A Little Weather, Special Council Update and a Little More!

*****A Little Weather*****

.01 inch of rain yesterday, just mist and fog.  Much warmer for a few days (75° forecast for today) with a chance of rain.  Cooler this weekend.  January?

*****Special Council*****

Comprehensive Plan Update - 

Larry Harlan, Chair

the Comprehensive Plan Committee has done a great job of investigating and putting together an update of the Future Use Plan.  

Carolyn Nichols, Don Kotrady

• The commercial and residential areas stayed pretty much the same as in the original comprehensive plan.  There was some movement on some properties but predominently the same.
• Questions on reasons for low occupancy in commercial areas.  I have some data (and some opinion) on that.  The strip center North of Lakeway Blvd.  (Well Fargo and North) has significant vacancies.  The owner has significantly raised the rental rates and has actually driven out tenants.  If you compare that with the strip centers on 620 on either side of Lohmans stays nearly full and that has to do with the owner seeing the issues and adjusting to them.
  
  I also feel like many of the business that leave were very specific to the type of customer they attracted and many found there was not enough support from the population of Lakeway to keep them in business.
• A lot of emphasis was put on increase of income to the city for better amenities.  <The city was built as a rural area and the founders wanted an area that had good amenities but a continued rural setting. Should that change?  The city became a very desirable (more than any other in the area) because of the original design.>
• There will be a loss of income from development.  <These fees are designed to pay for the permitting and inspections, not for use as general income - as those fees go down, the need for those expenses will also go down.>
• The median age has Increased from 43.8 in 2010 to 47.7 in 2017 - that is really a huge increase in the median age for a short period of time.
• Property Tax has increase 70% from 2007 and Sales Tax has increased 266% in that time period.
• Once again, the council significantly disagreed with many of the results of the analysis done by the hired consultants.  Are we wasting our money?
• No Citizen's spoke.

Transportation Study Update - 

• The Committee had not met since the last meeting.
• They tried to analyze the time savings and improvements and made estimates of possible traffic increases to show value to the expense of the city building some roads.
• Once again, council disagreed with many of the findings of the consultant. 
• Roads are really expensive.  That is why the city generally forced those costs to developers.  This was disrupted when the development on the MUD property was turned down instead of tabled.  Now the city is in a bind and will most likely have to build the extra lanes and distance on Main. 
• There was also much discussion on extending Medical Drive to Lohmans.  This is also an area that will be developed and a developer will be forced to build these roads if the city doesn't do it.  Is it worth a bond to get these done sooner than when a developer does it?
• Discussion about the shared use path in the area of where Crestview and Rolling Green intersect.  This is a bike / walk path.  Where will people come from to use this?  No parking.
• North / South Shared Use Path (SUP) and sidewalks could be done over time.  I question who will use this?  As stated before, this was designed as rural.  Who will walk (or ride bikes) on the North / South SUP?  Will this be like the bike lanes that don't get used everywhere else?  Remember, the average age is going up, not down.
• Taking out the county / other entities - roads / improvements  would amount to about $23/24 M bond.
• Serene Hills was discussed.  Very pricey, would have a significant portion not in the city of Lakeway and even a component in The Village of the Hills.  Issues with the school traffic.  Issues with Right of Way to widen Serene Hills from Flintrock to Lakeway Blvd.  There is already ROW for the new part, but you need to do all of it to have it work.
  
  FYI, the county (Gerald Daugherty) attempted to widen and expand Serene Hills from Flintrock to Lakeway Blvd. before the new part of Serene Hills was built.  The residents in that area threw a fit and many others opposed it.  He took that money and built out Bee Creek (Highlands Extension) instead.
• There were several projects that were dropped off the list.

Unfortunately, this rushed and was not planned well - it is too big and has too many twists and turns and has too big a funnel on projects.  Trying to get it ready for a bond in May the council voted to hire a consultant without really having good boundaries and it was done even before the committee was formed.  They should have had input on the initial study boundaries.

Policy Issues with Vaping - 

Mayor Pro Tem Higginbotham brought the subject of Vaping by school students to the council to see what could be done by the city to enact ordinances and effect a change in the issue.  She of course has kids in school and is concerned with what is going on in our schools.

Most council members felt a change to the city's smoking ordinance to include vaping would be fine.  There was push back on going any further because of liability issues plus freedom issues and the slippery slope on getting into social ordinances. 

Our City Attorney said she looked into ordinances passed on the West Coast - sure don't want to go there!

They also felt that education and parental oversight would be a better direction.

This discussion took over an hour, the public left and there was no citizen participation.

The meeting ended at 5:50 p.m.

*****Decoration Clean Up*****

Credit where credit is due!  I saw a group of folks that got together and cleaned up the mess of decorations around the city last weekend.  I suspect these weren't the ones that put the decorations up, they just cleaned up the others mess.  Thanks for taking the time to do this civic service.  

That's all for now, more as I find out!  If you want to be added to my email list, send a note to lakeway@bain.us and I'll get it done.  Thanks for all the continued support!

Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us