Amendments to Kyle’s Transportation Master Plan could allow a change in alignment to Cypress Road to allow for more development.
In its current state, Cypress Road is a curved and winding street that will not accommodate the traffic expected to come with the growth of the area.
Leon Barba, Kyle city engineer, said the city is planning for the future by amending the transportation master plan.
Barba said the inevitable growth of FM 150 will call for future infrastructure development to the surrounding area.
Although no plans are set in place for the Cypress Road improvement, the city leaders have a general idea about how they envision the project.
The goal is to reconstruct Cypress Road into a wider amd straighter road, which would allow a 45 mile-per-hour speed limit and the ability to accommodate heavy traffic.
“We’ve done studies and analysis to anticipate where (FM) 150 will end up expanding to,” Barba said. “We’re not going to be cutting into any hills and we want to redesign Cypress Road to be as environmentally friendly as we can.”
As Kyle expands and more housing developments are built, city officials are anticipating areas of high traffic and congestion for future improvements.
“The Transportation Master Plan is a living document and as development patterns change, the plan may change,” said Kyle Mayor Travis Mitchell. “Amending the plan last meeting allowed us to formalize the future of that road so that Cyprus Forrest subdivision could properly plat along their western boundary.”
However, Kyle is looking to place strict guidelines on developers for building sidewalks and adequate roads leading into neighborhoods.
The city cannot afford the expense of developing roadways and is looking to developers to help share that expense.
Mitchell said the city accomplishes this by articulating to developers that they must improve infrastructure within the borders of a development and must not expect the city to accommodate their project.
The plan to reconstruct Cypress Road is preliminary at this point, but the change to the master plan gives the city the opportunity to look at improvements to the road before the development boom happens in that area.
“It’s important that we have a rough idea early on how to provide a safe route in and out of that area,” Barba said. “This gives us time to inform developers what we expect when that development comes – sidewalk and road improvements.”
