By Megan Wehring
KYLE – Hays CISD is partnering with the city of Kyle to provide additional parking and maintenance near the performing arts center.
With a 6-1 vote, the Board of Trustees approved a 20-year joint-use agreement with the city of Kyle Reinvestment Zone Number Two for new parking. The district owns approximately 1.546 acres of land located west of the facility which will provide about 150 parking spaces.
Trustee Merideth Keller said partnering with the city of Kyle would create more opportunities for the property that the district may not have been able to provide otherwise.
“I love how this is going to provide us some security for our performing arts center, which the more I learn about what’s being developed there, the more concern I had about our own ability to use that parking because it would become full from other people doing other things.”
With the vision of future development in the city of Kyle, Mayor Travis Mitchell said the agreement with the district would pave the way for more non-residential projects.
“That agreement, mutual trust and partnership with the school district I think has paid off,” Mitchell said to the Board of Trustees. “The development patterns in the city of Kyle change and aren’t so heavily focused on just single-family residential, but allow for industrial, commercial and retail spaces which are great for everyone.”
Board Vice President Will McManus said more parking, along with maintaining of parking and landscaping, would ultimately provide a sense of community with the city.
“The PAC now fits in with what I see is an amazing community development for everyone in this area,” McManus said. “It’s really becoming an area where people will gather. To me, that helps the PAC shine even more. I think it’s a really great thing for Hays CISD, the city, the county.”
Though the other trustees were positive about the agreement, trustee Willie Tenorio voted against the agenda item after questioning the partnership in its entirety.
“We really don’t have any solid assurances as to how the use agreement was going to work,” Tenorio said. “It really doesn’t give me enough concrete guidelines to know that we are going to get good use of the property all the time.”
