Three candidates running for Cedar Park City Council discussed transportation, the Bell Boulevard redevelopment project, chicken regulations and the unlikely possibility of a partnership with Capital Metro during a candidate forum Tuesday evening.

Tony Moline, Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce president, moderated the forum, which was held at the Cedar Park Recreation Center in preparation for the May 6 election. Those in attendance were three City Council incumbents: Place 1 Council Member Stephen Thomas, who is running unopposed; Place 3 Council Member Lyle Grimes; and Place 5 Council Member Jon Lux.

Place 3 candidate Anne Duffy did not respond to requests to participate, according to the chamber, and Place 5 candidate Heather Jefts declined to attend the forum. In a post on her candidate Facebook page, Jefts said she would not attend because the chamber chose to hold the event after early voting had begun, which officially started Monday.

Moline crafted the questions for the forum, asking candidates about the long-term impact for businesses along Bell Boulevard that would be impacted by the city’s redevelopment plan.

Thomas said the stretch of Bell planned for redevelopment has declined in property value and sales tax revenue and is lower than any other location in the city. He said the change would impact the city’s tax base.

“This revitalization is going to have a significant impact,” he said. “When you look at the value of this particular development and what it’s going to be for the city, it’s going to be a great project.”

The three candidates also touted the importance of continuing to develop and widen roads as well as create turn lanes and deceleration lanes throughout the city to improve safety and mobility. Each also said it was important to continue to invest in public safety­­­—since Grimes was first elected to the Place 3 seat in 2013, he said the city has hired about 16 more positions for the police department.

“What you want to do is continue to make sure that we have enough police staff for the growth in population, so we want to make sure we continue having a safe city,” he said.

Audience members also submitted questions to the candidates, and one participant asked if City Council could relax city regulations on backyard chickens. Lux and Thomas said most, if not all, homeowners associations in the city also have rules on owning chickens. They also said they would have to wait to see the outcome of Senate Bill 1620, a bill in the Texas Legislature that could allow residents to own six or fewer chickens.

“We’re always wanting to look at what our citizens of Cedar Park want,” Lux said. “We’ll look at it again and see if we can fine-tune it somehow, or maybe with what the Legislature says, we can work with that, too.”

Another audience member asked for the candidates’ positions on Capital Metro, the transit agency for the Austin region. Each of the three candidates spoke positively of the decision Cedar Park voters made in 1999 to opt out of the Capital Metro taxing district, in which participating cities dedicates 1 cent in sales tax revenue to the transit agency.

Grimes said Cedar Park had generated $220 million in city sales tax revenue since 2000. If Cedar Park had been participating in Capital Metro’s district, the city would have given $110 million of that amount to the transit agency.

“So instead we kept the money, because the voters said to do so, and we’ve been able to invest in our city $110 million,” he said. “That has not gone just into our developments, which are great developments, but also into our parks, roads, infrastructure and to bring jobs.”

Moline asked the candidates if there was a single issue not getting enough attention in Cedar Park, and each candidate mentioned paying more attention to drainage issues and water issues.

Voters wanting to participate before the official May 6 election can vote early through May 2 in Williamson and Travis counties.