Downtown Buda is growing rapidly to the delight of visitors and residents, but business owners question the city’s ability to keep up with the growth.
Several merchants and business owners have faced unprecedented challenges getting their businesses open downtown and miscommunication with the city is the common cautionary tale.
The Hays Free Press spoke to several business owners, who wish to remain anonymous, and will print an additional story with the city’s perspective for clarification in hopes of better understanding the issues.
One business owner found spelling errors and inconsistencies within the Buda Unified Code after city officials told him information that contradicted city code. A different business owner received an apology letter from a city official on behalf of the yelling and unprofessional behavior of a city employee.
A business owner who has businesses in other small cities said the experience in other cities is much easier and less of a hassle.
The Buda Mercantile or the old “1898 Building” on historic Main Street has been transformed into the local-centric retail store has finally opened its doors – a year later than expected.
Project managers Michelle Beebe and Tania DeGregorio were putting the last of their local inventory on decorative wood shelves as they shared a cautionary tale about the roadblocks they faced.
“I feel like it's a responsibility for people like us to make sure that the next person that comes up doesn't go through it like that. We want to make sure that we don't run into any more roadblocks. We want to have an open communicative relationship, so we don't run into issues. And that is not at all what we've experienced so far,” Beebe said.
One battle with the city was over the awning on the side of the building. When the sun hits it for a few hours each day, a shadow effect with the name Buda Mercantile hits the side of the building; Instagram comments of the awning are evidence of community support.
A city official asked the project managers to provide proof that the awning was approved, so they provided several forms of evidence only to be told it wasn’t enough evidence.
“We called her. We said ‘hey, we talked to all these people. Here's the written word for it says that it was approved seven-to-zero by the HPC. Here is the video link that shows that they approved it and here's everything where it discusses the cutout in the awning and showed her a picture,’” Beebe said. “And she said, ‘Well, I'm going to need more evidence that that was approved’ and we said, ‘well, we're done doing your job for you.’”
Due to the historical status of the building they renovated, every alteration had to be approved by the Historical Preservation Committee (HPC).
The HPC is an advisory board for city council and handles historic preservation in the city’s historic district, including events and projects. The committee is composed of seven volunteers who meet once a month to decide historical matters.
The Buda Mercantile owners knew meeting with HPC was part of the process, but grew frustrated with the HPC when committee members failed to show up to an important meeting and no action could be taken by the HPC because a quorum was not present.
The important meeting was for the HPC to approve several renovations, so Buda Mercantile project managers paid their engineers and historic preservation specialist extra money to appear at the HPC meeting.
“To give HPC a full picture, we brought our specialists to make sure that the representatives are getting the correct information which, by the way, involves us paying and printing for UPC code and Secretary of Interior standards, you know, that wasn't cheap,” Beebe said.
Several members of the HPC did not show up to the monthly meeting, which meant two things. The first level of frustration was that the renovations could not be approved without a quorum of committee members present. The second concern was that the project managers were losing money by paying their specialists to come to a worthless meeting.
Despite the struggles along the way, Beebe and DeGregorio are grateful for the community support and to finally make their vision a reality.
