Ashley Kontnier
KYLE — Kyle City Council was presented with an updated look at the cost of the Vybe Trail on Center Street at its special meeting Thursday, Aug. 27, when it was ultimately decided to put the project on hold.
Rick Klatt, associate vice president of Lochner, which manages the road bond programs, began his presentation by sharing the specific language from the ballot when the 2022 road bond was approved, which read, “The issuance of bonds in the amount of $294,000,000 for streets, bridges, and sidewalks and the levying of a tax in payment thereof.”
“It did not necessarily specifically mention a Vybe Trail,” Klatt pointed out.
The project in question is split into two segments:
Center Street Off-System — From Old Stagecoach Road to Veterans Drive. This is the portion of the road that is locally owned and locally maintained by the city.
Center Street On-System — From Veterans Drive to Main Street. This is the part of the road that is state-owned and maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).
For the off-system portion, the proposed plan includes a three-lane roadway configuration, with a 12-foot Vybe Trail on the north side and a 6-foot sidewalk on the south side. This plan also requires utilities to be relocated from overhead to underground.
The initial budget for the off-system project, according to Klatt, was $12.3 million. Currently, the projected cost is approximately $29 million, leaving this portion of the plan over budget by $16.7 million.
“So, obviously, we have other projects where we may be coming in less than we planned, [but] this is certainly one of those that we’re coming in significantly more than what the initial cost estimates were,” said Klatt.
Mayor Yvonne Flores-Cale then asked where the overruns are coming from, to which Klatt replied that undergrounding the utilities was factored in the initial cost, “but not to the degree it should have been.”
Klatt proposed a revised plan, which would maintain the three-lane roadway, but decrease the 12-foot Vybe Trail on the north side to a 6-foot sidewalk. In addition to helping with drainage efficiency, the proposed plan eliminates the need for undergrounding the utilities. This would result in $5,457,660 in cost savings, including: $614,000 by reducing trail to sidewalk; $4,766,000 by maintaining utilities overhead; and $77,660 in rights-of-way/easements. However, this plan would result in an additional $45,000 in design costs.
Moving on to the on-system portion of the project, Klatt outlined the currently proposed plan, which includes widening the roadway to a three-lane configuration, adding a traffic signal at the intersection of Veterans Drive and Center Street, a 12-foot Vybe Trail on the north side, a 6-foot sidewalk on the south side and moving the overhead utilities underground.
The original budget for this plan was $10.2 million, while the current projected estimate is $12 million, leaving it over budget by $1.8 million.
In addition to drainage impacts, due to increased impervious cover, parking is impacted within the on-system concept, as parking spaces on Center Street between Sledge Street and Nance Street would need to be removed, as well as spots within 100 feet of Burleson Drive. The parking will be removed whether it is a 6-foot or 12-foot path, Klatt said.
As with the off-system project, revising the plan to reduce the 12-foot trail to a 6-foot sidewalk would also result in cost savings:
Reduce trail to sidewalk: $423,000
Maintaining utilities overhead: $2,010,000
Rights-of-way/Easements: $3,060
This plan would have an additional $35,000 in design costs.
Flores-Cale paused to ask if the current plan provides connection from the east side of IH-35 to the west side via Center Street, to which assistant city manager Amber Schmeits confirmed that there is no east-west connection there, but rather that the trail would turn down Burleson Road and eventually cross under IH-35 near the end of Burleson.
“So, I just wanted to clarify because east-west connection is important to me,” the mayor said. “I live on the east and I would love to have something that people can go back and forth on a straight route, but this is not going to be that; even if we move forward with this, that’s not going to connect both sides.”
Some residents were also concerned about the Vybe Trial continuation and shared their thoughts during public comment.
“The Vybe Trail wasn’t designed as a patchwork of disconnected paths and standard sidewalks. It was designed as a multimodal network that connects neighborhoods, parks, schools, businesses and community spaces,” said resident Emily Sorenson. “In Kyle, the Center Street segment is especially important because it serves as the connection through downtown and it links different parts of the city together, while also creating the kind of environment that supports the parks and the restaurants and the events and the local businesses … I’m asking you to please not make a short-term budget decision that permanently compromises a long-term vision.”
Resident Josh Keller spoke in favor of the Vybe Trail, but recognized the challenges.
“So, I know that the 12-foot trail creates problems and I think just talking about those openly is really important. I know it creates problems with parking spaces and people’s private land and those are serious concerns,” he said. “I do think there’s enough smart people in this room and in this community that we can work together to solve that problem. So, what I’d like to propose instead of a 6-foot trail, is forming a Vybe committee full of a lot of people here and probably a lot of people watching that are interested in talking to everyone that’s affected and working together to solve the problems because I’d love to see the 12-foot concrete Vybe Trail instead of dividing people, bring people together.”
