Now, The Goodman Corporation is looking into the Capital Improvement Plan and what the next set of projects are after the 2022 road bonds are completed.
“One thing that I am very passionate about is displacement and this entire rewrite is extremely important in being that first stop to make sure that we aren’t unintentionally displacing people, even unintentionally displacing people,” began council member Claudia Zapata. “So, I think my first question is going to be: Have we worked with Housing Works at all in regards to our housing assessment?”
Trimble stated that they have not done so, but that he will work on coordinating a time to meet with them to ensure that data is being cross-referenced in both plans.
In response to what variables are being considered when it comes to project prioritization, Gutekunst shared that the determination is still in development, but that apart from safety and congestion relief, they are looking at access to facilities, what is close to these roads and how they will potentially aid the community.
He also stated that regarding the Texas Department of Transportation minimum multimodal standards, the plan will work on defining city-specific criteria, rather than relying on outside agencies.
“One of the conversations we’ve been having as we’ve been talking about how to approach the cross-sections, really, the meat of that is: How do you design those to make them multimodal? You’re accounting for pedestrians, you’re accounting for bikes [and] you’re accounting for vehicles. How do they all play together in that template? So, what we’ve been talking about is having configurations that are flexible, that can evolve over time,” explained Trimble.
Council member Lauralee Harris added that she wants to ensure that questions submitted by residents get answered and that their opinions are heard.
“The questions and feedback tonight has been great and we’ll take that back and incorporate that into the process as we continue to work with The Goodman Corporation and Jake’s team to develop the plan,” concluded Trimble.
The Kyle Mobility Plan will be presented to council at a later date in spring 2026.
To listen to the presentation, visit bit.ly/4oWrll7.