Timothy Kay, whose family lives on Center Street, expressed concerns about safety on the trail, stating that while the 12-foot trail is a nice idea, it is not something that should be present in the middle of a rapidly growing city. Furthermore, allowing space for golf carts would bring legal liability, he said.
Council member Claudia Zapata emphasized that, “ … it’s also important to understand that these are the plans as of now, but what we’re doing right now is actually being able to kind of re-envision that. So, if we want to prioritize east to west side connectivity, this is the moment to be able to do that without shooting down the entire project itself.”
Following Klatt’s presentation, the floor was open for council questions and feedback.
Expressing support for undergrounding the utilities was council member Lauralee Harris. She stated that, for safety and reliability, all utilities should be moved to underground on any roads built or reconfigured.
Harris continued, stating that using a 6-foot sidewalk is “ridiculous” and that the Vybe Trail will enhance the ability to have successful businesses in the area.
Council member Melisa Medina questioned if there is an option for a 10-foot trail, while keeping the utilities above ground, to which Klatt replied that they would still have to underground the utilities for any size over 6 feet.
“We have to talk dollars,” Flores-Cale stated. “If we do $19 million over here, [making us] short, then where are we going to make up for it on the other part of the road bond? Because the money is not just going to keep coming at us; we don’t have infinite money. So, I think as a council, we need to really think about [that]. Yes, we do want to build a Vybe, but what does responsible growth look like? Does it mean that we just say yes to everything right now? My theory has always been, ‘You can have it right or you can have it right now, but you can’t have both.’”
“I’m just thinking this is a tough situation. We all have wants and desires and I was the one who approved this; I was the one who talked about it during the 2022 road bond,” the mayor continued. “I was adamantly against the language of the road bond because it didn’t give enough details. It was rushed; it’s not detailed; it doesn’t make sense. And now here we sit years later and I’m dealing with the consequences of actions of people that I disagreed with.”
Zapata disputed the fact that residents were not knowledgeable about the bond and what it included: “I think we’ve seen a lot of resident engagement, a lot of resident opinion and a lot of resident feedback as we have considered how to build this thing out.”
She went on to say that the funding mechanism also matters and claimed that the cost of the road bond doesn’t come from the general fund, which interim city manager Perwez Moheet clarified is not the case: “Any dollar we spend on the road bond project or program, the impact is on the general fund. The taxpayers of Kyle will pay back the debt that we will incur,” said Moheet.
Council member Marc McKinney expressed frustration in the delay of revitalizing downtown, emphasizing that this is important to him.
In response, Flores-Cale questioned if McKinney would be okay with roads on the east side of IH-35 not being completed in order to complete the Vybe Trail.
“I feel like with the timeframe that we’re on, we can take whatever portion hasn’t been completed and add it to whatever next road bond that we’re talking about doing in potentially 2028 and not even miss a beat; That way we can still get it all done, obviously, assuming that the bond passes,” McKinney responded. “But, yes, I feel like the downtown area has to take priority.”
“I think I’m just a little confused about why wouldn’t we be able to complete the other two roads? Is it because of lack of funds,” questioned Zapata. “Because we just had a discussion about us being able to authorize funds in order to be able to fund those things. So, couldn’t we just authorize the funding necessary to complete those roads?”
Moheet then explained that voters authorized $294 million for the road bond and, if the city cannot complete all of the projects listed, it cannot add to this funding mechanism, but would instead have to go back to the voters to approve additional funds or find non-voter approved bonds to complete the projects. Either way, more debt would have to be issued, he said.
After some more back and forth, council member Michael Tobias tried to reign in the conversation.
“Nobody up here is saying that the Vybe is not important … Nobody's disregarding your comment Marc about the downtown renovations. As someone who’s lived here 50 years of my life, you don’t have to tell me where our downtown’s been,” he said. “What it comes down to is the money, ladies and gentleman, and also some people are going to look at this as the equality of it, as well. As much as we hate to use the east versus west, but that is just what it is.”
Tobias continued by highlighting that people in East Kyle have been waiting 50 years to get the roads done.
“West side of town, you guys got crosswalks, you got streetlights, you got sidewalks. I don’t have any of that by Lehman,” he stated. “My kids from Lehman are walking in the mud all the way home … So, as much as I hear the heartstrings that go on about, ‘I want to have a sidewalk,’ I ain’t got jack over there on my side of town.”
At this point, Perwez laid out the three options for council:
Option 1: Approve the interim city manager to proceed as originally planned and exceed the budget by $19 million.
Option 2: Decrease from 12-foot Vybe Trail to 6-foot sidewalk and authorize exceeding budget by $11 million.
Option 3: Pause until: Texas Historical Commission has reviewed the plan, Vybe Trail Ordinance has been reviewed and the Sept. 10 meeting occurs, where the current status of the whole bond project and Vybe Trail project will be laid out.
Flores-Cale motioned to approve option 3, with a second from council member Courtney Goza. The motion passed 7-0.
To listen to the full discussion, visit bit.ly/4zK4HD7.
